Category Archives: Taking stock

magic square project #1

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Nothing to do with GYO or allotmenteering, but something similarly therapeutic. It’s still cold and damp outside, and there are puddles on the plot that could well come up to my ankles. Still keeping an eye on things, the experimental chillies are all mostly up. Three superhots have broken through the surface. So all is not lost with the horticulture. It was also a balmy 15 degrees in the poly today, I went for a walk to clear my head and retrieve some gravel trays. Still waiting for the replacment cover for the four tier blowaway. The experimental tomatos have been brought inside, yet to have anything germinate. No surprise there really.

Anyway, about those rectangles. I had found ma’s knitting needles and some of her oddments. And then didn’t look back. I was privileged to have been taught by my paternal grandmother how to knit as a child. I remember being knitting a great big pink magenta scarf. There were a lot of dropped stitches! Sadly, i was never taught how to cast on and off. Ma taught me to cast on, but I had to watch a video online how to cast off.

This was the simplest video I found and actually made sense to me.

I have also found a nice friendly wool shop, in trying to knit these rectangles. Other than cheap wool from a certain publishing outlet. Based in warwickshire The wool mountain was a really friendly shop where all crochet and knitting aficionados would be catered for. I am novice, I know all of two stiches and like stripes, but the lady there was really very helpful.

Each of the rectangles has seven stripes, and is approximately 10″ wide, so big enough. Shall see how this goes. The plan is to make some form of blanket.

Soggy Stuff

There has been a momentary pause in precipitation, and sunshine has broken out. Time enough, to go down to the plot and make a survey of what is standing. And with the sheer volume of water, standing is about right. The puddles seem a lot deeper than they were last week. Very cold, with the wind whispering on the plot. Though it was a balmy 12 degrees in the poly tunnel. Did peek in there, nothing has germinated in there. Which is not altogether surprising, given how low temperatures have dropped.

There is no new news on the experimental chillies that were sown. Though the mini cloches are perspiring as it were, quite happily. There are no visible signs of any chilli babies. This can of course take some time. Super hots have yet to be sown, simply as I haven’t got around to getting some compost. They will hopefully be sown into yoghurt pots and placed into a heated prop.

Baby leeks sown at the start  of the autumn term. Not doing to badly, are sat in the wendy house. Have been largely ignored, and don’t seem to have suffered. They are of course quite hardy. I remains to be seen how many of these will be come pencil thick and then make it through transplanting.

Baby onions have not been as successful as one would have hoped. Whilst there are lots sown in the plot, sets have to survive the torrential downpours. These seeds were sunk at the same time as the leeks. Very disappointing to see so few babies. Guess there is still some time remaining to sow some more directly into the modules.

Leaf mold is always an interesting experiment. These are sat at the back of the plot, and left to their own devices. Last year, a whole builders bag was used to fill a raised bed used for squashes. The plan is to use these in the raised beds. Whilst the resulting soil doesn’t necessarily have a great deal of nutritional value, it will fill the beds nicely. This is a certainly cheaper than buying lots of compost.

A small bed of leeks that started off their lives in my classroom. Not many survivors, but better than nothing. Am hoping that the leek babies you see above will do some what better than these. These were actually freebies, so in having something rather than  nothing is always a bonus.

The netted cabbages that are becoming very lacy; as though they were net curtains. Very disappointing, and there are valuable lessons to be learned here. There are slim chances that some of them will be salvageable. Sad, in that we like cabbages. Just have to take additional care and put in place further precautions.

A raised bed of assorted spinach, chard and some kale. There were stalks of nero di toscana in there as well. The problem with this entire bed, like the cabbages, is the sheer volume of holes that get made by  slimers. I suspect that this bed will remain occupied for sometime, and that there will have to be applications of the blue pellets of doom.

 

Motion Picture: Start of 2014 Part three

The final instalment of the three videos that I took. It has taken this long to put them up, due to technical gremlins. Still learning how to make the blog better. Guess I will have to learn better! Perhaps have shorter clips, rather than the longer, detailed David Atttenborough type observations.

