Sunday 27 March 2011

An Allotment too far?

The soil temperature was 15oC today.

 I'm not too sure whether this new allotment is an allotment too far.  I took out another two trenches and filled them with weeds and compost. There is a great deal of mare's tail in the soil and I have found the roots three spits down in the subsoil.  I am not going to try and get them all out.  This is a long term project.

One of the old blokes came over and asked what I was going to use the new allotment for.  That is a good question.  Really I produce far too much on my other allotment so why I need this I don't know.  It is a challenge and it will get me fit.  Or do me a mischief...

I will also probably use it to put fruit on.  I have a few blackcurrant cuttings that have rooted and they would do fine on this ground.  I have cleared quite a bit by slicing off weed turfs and putting them in the trench. I have covered these with some compost and then some shredded branches.

The problem is that this is taking up a lot of my time and I wanted to get on on my clean allotment.  After it got to about three o'clock, I decided enough was enough and went to plant the rest of the broad bean plants.  I have got two rows out of them and they should fruit in a couple of months so that I can take them out and plant the brassicas.

Now that the soil has warmed up - 15oC today, I have put in three rows of parsnips in the bottom bed.  Going on the surplus I had this year this will be plenty.  I watered them in with some comfrey liquid.  It was last years comfrey so I am not too sure how potent it is.  It will not do them any harm in any case.

The strawberries got a good weeding and they also had some comfrey liquid too.  I wanted to give the garlic and the winter cauliflowers some but I ran out of time.  Being very tired after digging deep trenches, I decided that I would go home and have a good cup of tea.

Next time, remember to take a flask of tea with you.

I took a cursory look in the greenhouse when I got home.  Most of the brassicas I sowed have come through which means that I will have to prick them out and that means that I will have to plant out all the sweet pea seedlings because otherwise I will not have room in the greenhouse.

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