Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments: April 2013

Monday, April 29

They're coming into the garden two by two

The weather may not have quite made up it's mind that it is now spring but the birds have. They are busy foraging for nesting material and to help them create a cosy nest I have popped out some poodle wool. I've done this for a couple of years now and it has proved a popular nesting material.

Most of the birds we are seeing in the garden are now in pairs. We've had, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, robins, dunnocks, chaffinches, woodpigeons and collared doves arriving in couples with goldfinches and blackbirds several couples at a time. We have sparrows and starlings arriving in groups which no doubt include paired birds. These are all birds that we regularly see in the garden but this week we have also spotted rarer visitors.

First I spotted a female siskin which disappeared before I managed to grab my camera but then on Saturday I spotted a male siskin tucking in to the sunflower hearts. I grabbed my camera expecting to be too late but he was enjoying the tasty treats so much that he literally hung around. I daren't get too close to the window in case I spooked him but I did manage a few shots.

A female arrived to join him but she hid around the back of the feeder so I didn't manage to grab a photo of her.

That was exciting enough - a pair of siskins that may be nesting nearby! Then on Sunday as Martyn glanced out of the window during a break in our decorating he spotted a new bird to our garden. On the niger seed feeder were two redpolls. The niger feeder is further away from the house than the sunflower heart feeder and so it was a case of hoping my zoom would manage to capture a half decent photo.

Whilst I was firing off my stills camera, Martyn took a video which you can see on his blog here. One redpoll was around the back of the feeder so we weren't sure whether this was a pair or two same sex birds but given the time of year we are hoping it was a pair and that they visit us again.

Unfortunately none of our couples have chosen to set up home in either of our web cam boxes! There's gratitude for months of feeding and watering!

Just one week to the deadline for entries

Don't forget the competition to win a fire pit - more information here (I do hope you manage to take part as I am looking forward to reading your stories - I'm not judging so I can just enjoy!)

Saturday, April 27

First Rose?

Prima Rosa is Latin for 'first rose' and is where the name primrose comes from. Obviously just like the Christmas rose, Lenten rose, rock rose etc. primroses are not really roses.

I love primroses, especially the native ones which like our English bluebell has suffered from years of having been picked for posies. Picking the flowers meant that the plants didn't seed themselves causing the wild stock to diminish.

I'm not alone in my love of our native primrose. I know many fellow bloggers have also said that this is one of their favourite flowers and we are in good company as Queen Victoria and one of her prime ministers - Disraeli - loved them too. Victoria sent a wreath of primroses to Disraeli's funeral. Darwin was also fascinated by the primrose as it has developed a very clever way of ensuring that flowers are cross pollinated.

There are two types of primrose flower. Some plants have pin-eyed flowers.

In these flowers the stigma - the female part of the flower - is prominent and the anthers - the male parts - that produce the pollen are deeper inside the cup of petals.

The thrum-eyed flowers are the opposite way round so that the stigma is lower inside the flower and the pollen producing anthers are more prominent.

This way the different types of flower can pollinate one another but can't pollinate the same type of flower which means that plants don't pass on their failings to their offspring.

We have a whole row of primroses on the allotment plot which I grew from seed and planted in what I thought was a similar position to their preferred hedgerow. These are shaded in summer when the surrounding plants are in full leaf.

Several years ago managed to raise about six plants from a packet of bought in seed but have found by far the best way to raise new plants is to sow fresh seed collected from plants and sown straight away. As seeds shouldn't be collected from wild plants my seed came from the few plants that I started with. Fortunately I must have had both pin and thrum eyed versions as I raised dozens of young plants.

This year I was planning to raise more plants to add a few more to our garden but I've been saved a job as when tidying up the ground around the primroses planted on the plot I found plenty self sown seedlings some of which have been potted up to grow on.

The idea is to plant these in the garden under the magnolia tree in the shady area where the hellebores and snowdrops are planted so I can enjoy them from the house window.

Just over a week to the deadline for entries
Don't forget the competition to win a fire pit - more information here (I do hope you manage to take part as I am looking forward to reading your stories - I'm not judging so I can just enjoy!)

Wednesday, April 24

It's in the detail - click on the photo for a larger view

PS Don't forget the competition to win a fire pit - more information here (I do hope you manage to take part as I am looking forward to reading your stories - I'm not judging so I can just enjoy)!

Tuesday, April 23

It's not just rhubarb!

Rhubarb had featured in some blogs recently. Bloggers have been comparing the progress or lack of it with respect to the growth of the clumps of rhubarb on their plots. Some have been posting about pulling their first sticks and others have been lamenting that this treat is still far off.

Monday, April 22

You don't need to break your back

At last we have made a start on planting our potatoes. Quite a few years ago we decided that digging trenches just wasn't how we wanted to pass a day on the plot. We grow quite a lot of potatoes and digging trenches can be back breaking work.