At the moment, there are slight high winds, lashing gales and lots of dark clouds of grey. The weather systems are doing something of a fandago over the British Islands, and cannnot make up their minds to desist or not. More weeks of poor weather may well be on the cards.

This was actually the first video, the two previous videos then followed it. A bit of hotch potch then, as I wanted to make sure I had described a fair bit. It is grim, grey, and not very bright. So a snapshot of the current state of play. Not very inspiring, but it is a case of trying to imaging what could be. 2013 was a good year as far as experimenting and making observations goes. I struggle to look through such grey and dank times, though I know that could be positives. The leaps and bounds made last year, were above and beyond anything that I firstly planned or second imagined. There is still lots to do.

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Motion Picture: Start of 2014 Part two

Yet more wandering around. Talking into a ‘phone, whilst wandering around in wellington boots is a rather challenging experience. Not only do you have to watch where you put your feet, but you also have to keep talking and talking some form of sense.

This particular section is concerned with the first half of the plot. The bottom part, which is probably the most challenging part, if I was to be honest. Which is why I tend to blather on about it. There is a marked difference between the two sections of the plot. With the lower half, being effectively flooded when it rains.

 

Motion picture: start of 2014 part one

Off I went today to the plot today, with the aim that I would do a spot of filming. The main reason for this, was having seen lots of clips here and there about plot endeavours and experiences.  So this could go very wrong, and is not exactly bafta or oscar winning. It’s an experiment. Yet another one! Not helped by having to faff with uploading, and then taking a long time for it to do so. Honestly, technology.

One makes no apology for the very accent. It helps put it all into context. Don’t laugh. No sniggering, I mean it!

Bear with me, I hope. There are three general clips that I want to put up, but the technology means I can’t dish it all out at once. Might get one more out today. If not, then next week.

Mer’Christmas folks

With the run up to Christmas, Ukstorm2013 batters the sceptred isles. Two days of wind and rain has caused widespread disruption, and sadly there are many people who are struggling to get home with flights and rail travel being affected.

Being happily ensconced at home with the family, I am really quite fortunate. The height of my fears with the turbulent weather, has been whether or not the poly tunnel or wendy take flight. In the past, when there has been 50 mph hour winds there has been definite carnage with the wendy house being reduced to a carcass.

And this year with the raising of the poly, one has to don the red wellingtons and make sure that both of the structures are still there. The site is something of  a wind trap, and poly tunnel covers have been known to go flying and off onto the horizon. The walk down the very boggy, very damp pathway is always fraught with anxiety. Looking up and getting blinded by sun; you have to squint to make sure that you can still see the two green structures.

Today, the path was soggy. The wendy and poly were there. Cold but bright. So very desolate and damp looking. Noticed a lot of puddles, where the plot is shallow. There may be some onion patches that get sacrificed because of that.

Tomorrow is of course the big day. The turkey crown is brought, as are the Brussels. The single solitary contribution to this years dinner is two parsnips from Aunty tish’s plot. The possible plan, is to sow some boxing day experimental chillies. Not sure which ones yet, but only just a few.

Have a happy, joy filled Christmas what ever you do. Be safe, and stay warm.

 

There are plenty of seed catalogues to flick through!

Tidy up time at the winter solstice

Today is the winter solstice, and the darkness will soon descend as the afternoon draws to a close. The shortest day of the year, means you have to move a bit sharpish if you plan to do anything useful.

The inside of the poly tunnel has been on my mind for some time. All very untidy, and with grass sprouting up. This morning, on the second day of the Christmas holidays, I donned my red wellingtons and coat and wandered down to the plot. I had also, in rummaging in pop’s shed, found some bulbs that I forgotten about. A few crocus, alliuem and daffodils. Managed to dib in a few crocus before mama H arrived and told me to get home. Her reasoning being that I was the only there and no one was faffing on their plots.

