Allotment

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Re: Allotment

#101 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:34 am

Just done a walk around. I think we can forget the rape it is a disaster. Summat is eating it. Correction, HAS eaten it. Think that we will try carrots again there and make sure my idiot doesn't wash all the seeds out again. The big toms from Amorgos are doing well. Squashes are growing loads of leaves but few flowers, maybe too much fertilizer. May have mentioned before but you can actually use the young leaves like spinach, found this out from the housekeeper who asked for some. The birds are digging up the potatoes. Bell peppers OK no flowers yet. Bananas flourishing. Tonnes of lemons but still no sign of any oranges. Same with the clementines. It is difficult here. I can see why all our fruit and veg comes from S.A. Mind you probably not as difficult as in the Great White North. We can grow 12 months a year in this location on the lagoon which keeps us frost free in the winter.

We actually have an enormous fruit and veg garden up the river from here called the Okavango Delta. Bushmen can live there on just what is growing naturally. And, treat all their ailments from natural herbs. It is absolutely fascinating to go walking with them. Practically every plant or tree has a use.
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Re: Allotment

#102 Post by Tall Bird » Wed Oct 31, 2018 6:44 pm

I'm very impressed with the before and after digging n'planting pics of your allotment om. All the effort was well rewarded.

Re your post #87 Mr Fox, I am pleased to see you kept up with the weeding! :-*

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Re: Allotment

#103 Post by om15 » Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:46 am

Have discussed a further plot with the allotment lady, she is going to find out who is renewing and who isn't before allocating a plot in the vicinity of my present area. The available derelict plots are overgrown, covered in tyres, plastic, old pallets and in one case needs the branches of an overhanging tree loping off, so good fun times ahead.
Current plot is still producing leeks, brussel sprouts,parsnips and winter cabbage, have manure ready for digging in later on, will get some bin liners of seaweed after the winter storms as a boost for the spring planting. We are forecast a week or so of rain which will help, it is amazing that we managed to grow anything with the summer that we have just had.
I have grown several dozen good strong foxglove plants which I have introduced to the allotment, planting in the hedges and sides of the pathways, these will soon establish and return every year I hope.

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Re: Allotment

#104 Post by G-CPTN » Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:49 am

om15 wrote:
Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:46 am
I have grown several dozen good strong foxglove plants which I have introduced to the allotment, planting in the hedges and sides of the pathways, these will soon establish and return every year I hope.
You will be popular as foxgloves seem to thrive and persist . . .

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Re: Allotment

#105 Post by om15 » Sun Nov 04, 2018 12:21 pm

This particular allotment is not council owned, these allotments are notorious for the rules and regulations that make life so tedious, however ours is in a beautiful country side setting and was owned by the Crown, now owned by a large multi national estate. We don't appear to have any security of tenure, however we could be difficult to dislodge,(ex servicemen eking out their meagre pensions and so on) in general we are left to our own devices, including our choice of not to have any rules.
Allotments tend to thrive in cities, where there are large waiting lists of people anxious to find some peace and a chance to be in the open air, allotments are not so sought after in villages, most country people have large gardens and prefer to eat takeawy food.
Because of this our allotment has attracted quite a cross section of people who are keen to enjoy the plots, there is no waiting list and all are encouraged to make of it what they want. Some are conventional gardeners, some use the space for growing prize winning flowers, carnations and the like, and there is a small core of organic enthusiasts whose plots can only be navigated with a machete.
My fellow allotment holders include a guy who makes golf courses in the desert for Arabs, an ex farmer, a retired RN Captain who is now following a second career, retired agricultural workers and so on, makes for interesting conversations, I think that all will be pleased to enjoy foxgloves, we shall see.

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Re: Allotment

#106 Post by Tall Bird » Thu Nov 08, 2018 1:16 am

om15 wrote:
Sun Nov 04, 2018 11:46 am
Current plot is still producing leeks, brussel sprouts,parsnips and winter cabbage
Keep close watch on yer sprouts om. There may be rustlers about. OTH you may make a killing on the black market come Christmas. :D
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/0 ... lton-beef/

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Re: Allotment

#107 Post by G-CPTN » Thu Nov 08, 2018 12:58 pm

Having spent time living in an agricultural settlement in rural Bedfordshire, the Christmas sprout harvest was a major 'all hands' event, usually performed in freezing and / or torrential wet weather with the workers dressed like deep-sea trawlermen in full waterproofs.
Even so it was far from pleasant on the hands.

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Re: Allotment

#108 Post by Ex-Ascot » Mon Nov 19, 2018 11:39 am

Just cropped a record (for us) sized bunch of plantains. 12 kgs, 120 plantains. We will have a few happy friends. Gardener's mother with about 1,000 children should be happy. They got half.
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Re: Allotment

#109 Post by Ex-Ascot » Mon Nov 26, 2018 8:12 am

Plantains ripen off the plant. The ones mentioned above ripened very quickly. First few we boiled and mashed seemed OK but stronger banana taste than usual. Second lot I peeled to fry. Strong banana smell. They were bananas. Very nice they are too. Two more bunches almost ready to pick. I am sure one is bananas not sure about the other.

