This week I ordered the majority of my seeds for the coming season, together with some fruit (raspberry and red currant) that I want to grow in the coming season.

When I say “majority” it’s because I’m not exactly sure how much I’ll be able to fit in - and there’s still one or two things I wouldn’t mind growing - but I’ll have to wait and see.

I decided to try out one of the online shops that I’m recommending here on the site, Dobies of Devon, and will of cause keep you all updated on the progress.

The shopping interface on their site worked very well - and working through their 18 pages of vegetable seeds while deciding on varieties etc. - was a pleasant experience.

Their pricing seems to be fair - certainly compared to the supermarkets and DIY shops - where you don’t get half the choice of varieties that you get online.

If you haven’t got your seeds for the coming season - why not give Dobies a try? You can access their site from the banner below - or from the link in the right hand side menu.

Technorati Tags: Allotment, Seed, Dobies

The process of digging over your plot is the start of the gardeners year - the time to prepare your plot for the coming seasons growing - and usually takes place from late autumn to early spring.

When you dig your plot you start out by marking up the site to be dug over, dig a trench about 1½ foot wide at the front of the plot, and transport the soil you dig out to the bottom of the plot. Then you continue to dig the trench towards the bottom of your plot - only now you turn the soil you dig out over into the previously dug out trench.

Digging Techniques.

The most commonly used digging technique is called single digging. Using this method you dig your trench one spade (or spit) deep.

The single digging method is sufficient in most cases - but you will find that some keen vegetable growers use the double digging method once every 3 years or so - in order to break up the compacted layer below the depth of digging. This is, however, extremely hard work - because the subsoil (as it is called) is very compact, particularly on plots where the process hasn’t been carried out previously.

There is a third digging method - called b*stard-digging by people in the gardening profession. The exact benefit of using this method (going deeper than 2 spits) is not quite clear to me - but I suppose it’s for people wanting to grow large sized root-produce (carrots, parsnips, leeks etc.) for competition purposes.

How to “cheat”

There’s two alternatives to the above mentioned methods - one of which I am using on my plot - as I’ll show you below. The first of these methods is, of cause, rotavating. This method is particularly useful for plots that has already been dug over in previous years - and it can be used even when you want to add organic matter to the soil. It’s not the ideal thing to do if your plot is plagued by couch grass, or similar weeds, that spread via bits of roots.

The other alternative I’ve chosen to call single-double digging. This is the method I’m using on my plot - and it works as follows:

1. Dig your trench 1 spit deep, and ensure that no bits of soil is left on the bottom.

2. Fill the trench to the top with organic matter (in my case horsemanure).

3. Dig your trench back, turning the soil over onto the manure, and dig any bits of soil off the bottom onto the manure as well.

4. Start back at step 1.

What this does in effect resembles the method of double digging - though I’m only doing single digging - because I’m adding a lot of organic matter to the bottom of the trench. With the help of my underground friends - this will be turned into a nice layer of soil in a years time.

While not as labour intensive as doing double digging - it’s quite time-consuming - and requires access to a LOT of organic matter.

Happy digging!

Technorati Tags: Digging, Allotment, Soil

The question of whether or not to dig over an allotment plot is a source of great debate among allotmenteers - almost always dividing young from old - where the older plotholders are die-hard diggers who digs (or rotavates) without fail every winter/spring.

The younger plotholders in many cases opt for the no-dig system of raised beds, that will only need a good forking over to break up any clods and capping, because they avoid walking on the soil. This ensures that the structure of the soil isn’t ruined, and that it isn’t compacted.

I’m not that old (35) - yet I’ve opted for digging over my plot - and for a number of reasons:

• My plot was severely overgrown last year - suggesting that nothing has been done to it for a long time - so I need to improve the structure of the soil.
• To help in improving the soil - I need to encourage micro organisms and worms to come back - which is done by feeding them loads of organic matter.
• The addition of organic matter also adds much needed nutrients to the soil.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about digging techniques, and tell you how I’ve chosen to dig my plot this year.

Technorati Tags: Digging, Allotment, Soil

Yesterday I was back on my plot for a few hours, managed to do some more digging, and took a few pictures for this site. Most allotmenteers would agree that digging is hard work - and I’m no different. I am, however, stange enough to find the work quite enjoyable!