Anyway, the purpose of today’s visit was tidy the polytunnel. The green edifice of all year growing. Sprouting grass is not all that attractive. Thankfully, most of the sprouting grass could be pulled and plunked up without taking clumps of earth up. The rest was decapitated by a three edged ‘oe, Also helped aerate the soil a bit.  Still looked a bit weary inside. The morrison’s buckets that had once held the chillies and bells were emptied out on top. Spent compost by way of refreshing it.  The polytunnel now looks like a blank canvass. if i think about it, and have a root around in the seed stasher. There are has to be something that can be scattered into soil.

What for thou, Wendy?

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This is the view of the greenhouse, also known as the wendy house, from late this summer. The foreground has been tidied up since, and that rampant dandelion cut down a little.

At the moment, the wendy houses some baby lyon prize winner leeks as well as some aisla craig onion seedlings. To be perfectly frank, I have only looked into the greenhouse once or twice recently. My main concern has been that it remains standing. There has been a lot turbulent weather  of late, and it is due to get worse with the coming festivities.

I really must make more use of it over the new growing season. Especially as it had a face lift with a new cover. A more robust cover in comparison to the one that it came with. This is the third one, since the previous two were torn to ribbons due to inclement weather. Such covers should really have reinforced zipped covers. Hopefully, this third one will be last a lot longer. My problem is that I have the best of intentions. Seeds to be sown, in modules and then I don’t follow things up or have a distinct process. In not having any window sills, it is further important that I use the wendyhouse for germination and cultivation. Have never had much luck with brassicas in the wendy house, that was for certain. Especially with the process of potting things on. There is actually limited space in the wendy, four shelves, and it takes some jigglying around to get things positioned properly. As was observed when it housed the Chilli plants over the summer.

What I need to think about, is what can be sown in the wendy house that doesn’t particularly need warmth? Lettuce and brassicas are what comes to mind immediately. Though lettuce doesn’t transplant all that well. I have never actually managed to transplant lettuce easily anyway. I did have a vague thought to modularise parsnip this year. Another vegetable, that I have never had any success with.

 

Thinking out aloud

Outside a hanging gale blows; the cold bites, winter is on its way. And all I can dwell upon is aubergines. That’s eggplants by the way.

How soon after Christmas could I sow seeds, where shall I put the seeds to germinate, and will they be okay in the poly? All questions that have me thinking. The poly is of course a huge toy to play with next year. As well as aubergines, there also chillies and bell peppers to think about. Thing is I won’t have any warm window sills to use. This year chillies were sown in January, and then again later as the first batch keeled over with poor light. Mother advises me not to sow so many. A scary prospect when there are so many in the seedstasher; and there is never any guarantee that each and every chilli or sweet pepper seed will actually germinate. I actually want to find some Naga seeds, incidentally, to experiment. Might sow a variety of seeds but just not many. That is going to be difficult.

Melon.

I would rather like to grow one in there. I managed to grow a butternut; so I am somewhat encouraged to try a melon.

Squashes too. More winter ones. On the hunt for a Turks turban. Purely because of beautifully ugly they are.

Reader, Reprise

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As the dark dank dreary days of autumn arrive; it is time to reflect.

This out going growing season has probably been the best I have ever experienced. From being a container experimenter to what is now my third year of alotmenteering. This was my second year on the plot, and it really has been a continuing learning experience.

Whilst the blog started off life as a repository and record of what I had experienced; it has become heartening to see who reads it and when. It is always lovely to see which corner of the globe is reading. Thought quite how anything compares is beyond me. One of my aims was of course to share, but to also record as mentioned above. A lot of what is sown and grown is very much a pseudo scientific experiment. I try to add detail, make observations and take lessons from what I have observed. That does not make me an expert; but I do like to investigate things.

So I would like to invite those of you that do read it-wherever you read it; to tell me your thoughts. I’ve had a sneaking feeling that I haven’t been doing it justice of late. And was just wondering what views people had about it.

Plus it would be lovely see how many genuine readers there are, awful lot of spam-bots around!

I will pop this up as both a page and post 🙂

Yours in anticipation,

Horticultural Hobbit