Preparing tomato seeds from current crop for next year. It is a bit more complicated than I thought to do it properly. I am sure our friend on Amorgos who gave the original seeds to us just squeezes them out of a rotten tomato and dries them.

One lemon tree is dropping the lemons before they are very big. Come to the conclusion that it is a different species to the other three. Trouble with getting your stock from a gardening/camping shop instead of a nursery. We had no choice at the time. They once had 6 lemon trees for sale which had been completely stripped of leaves by disease or insects. They tried to tell me that they had been pruned. :YMAPPLAUSE:

I have been waiting for our sweet peppers to turn red. They are also seeds from Amorgos. Mrs Ex-Ascot has just reminded me that this variety is only green. Result is an armful of peppers just harvested.
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Re: Allotment

#110 Post by om15 » Wed Nov 28, 2018 6:06 pm

That looks very productive ex A, I have found that a few peppers go a long way. The allotment is pretty soggy today, I managed to have a good weed and sow winter onions and garlic before the heavy rain, (forecast to continue to the next seven days). Still managing to harvest really good leaks and bags of brussels, a few winter cabbages nearly ready.
I have pruned the two grape vines, although you are really supposed to do it on Christmas day, I let them just grow their own way for the first year but have now pruned and formed a double Guyot ready for next year, they did produce a few little grapes that I left for the birds.
Things go slowly with allotment management, there are several wilderness plots available, all with the aspects of Chernobyl, covered in plastic, tyres, rusty things and large nettles, but allocation can't be hurried, I was hoping to be able to prepare another before the bad weather, but it looks like it will be next year now before the ponderous task of receiving a vacant plot will be completed.
I will aim to produce slightly less bulky greens next year, but try a wider variety of veg, I sort of rushed in this year but will be more thoughtful with my planning next year.

Some years ago I went on holiday to Funchal, browsing the old market there I bought a load of seed packets, no idea what they were but all grew ok, will try this again but will aim to have the advantage of knowing what I am growing.

I think that bananas are so good for you that you could live on these and nothing else, supposed to lower blood pressure and reduce bad cholesterol, I wish I could grow some as I have both, I have taken to drinking a litre of beetroot juice every evening to combat this, side effect is that I produce startling urine samples for the nurse, it is also expensive, next year I will grow many beetroot and make my own, this may not please missus om if I use her kitchen.

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Re: Allotment

#111 Post by Ex-Ascot » Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:56 pm

om15, They grow beetroot on Amorgos. The favourite way to prepare is to boil whole including the tops (stalks and leaves). Then chop up into chunks, stalks with leaves on the side, served warm or cold as a starter or side dish with skorthalia (cold mashed potato with loads of garlic). Really nice. Your prompt made me look at the potential here, No way, too hot. Results in tough and woody. So you get the beetroot and we get the bananas.

Tomato seed dying went well, just now have to see if they will germinate.

Rape is doing well. Keeps growing more fresh shoots after picking. Trouble is the leaves are being nibbled. The gardener's family don't mind but they don't look very nice to us. They just chop them all up, boil them and add them to their staple diet of boiled ground maize.
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Re: Allotment

#112 Post by Alisoncc » Sun Dec 02, 2018 1:04 pm

Ex-Ascot wrote:
Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:56 pm
Tomato seed dying went well, just now have to see if they will germinate.
Don't think they will germinate if you are killing them off, Ex-A. :D
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Re: Allotment

#113 Post by cockney steve » Tue Dec 04, 2018 6:38 pm

I am not a gardener, weeds and blackberries are about my limit! I follow the Vietnamese school (slash n' burn) Having owned and run a fish and chip shop, I do know a fair bit about these, batter and things like fried Mars-bars.

I digress (my normal mode) Potatoes should have the earth humped up as the shoots grow....if you plant in rows, evenly spaced along and twice the spacing between rows, you'll wind up with drainage furrows between the rows....as the shoots continue to emerge, cover the rows with sheets of black polythene...You have to make slits for the emerging shoots (easy if you spaced them properly)the odd spadeful of earth from the" ditches" will hold down the edges.

The polythene excludes sunlight....no tatties with green on them (poisonous)-see "irish potato famine".
Stops birds and beasts uprooting and choffing them .

reduces soil water-loss.
sheds rain from stem of plant and it runs in between the poly sheets i n the ditches, thus soaking right into the soil and the roots /tubers can swell....fail to give them regular water at this point and you'll get internal splits (checking) store dark and cool, no frost!.
First earlies only fit to wash, boil and serve with butter. second earlies will fry "Dundrod" was my favourite delicious but chips will wilt rapidly fry and eat immediately. really good flavour.

