Allotment Week, Part Two: Goodbye Digging!

Think about allotments or growing-your-own, and digging is probably one of the first activities that comes to mind. But digging, it seems, is not the best choice for the soil, and more and more gardeners are giving it up. I've been following the work of gardening author and teacher Charles Dowding, who promotes no-dig gardening, and the efforts of Roy and Tanya from Pushing up Dandelions, who created a wonderful and productive no-dig plot from scratch last year by bringing in mulch, manure and compost from offsite, and the advantages are clear:

• It preserves and protects beneficial soil life: the six legged kind, the wriggling kind and the oft-forgotten complex fungal organisms that weave their mycelia through the dirt.
• The soil develops a more stable and open structure, which admits air and water, drains well and can be walked on (carefully) without compacting.
• The soil surface stays loose and is less likely to harden into a crust.
• Leaving roots and other organic matter in the soil to decompose naturally adds structure and nutrients.
• Regular digging means old weed seeds in the soil are constantly brought to the surface where they can germinate and grow.
• Most crops actually establish better and grow faster in undug soil, thanks to its improved structure and microlife.
• Digging takes a lot of time and can be jolly hard work!

(For more about no-dig gardening, check out this handy leaflet from Garden Organic.)

When we started out with our plot, I don't think we could possibly have avoided digging: the couchgrass problem was severe, and we couldn't have afforded to ship in enough compost to just cover it up - and anyway we wanted to grow in the fertile allotment soil, not shipped-in compost from goodness-knows-where! But now, having dug annually for a few years and finally gotten rid of most of the grass across the main growing area of the plot, we're making the big switch to no-dig gardening...

The two beds in the foreground of the pic above have only needed hand-weeding for the last year or so. We helped the third one along last year by basically digging all the soil out of it to about a foot deep, lining it with a couple of layers of thick cardboard to smother the grass, and putting the soil back minus the grass roots! Our squashes grew well here last year and again, it only needed hand-weeding. The cardboard will decompose eventually, but hopefully it will take long enough to smother and kill off any remaining perennial roots below.

Our card-lined no-dig squash bed!

The fourth bed, way over near the compost bin, is still chock-full of grass. We're planning to grow potatoes there this year and Eddie has started to dig it, but those plans may yet change to no-dig plans...

You will have noticed we've put in some (hopefully) permanent paths now, too, lined with weedproof fabric, edged with bricks and filled in with woodchip. This added structure will really help us keep control of things better, I think, and provides something of a barrier to any remaining weeds and those creeping in from the sides.

Taken last summer

So anyway, now we've got a big weed-free area, we're giving up on our thoroughly weed-ridden strawberry and asparagus beds, and planting a new perennials bed was our other main task for 'allotment week'. Below you can see how our old strawberry bed looks right now, and the asparagus bed is in the same state. Hand-weeding them every year when the couchgrass is obviously still so established is just soul-destroying. We were obviously very naive about how long it would take and how hard it would be to get rid of the perennial weeds!

Our old strawberry bed - yuk!

Our new perennial bed has 24 strawberry plants in two raised beds (Florence, Mae, Lucy and Albion runners transplanted from the old bed and from home) and two new rows of asparagus (10 x Gjinlim and 10 x Backlim). Eventually we'll also plant some globe artichokes, a perennial kale or two, and some herbs!

Asparagus crowns going in the ground

So here it is: our new perennials bed (with fox protection on the far raised bed, as we keep finding decomposing animals and bones in it!). There are still a few swedes and leeks here too, but we're getting through them fast now. It won't be long before the asparagus is popping through the soil and the strawberries start leafing up again!

In the meantime, I've taken some cuttings from our perennial Daubenton kale to go here...

...and I'm raising Green Globe artichokes from seed at home. They say you get a lot of duds growing artichokes from seed, so I started by sowing 20 seeds, and culled the weaker ones from the 16 that germinated, so now I have ten. I'll be sure to get rid of any others that don't keep up, and if there are still more than I can handle, I'll take the surplus to swaps! I have bought artichoke plants before but they struggled and died (they were in the troubled bottom end of the plot, where the compost bin now is) and they were expensive! Seed is much cheaper!

Of course, there's still some digging to do: we need to start from square one on the remaining grassy areas now, including the old strawberry and asparagus beds. But it's great to know we can now start to say goodbye to that back-breaking chore we had to get through each season before we could start the fun stuff, and I know the plot's going to be much more productive for it!

Looking On the Bright Side

Allotment update. Gah!

