It didn’t quite rain on the allotment!
Arthur Seat was hidden in the mist but it didn’t rain so that was a bonus. We had a major push on thinning today with the carrots, turnips and beetroot. To reduce the ultimate thinning needed these had been ‘station’ sown ie 2/3 seeds sown at the final recommended growing distance apart.
Two of the green manures – agricultural mustard and annual rye grass – in the demonstration bed have just reached the stage of almost flowering so these were dug up and put on the compost heap.You can dig these in as well to increase fertility but we had a further green manure to sow in their place. This time Tubingen mix from GardenOrganic was sown. It is designed to improve bee forage with a mix of green manures, herbs and flowers such as calendula and cornflower.
The early potatoes have been in for 12 weeks now so we dug up one shaw of the early variety Casablanca from the willow patch.
They were a typical new potato size so time to start enjoying them. One of the other varieties – Charlotte the salad potato- was diseased showing signs of black leg which is a blackening and softening of the stem. That was dug up but the tubers were fine if small. All the shaws were checked for blight – it is early but the mild humid weather is ideal for it so they will be thoroughly checked each week from now on.
The Japanese onions which were planted as sets in October are now ready for digging up. They are a good size a
The broad beans had the top leaves nipped out as a preventative measure against black fly.nd withstand our winters so a good crop giving onions several weeks earlier than normal.
The final job today was to check all the netting is still in place and adjust any to accommodate growing plants. It is also important to make sure birds can’t find their way in and get trapped. There are a number of young birds around now just out the nest so there mustn’t be any gaps along the bottom edges.
Jobs for next week: Weeding! Take out the blueberries.
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Why do you want to take out the blueberries?
One is now definitely dead and the other needs put out of its misery. They have never thrived despite being in ericaceous compost, firstly in the soil and then in pots dug into the ground. The soil is quite alkaline so possibly affected by the groundwater and then when moved they endured 2 cold winters and have never recovered. M