It seems from reading other people's blogs that we are not alone in this decision. Those of us in the non-trench digging club seem to have a variety of methods of planting seed potatoes so here is a short video we took last week to show how we plant ours.

We decided to keep in the mutterings and silly bits so you could have a giggle.

We get our potatoes planted much quicker this way and don't suffer from backache afterwards.

Below is a compilation of just some of the potatoes cropped last year - not an ideal potato growing season but proof that this method works.

Saturday, April 20

Patching up the strawberries.

Another plot based task was to sort out the strawberry bed. As is the case with most allotment jobs this year this was well behind schedule.

Last year we decided to protect the strawberry bed with weed control fabric.

This worked very well until winter time when the strawberry leaves died back exposing the strips of fabric which as a consequence blew around in the wind causing them to fray. We had to use strips of fabric as the plants were already in place when we decided that weed control fabric was a good idea. Ideally we would have planted through the fabric which would have prevented this problem.

One advantage of about using strips, was that I could remove them to work on the bed. In the bed are four varieties of strawberry - Marshmarvel (early), Marshmello (mid season), Amelia (late) and Flamenco (ever bearing). Marshmarvel suffered the most casualties over winter with half the plants having disappeared and most of the rest only showing a little growth. By now being an early fruiter, these plants should be the furthest into growth but the other varieties are in much better condition.

Fortunately I have an overspill strawberry bed from which I could steal plants to replant the Marshmarvel section of the bed.

I tidied up all the plants by brushing over the plants with my hand and crumbling the dead leaves. The leaf crumbs were left in place as a bit of soil improvement.

I then loosened the soil around the plants slightly with the tips of the fork prongs and sprinkled some fish, blood and bone fertiliser around the plants.

The strips of weed control fabric were then put back in place.

Once the plants grow many of the bricks and the wood will be removed as once the leaves grow over the fabric they will keep it in place. I am now looking forward to the plants repaying my tender loving care by producing masses of lovely strawberries.

Friday, April 19

Pity that they're not wind pollinated

It has to be said that as far as choosing a good time to open its blossom, our nectarine hasn't done very well. It may have been waiting for the sun to shine but surely gale force winds will not be conducive to good pollination. As a result I braved the elements with my tickling stick - just to try and give nature a helping hand.

So will we, won't we, get any nectarines - who knows?

Thursday, April 18

Wielding the secateurs!

The brighter weather has encouraged us to set to work on the plot. It's been a matter of trying to get some long delayed jobs done. Whilst Martyn's first task was to tidy beds and prepare them for potato planting, I concentrated on the soft fruit department.

The first task was to tame a tayberry that was in danger of taking someone's eye out. Normally all last year's canes would have been removed by now, new canes would have been tied in and leaves and flower buds would be forming. This year isn't at all normal but at least now we have one less unruly tayberry that just needs to get it's act together and produce some fruit.

We have a rampant blackberry that needs the same sort of attention but entering into battle with one thorny thug was enough for the moment so the blackberry will have to wait although a more friendly thornless blackberry and Japanese wineberry received the same attention.

I also cut out all the old canes from one of our autumn fruiting raspberry varieties - Joan J. The new canes are just starting to come into growth. I hope these produce as many fruits as they did last year.

Yet more prickly customers in the shape of gooseberries were given a light pruning to maintain the required goblet shape. The more vigorous jostaberries were pruned in the same way. At last both types of bush are starting to produce much delayed leaves.

The alpine strawberries growing along the edges of the fruit beds were well past their best and so have been removed. We are hopefully growing more new plants from seed and these will take the place of the discarded plants later. Meanwhile the beds have been tidied and the plants given a little fertiliser - chicken manure pellets - to give them a boost.

The first of the two beds pictured below bed has a Glencoe - purple raspberry - in the centre trained onto wires. The tip of one cane has rooted into the soil and so will produce a second plant. On each side of the raspberry are a jostaberry, a gooseberry and a young rhubarb.

The second bed also contains two each of gooseberries, jostaberries and rhubarb but in the centre of this bed is a whitecurrant bush.

We have another couple of gooseberries trained up a wire fence which also supports a couple of kiwi plants. The kiwis haven't yet produced any fruit as the male is very reluctant to supply the necessary pollen - in fact this year the female is equally reluctant to show any signs of new growth. Around the base of each gooseberry needs a bit of attention as couch grass has infiltrated their root systems.

These two gooseberries had put on lots of vigorous growth and so were subjected to some very harsh pruning. They did retaliate though by spearing my fingers - even through my gardening gloves!

Wednesday, April 17

What's the link?

Tuesday, April 16

And we're off!

The shallots and onions are really putting a spurt on now and will soon need planting out on the plot.

The first lot planted are now growing quickly:

The second lot are also catching up.

