The Beauty of Nature

Nothing much to report this week. I went up the plot to take some composting, but didn’t do anything there. Instead I put down some wood chipping on my garden to suppress the weeds.

I went to the plot at the weekend to carry on with the digging. I have done most of the plot and it is doing fine, but there was the extra bit to do this year.

After all the rain we’ve had over xmas it was hard going as the soil retains a lot of water and I only have little legs.

As you can see I got to most of it by the end of the day and spread the last of the hops and manure on it. I dug some of it in as well, so don’t worry.

Just to show you what you can do when you have the time, here is a picture of a nearby plot. This person is retired and spends a lot of time at their plot. I wish I had the time, but I don’t fancy retirement just yet.

I then checked on my sprouts. Where they have grown above the netting the birds have been at them and stripped them bare – I hope the leaves make them poo through the eye of a needle!

I’ve not been active here of late as I am leaving the plot to its own devices for a while; but I thought I would mention that I saw a film over the Xmas period relating to allotments – “Grow Your Own”.

Below is a sort of review.

This is the sort of thing we have come to expect of British cinema trying to do comedy. there are no out and out gags or laughs, just wry smiles all round.

It’s a feel good film that doesn’t really pick up enough for me. But if you have an allotment you may well see plenty of truth in the characters.

I went to the local brewer last week and collected 10 bags of spent hops for the plot. They give them away, so it has to be the cheapest brought in soil improver I know. Of course you have to go collect them and that can be heavy work if you’ve no one to help you lift the bags.

I then took them to the plot and had fun spreading them at the weekend despite the constant rain and wind. As they were still moist they didn’t fly about. It was too dark to take a picture by the end, so you will just have to use your imagination.

The last lot I put on have totally disappeared form the soil as they break down really easily after the boil.

Good old hops!
🙂

I have been out digging today. It’s been the first dry weekend in a while and I wanted to get as much done as possible.

So I borrowed a Terex spade to get the job done as quickly as possible and with the least amount of effort. If you don’t know what a Terex spade is you haven’t lived. See one in the pic below.

This flips the clod over very easily and spares your back a lot of pain later on. Though I still need the odd ‘nip’ to ‘recover. 😉

The other picture is of the collection of weeds – some of which I killed beforehand. You can see the hops bag that I collected from the brewer. These have all gone into the soil well so far and unfortunately for all you beer drinkers out there, will not impart any beer flavour to the vegetables.

I still need to go back as I am harvesting my sprouts now that the frosts have arrived. I am hoping some will last beyond Christmas and into the new year, but we will see.

The first picture below is sadly not of my plot, but of the guy’s near mine. He is retired and has all day to do it. You can see how having the extra time helps when you look at my previous post.

On another note I have been digging over my plot and integrating the horse manure and hops and some of my own compost to enrich the soil and to get it to break down.

The manure as rather fresh so the over wintering will allow it to break down and weather to avoid it burning the crops next year. I could have kept it to dig in in the spring, but I would have to keep it in bags as I’ve nowhere to overwinter it at home or the plot. Plus, the longer you leave it exposed at the plot, the more likely it is to reduce in pile size. By that I mean a lot of people have an eye on it for their own plot. Not that I would accuse any of my fellow plot holders on the site, but there have been a series of break ins on the site and tools and all things gardening/growing have gone missing. A pile of manure is just another draw for the thieves.

I will be going up again soon – not today as it hasn’t stopped raining – to get some sprouts now that we have a had a few good frosts. Instead, today we ate the aubergines I grew in pots. sorry on picture, but it was one of those days when cutting to plate was too fast for the camera.

Anyhow, here is my plot freshly dug over yesterday:

Strangely enough, the beans are not dead yet. Waiting a little longer for them to die away before removing everything.

This is how my leeks were last weekend. I know, it’s not that good to leave these weeds around something that’s growing. So I did have go and hoe those weeds away.

They now look much better.

I checked out the sprouts on Sunday. They are still growing, though I think they should be a little larger than they are:

I know we have been having cold weather and by rights not much will be growing this time of year, especially if it is outside, but my chillies are still doing the business and turning red

I am surprised that it is happening, but they are against a south facing wall. This means that I am still picking and drying them and then cooking with them.

It’s wonderful really, especially after all the ‘weather’ we have had this year.

It has been a topsy turvey year really for growing things.

This was my Delphinium this week

This is the third time it has flowered this year. I am worried they wont have enough energy for next year. I said that last year when they flowered twice, so I guess I shouldn’t worry that much.

Anyone else have strange stories to tell?