I'm finally starting to face up to the fact this is a bad, bad year for growing. Between torrential rain and scorching sun, and thanks to weeds thriving through the mild winter, we still haven't cleared enough earth to plant out our sweetcorn, beans, sunflowers and squashes, and they're languishing and potbound at home. Grass is taking over everything and slugs are eating everything else. We've had the worst asparagus crop ever, and the spring hail that blasted blossoms off fruit trees and bushes is going to mean a pretty poor fruit crop too. All my cucumbers and gherkins (at home) yellowed and died for reasons unknown - I suspect they just couldn't take the prolonged cold, wet, dull weather - cutworms (or something) mowed down 90% of my broad beans, and my shallots have inexplicably gone straight to flower without swelling to any kind of decent size.

At least the potatoes are doing okay.

The garlic is looking good and the onions are doing all right, albeit with rather liberal applications of (organic) slug pellets to try to keep it that way.

And despite a lot of slug damage and a few weeds as always, we're picking plenty of strawberries, which are always a joy.

We've achieved one of our allotment goals at least - we've finally planted up the corner patch we hardly ever use (hard, root-filled soil) with some artichokes, perennial cauliflowers and heritage kales - all planted through weedproof fabric to try to keep things under control...

I'm gradually covering it with stones to protect the fabric (it's gonna take a while!), and plan to plant some sage between the brassicas to try to keep caterpillars at bay - apparently cabbage whites hate the smell. I'll believe it when I see it...

At home, our tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, herbs, mangetout, chard and French beans are doing all right, I've resown a couple of cucumbers, and I might actually manage to grow some aubergines this year - they're loving the extra warmth of the plastic greenhouse - so all is not lost.

But I'm gonna have to accept we're just not going to get everything done on the plot this year. Sigh.

The Evil Weevil

I've had a tubful of strawberry plants in the garden for three years now which has done very well. Early this spring, however, I noticed they were looking pretty unhealthy, so I thought I'd repot them, take them to the allotment where there's space for them to give me new runners, and replace them in the garden with some new everbearing 'Albion' strawbs I bought.

Look what I found when I dug them up.

The roots - or what was left of them - were riddled with vine weevil grubs; several per plant. These nasty grubs eat roots and can kill plants - and apparently strawberries are one of their favourites! They grow up into black beetles that just do minor damage to leaves - and go off and lay more eggs of course. We now suspect it might be vine weevils in this same area of the garden that killed a favourite shrub a while back!

So we ordered some vine weevil killer by Nemasys (fairly widely available from mail-order garden catalogues or Amazon). It's a biological control - a pack of live microscopic wormy creatures - nematodes - who eat larger grubs such as these vine weevil grubs! (You can get different types of nematodes for different pests too.)

There are fifty million nematodes in this here pack! You have to keep them in the fridge and use them within a couple of weeks, when the ground is moist. Then you mix them into eight big watering cans, water them all over the garden (this pack treats 100sqm! it's tricky to spread them that thin!), and then add more water on top to make sure they reach the soil.

I did it yesterday and phew, how I wished for a hose to do the final watering! After lugging watering cans around for nearly an hour my arm was exhausted! Maybe I need more exercise...

I'm glad to see it's raining this morning - hopefully that will help settle my wormy new guests in and give them an appetite.

Sadly I was too late to save the strawberries!

Spring is in the air...

There's no doubt about it - spring is definitely in the air. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, flowers are popping up all over the place and everything is starting to grow again.

It's nice to see the sorrel and chives sprouting fresh new growth.

 

I know some people are harvesting purple sprouting broccoli by now, but mine still isn't showing any signs. Maybe it didn't get big enough before the winter. I wait with bated breath...

The lamb's lettuce is big enough to eat now, at last. This definitely needs an earlier start next year - and more of it too!

The radishes in the greenhouse haven't done anything worthwhile and are starting to look a bit sickly, but the spring onions have put on excellent growth over winter and are about ready to eat.

The claytonia has been going steady all winter long - I've picked handfuls from time to time, but I could (should) have eaten much more of it! In fact, I think I'd better thin this lot before the kale gets swamped!

The perpetual spinach, too, has kept producing slowly all winter, and I've picked the odd handful to add to veg dishes. The normal spinach did not do so well - something killed all but two of the plants! Next winter I'll make sure I have lots more perpetual spinach and chard going, since they stand so well through cold weather.

Like most gardeners, I'm chomping at the bit to start sowing again. I've already started a few potatoes - three 'Foremost' earlies - in a planter in the shelter of the house. I wouldn't plant them in open soil this early, but in dry fresh compost in a well-drained portable container it's another matter. The right temperature for planting spuds is about 8C, and most of our nights are 7 or higher at the moment, so as long as I protect them if we have another cold snap I reckon we're in with a good chance of a few super-earlies!