Last week was also the start of some serious seed sowing. A full list of the seeds sown is here. The seeds that we feel need a little more pampered start into life are in the spare room under the grow lights but there are also plenty in the cold greenhouse too.

The celery and celeriac seedlings under the grow light seem to be doing better than those left in the cold propagator in the greenhouse although the later are surviving.

The cyclamen that I grew earlier in the year from seed collected from my houseplants are also growing faster indoors - who can blame them - both lots are beginning to develop tiny plantlets but the ones inside are stronger looking.

You may have noticed that we now have two grow light systems, one of the tubes failed in the first system so we replaced it but the light still isn't working. We need to contact the manufacturer for advice but decided to buy a second set-up. It was something we had been thinking of doing anyway. Meanwhile both grow light trays are full of seedlings. The single tube is giving an adequate supply of light for now.

PS Don't forget the competition to win a fire pit - more information here

Sunday, April 14

It's in the genes

Just to get the competition that I announced yesterday started. Although in the interest of fairness I won't be taking part in the Select Furnishings competition.

I’m not sure that anything actually inspired me or triggered my interest in gardening. As far as I can remember it has just always been there.

I guess my first real memory of a garden goes back to the age of four when I can remember playing with my cousin in our grandparents garden. We lived in a house without a garden at the time and to have the space and freedom to just wander around without an accompanying adult was exciting. Around the same time my grandma died and we went to live with my grandad. The garden became my playground. I was allocated a small patch of ground to tend myself where I raised easy to grow annuals such as Virginian and Night scented Stocks. I grew the same thing every year but it didn’t matter as the distance from one year’s sowing to the next was a lifetime to a young child. It fascinated me to think that seeds could magically turn into all sorts of wonderful plants and the fascination has never really faded.

Dahlias and chrysanthemums were given lots of tender loving care and were interspersed with upturned pots of straw set to trap the earwigs that were public enemy number one and had to be avoided incase they strayed into some unsuspecting small girl's ear. Mixed in with the flowers were fruit and vegetables. There were large rhubarb leaves to hide under when it rained. Our dog used to like hiding under the leaves too - no doubt munching on a pea that she had stolen from a nearby plant. Then there were the tomato plants that my dad always considered so important that he checked whether any fruits had turned red before coming into the house when he arrived home from work. One day my sister and I tied ripe fruits onto a plant and I remember him coming in excited that at last his tomatoes had achieved ripeness. Our laughter gave the game away!

Then there were the bees - I loved the large furry bumble bees that my grandad would stroke as they browsed the flowers and the loopy caterpillars that magically changed into butterflies. For some reason the gardeners in the family just couldn’t learn to love them.

Gardening and love of nature was in my genes and as time went on the interest was fed and became stronger as I learned more fascinating facts.

Luckily I married someone who had a similar set of gardening genes so when we were looking for our first home the main criteria was that it had a garden that was large enough to enable us to grow all the things that we wanted to. We found an unloved garden which has gradually developed from that shown below to the one featuring in this blog. It's very different!

The problem was the list of things we wanted to grow outgrew the garden and so we ended up renting allotment space but that’s another story entirely and can be read about here

Now it's your turn. I hope lots of you 'have a go' as I'm looking forward to reading about what made you 'get into' gardening. I'm also looking forward to finding out who wins the prize.

Saturday, April 13

New Competition - Win a Fire Pit

Recently I was contacted by Anna from Select Furnishings a company that sells outdoor furniture. She had come across my blog and wondered whether I would be interested in hosting a competition that the company would like to run. I responded asking for further details and decided that I would like to give visitors the opportunity to take part and for one lucky visitor to take away the prize on offer - a Landmann Outdoor Fire Pit that usually retails at almost £200. This is maybe just the thing to own if our weather doesn’t improve.

To take part in the competition you are asked to write a post to publish on your own blog about what inspired your interest in gardening. For example you could write about childhood gardening memories, an inspirational experience or person. The format and style should fit the genre of your blog but at least one photograph or illustration should be used. (I'll publish my blog post as an example tomorrow). Obviously one aim of the competition is to gain exposure for the company so your post must include a mention and link to the Select Furnishings home page and also a link back to this post on my blog.

Once you have published your entry on your please make a comment on this post and I will add a link to your posting so that Select Furniture can access your entry for judging. I've popped a link on the top of the sidebar so you can access this post easily as it works its way down the blog page.

To give you plenty of time to take part the closing date for your entry will be Tuesday 7 May - the day after the May Day Bank Holiday. Please make sure that you have posted your comment indicating that you wish to take part in this competition by midnight GMT on 7 May and I will make sure all entries have been collated by the end of that week so that Select Furnishings can start judging.

The winner will be announced on my blog.

Unfortunately due to delivery issues the competition is restricted to UK entries only. Sorry non-UK based visitors.