The Beauty of Nature

Today we dug out some of last years spinach. It has over wintered surprisingly well and we were able to get a few salad leaves from the plant we dug out.

There are still a few plants left, but we will have to have these out soon as we have set some spinach seeds for the new crop.

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You can see that it takes a lot of effort to dig it out as the root is quite thick for something that gives such delicate leaves.

Today we planted some onion sets.

Don’t forget to nip the tops off to stop the birds thinking they are worms and pulling them out.

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Today I checked how the parsnips were doing. They seem to have grown a little and are doing well.

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I also point out how you can tell the difference between a weed and your seedling as it comes up.

We decided to check the Dahlias we had over-wintered in the cold frame to make sure they were good to plant out later on.

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Unfortunately we found that a leatherjacket grub had also over-wintered with the Dahlias and had been feeding on it.

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It was nice and juicy fat when we found it, but didn’t last long – if you know what I mean 😉

Just thought you would like to see how the courgette and cucumber were doing.

This is a week ago, so they are even larger now and have been re-potted into larger pots.

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Today we planted out some broad beans. As it was a little windy we staked them in as they had put on quite a spurt in the greenhouse.

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When we planted them, we added some manure to the hole to provide a little extra nutrient for them.

We are using some cut up tights to hold them to the stake. Remember to tie the support to the stake first and then to the plant so that you don’t damage the stem. Leave enough room for growth as well.

Well, as you can see, we need to dig the allotment at this time of year. It has over-wintered well, but the soil needs to be broken up and we have to remove some of the grass that has grown with the mild winter.

We could have put a carpet over it like some of the other allotment holder, but we didn’t have a spare 50sq ft carpet to hand.

So we dig!

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As you can hear it was a very windy day. Perhaps we will use a rotavator next year?

Having slugs on your allotment can be a real pain. While you can catch them in the act and invite them to leave your vegetables alone, it is good to keep an eye out for them before you start growing. This is often best done when you are digging the soil over in preparation for planting.

In this video we can see some slug eggs waiting to hatch and eat the veg. They are not very large, but you can tell them as they are translucent balls. These could be from last year, but equally they can lay dormant for a long time.

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My favourite method is to lightly salt them.

On a rather windy day, we take a look at the comfrey growing on the allotment.

We will be using this to tempt the slugs away from the veg, but also as an important constituent of the composting process.

It’s a coarse Eurasian plant belonging to the genus Symphytum – part of the borage family. It has large hairy, lance-shaped leaves and drooping clusters of small, white, rose-coloured, or purplish flowers.

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Using some toilet rolls as ‘peat pots’. They may well have one purpose, but their second life role is just as good.

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