If you really have a problem with animals, consider wire-netting over the lot. The leaves can grow through it and when you roll itup it will remove all the withered top-growth with it.

If the bushy leaves don't die before flowering, chop them off to promote tuber ripening.. after harvesting, a straw "clamp" can be made....make a big enough trench, line with straw, pile in harvest, cover the mound with straw and then encase the ridge with about a foot of earth They should keep 6-9 months like that, as long as the clamp is resealed each time some are removed.
I think hedgehogs are said to eat wormy things that burrow into spuds.. (leather jackets?) but, of course, laying polythene stops the adults laying the eggs in the first place!

HTH,,,,,they don't call me "Desert-fingers " for nothing !

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Re: Allotment

#114 Post by om15 » Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:21 am

We have mentioned manuring, this article is interesting https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... mal-manure , a local cottage industry type market garden sells manure sacks, four for a tenner, ingredients are animal manure and peat. I have used this initially to improve the soil on the allotment, but as this article points out, animals raised in factory conditions will have anti biotic residue in the manure.
This year I an collecting buckets of horse droppings from the field produced by Fergus and his four friends, their diet is grass, hay and a bucket of carrots and apples now and again. I have this in plastic sacks rotting down, and this year will dig into my new allotment instead of the cheap shop bought stuff.
I have a couple of compost bins on the allotment and will layer the contents in the trenches when I grow the spuds and see how that goes.

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Re: Allotment

#115 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:42 pm

We are having incredible rape production at the moment. Some little buggers were nibbling away at it until the rains started now it is fine. Just pick a whole bunch a couple of times a week and it keeps growing. Will plant later next year. Big learning curve down here.
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Re: Allotment

#116 Post by om15 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 3:35 pm

I am still producing even in January, I have celery plants about two feet high, every visit I snap off a dozen or so bits and they go in the veg pot every meal. Have bought earlies and laid them out to chit in the shed, wishing I could get started on my second plot, but things are not rushed in Dorset, hoping to clinch the deal next month and I can get digging and preparing.
Over winter leeks and onions coming on fine, yesterday I dug a trench across the allotment and emptied one of the compost bins in and dug well in, lots of seething red worms, getting the urge for spring planting now.

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Re: Allotment

#117 Post by Ex-Ascot » Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:04 pm

om15 wrote:
Wed Jan 16, 2019 3:35 pm
I am still producing even in January, I have celery plants about two feet high, every visit I snap off a dozen or so bits and they go in the veg pot every meal. Have bought earlies and laid them out to chit in the shed, wishing I could get started on my second plot, but things are not rushed in Dorset, hoping to clinch the deal next month and I can get digging and preparing.
Over winter leeks and onions coming on fine, yesterday I dug a trench across the allotment and emptied one of the compost bins in and dug well in, lots of seething red worms, getting the urge for spring planting now.

Wish we had worms here. The farm down river used to have a worm bed. No idea where they got them from. Got to get more compost into out sweet potato beds they do not like the solid sand. Very low production last year. Now got loads of dries out seeds for planting in a few months. Must say that the seeds from Amorgos did extremely well here.
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Re: Allotment

#118 Post by om15 » Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:24 pm

Ex A, do you have access to exotic dung? hippo droppings for example, that would be perfect for manuring plots, would possibly create the right soil for worms, I have several sacks of horse droppings which are full of tiny red worms which will in due course go into the veg plots.

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Re: Allotment

#119 Post by Ex-Ascot » Sat Jan 19, 2019 4:49 am

om15 wrote:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:24 pm
Ex A, do you have access to exotic dung? hippo droppings for example, that would be perfect for manuring plots, would possibly create the right soil for worms, I have several sacks of horse droppings which are full of tiny red worms which will in due course go into the veg plots.
Loads of goat and cow. They drop that on the land. Hippos usually spread it in the reed beds and I 'aint going in there for it. Hippos wag their tails when they poop to spread it all around marking their territory. Don't know if it would be any good though. Suppose no different to cow dung. They only eat grass and weeds. Fair amount of elephant dung around but I don't think that is any good. You can make paper out of it though.
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Re: Allotment

#120 Post by om15 » Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:04 am

Elephant dung sounds good, they eat vegetation that has not been treated with anything nasty so you should be ok with that, also comes pre packed in large sizes. It certainly would be fine to improve your poor soil. Your could also make compost from your weed beds, earlier this week I dug a trench across my plot and emptied a compost bin into it and then back filled it in, it was full of worms and although not absolutely fully decomposed it will bulk out the soil.
I have been justly accused of ignoring our garden, so this week I cleared a large area of rubbish, old plants and ground ivy, dug in a bin of compost and then spread a layer of horse manure, next month I will put on half a dozen annual and bi annual seeds for spring planting.

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