I’ll go in to details of the digging technique I use in a post later this week. I have been taught about this technique from one of my tutors at college - who has been digging over more plots than I care to think about - and hope it will pay off. It is a long term thing though. Let’s just say it’s rather labour intensive - and requires a LOT of organic matter.

The good thing about it is that a lot of other plotholders have seen me wheel in barrow-loads of horse manure, noticed the goodness of it, and asked me how to get some. Rather than sending them all down to the riding school where I pick it up - I’ve arranged with the owner to deliver 10 tonnes to our site in the next few weeks - so everyone is happy, and I’ll save a lot of time myself.

Last week I told you about my spring cleaning - and this week I took a couple of pictures of my plot. If you want to see what has happened since last year you can look here.

The first thing you will notice is that the plot is now virtually clean off couch grass, thanks to the RoundUp treatments last year, so hopefully I’ll manage without using too much weedkiller this year. I do like the idea of doing things organically, but I must admit there’s time issues!

Also the vast mojority of the rubbish has been moved away or burned. There’s still enough work to be done, but my priority is to get things ready for sowing ASAP, so that will have to wait.

On both pictures you can see the amount of digging I have been doing. Still a long way to go, but I’m confident I’ll have the whole plot dug over before the end of april, so I should be OK.

The binbags you can see in front of the greenhouse, or what is left of it, is the leaves I collected in autumn. My worms will be munching their way through them in the coming months!

Speaking of my worms - they seem to be doing quite well - settling in to the wormery. Activity is starting to increase as the temperatures pick up, and I’m already planning to start up another one or two wormeries on my plot over the next month or so. I really do like to do my bit for the environmet by recycling household waste and turning it into the best feed for my plants that money can buy! Great stuff!

Enough of my rambling for now! As promised I’ll be back later in the week with an article on how to dig over your allotment, and if anything else happens I’ll let you know……

Technorati Tags: Digging, Allotment, Roundup

Today the weather was kind to me - and hopefully to a lot of other allotmenteers as well. Time to get stuck in and get some spring cleaning started on my plot!

I started out digging in the horse manure I got for my plot last weekend. Since the method of digging I’m using (more on that another day) is taking up a LOT of manure it looked as if I didn’t get much done - but I did!

Originally I wanted to go and pick up some more manure when I finished digging in the first lot - but time wasn’t on my side - so I decided to start tidying up on my plot. Not too much to do in that respect, because I managed to get most of the rubbish cleared last year, but there’s still enough to do. I do, however, have a couple of massive jobs to do over the next few months.

If you take a look at the pictures below you’ll notice that the greenhose still have the majority of its glass in it. Not anymore! The winterstorms did a good job of smashing some of them - and so I decided to take the rest out myself today. I was always going to do it sooner or later. Eventually the whole greenhouse will come down - because a lot of the wood has rotted - so I want to build a new one rather than trying to fix the old one up.

Also - I’m going to have to (re)move my shed. The reason for this is that it goes beyond the borders of the plot - and since the council is going to put in a new watersupply and a new path - I’ve been ordered to sort things out.

All in all a very productive day - but there’s still plenty to do - with only less than half the plot dug over, cleaning up to do, planting and sowing - and the list goes on….

Good job that I like to work - and having an allotment never leaves you idle

Technorati Tags: Spring Cleaning, Digging, Greenhouse

As I mentioned in my previous post I ordered a wormery over the weekend. I’m hoping to get loads of good compost from it over the coming season.

So far there hasn’t been too much activity in the wormery - but according to the instructions supplied with it - the worms need a week or two to settle down in their new home. Once this happens, and the weather turns a bit warmer (worms prefer temperatures above 11 degrees), my worms should eat up to half their bodyweight each day.

I’ve started up with one kilo of worms, and at the moment I have loads of stuff to throw at them, since I saved a lot of fallen leaves last year that I’ll let them munch their way through. This autumn I’ll have a job on my hands though, since apparantly the worms will double their population every 2-3 months. This would mean me supplying them with 4 kilos of food a day!

Technorati Tags: Wormery, Worms, Compost