I bought six of these huge fold-away planters to use this year, thinking it'd be tidier than hoardes and hoardes of pots, the soil would be deeper, and I could plant lots of things closer together, rather than all in individual containers. The huge bags don't half hold a lot of soil! I don't know how I'm going to fill them all! In the first one I have planted my nine (one went mouldy in the greenhouse during the snow) everbearing 'Albion' strawberries, plus three which were too cramped in a pot in the garden. There's another planter ready and waiting in the background for some early carrots, lettuce, radishes and things, which I'll sow soon under a protective layer or two of fleece...

Oh, and my leek seedlings are doing well. They looked a bit frazzled today because I accidentally left them out in the cold last night, which must have come as a bit of a shock, but they'll recover, and I'm glad they got this head-start.

Can't wait to get stuck into some more sowing...

Snow!

So winter came after all!

Just in time for the arrival of ten new bare-root strawberry plants. There's nowhere for them to go - all the soil is frozen. I can't even pot them up! They've been sitting wrapped in wet newspaper for a week now - I hope they're happy...

My pepper and chilli seedlings are doing all right in the heated propagator - they're a tad leggy but not too bad at all. Hopefully this early start will get me some peppers before September this year!

There's not a lot else going on in the garden, as I'm sure you can imagine. So I've been watching the birds (and squirrels) instead, and with the fields covered in snow we've had four fat redwing visitors to the garden, stripping the berries from the cotoneasters. They were really tricky to photograph - they move so fast and kept sitting behind things - but here's one:

October Strawberries!

It seems that hot spell last month really confused a lot of our plants - a lot of plants in the garden are flowering for a second time and I know I'm not the only one whose strawberries have started producing a second crop! Crazy!

It was my pleasure to write a guest post for Tom, the 'Hapless Gardener' for his blog 'Growing Up' on Friday - please go read it here if you haven't already!

Tomato Burger Relish

We hosted not one but two barbecues over the bank holiday weekend, and I was glad of the chance to use up some of the tomato glut in a fab burger relish from Thane Prince's book Jams and Chutneys.

It's only lightly cooked, with just a little sugar and vinegar, so the tomatoes stay nice and chunky and remain the dominant flavour. We used mustard seeds instead of the recommended fennel seeds, and it was lovely. It's dead simple - red onion, seeds and garlic fried until soft; diced tomatoes, seasoning, brown sugar and a splash of vinegar added; and simmered for a few minutes. The recipe had just a touch too much vinegar I think, but we neutralised it by adding the tiniest pinch of bicarbonate of soda - it works a treat! (Careful - too much and you'll be left with a soda-y taste!)

Now all I have to do is find a way to use up the other half of the jar!

When the barbecue had cooled, the food had gone down and we were all lazing around wondering what to do with the rest of the day, a sudden urge for scones and jam hit, and a friend convinced me to have a go at baking some.

We used this basic recipe (although I have aspirations to try this richer one next time) and it was barely half an hour from scales-out-of-the-cupboard to scones-out-of-the-oven! We ate them warm with fresh, sugar-sprinkled strawberries and clotted cream. Bliss, even without any bank holiday sunshine! And they're so quick to make, I'm sure this won't be the last time...

Strawberry Milkshake

Strawberry Milkshake
(serves one)

• Strawberries: 100g
• Milk: 100ml
• Any old vanilla ice-cream: 50g (about two scoops)
• Whiz in a blender.

Magic.

It's a really good way to use up any strawberries starting to get a bit past their best (a smoothie with elderflower cordial is great too). You can throw other fruit in there too if you want, of course. And the best news of all? It's one of your five a day!

Very Berry

Yesterday we tasted the very first of our sweet and juicy raspberries, planted last year.

There are only a few at the moment - I'm hoping they'll hold on a few days so I can get a decent handful together for a dessert...

Some of the plants are looking a bit stressed, with yellowing or shrivelled leaves, and I'm not sure what's wrong. I forgot to take a picture... And we were disappointed to find a few of the canes mysteriously disappeared over winter! Hopefully I can transplant a few shoots or something to fill the spaces.

Ooh, what's that bug on the bottom-right of the raspberry? I didn't see that when I was taking it. I'm a bit paranoid about raspberry beetles but I don't think this is one. Looks mean though!

On a berry-related note, I have to show you the size of our 'Lucy' strawberries - they're so impressive and gorgeous!

On the other end of the scale, check out these wild strawberries! They grow like weeds in our garden - Mum hates them! But it's a shame to see them go to waste - I think I'll have to pick them and make use of them...