Gem Squash

I was looking around for trellis ideas and found this at trellis
and must give it a try this year. It will go at the top end of the allotment where the broad beans are already in. Beans and pumpkins/squashes make good companion plants.

This Montagnard trellis design was built with forethought. As the young squash and melon plants below it continue to grow, their vines will be trained onto the trellis. Once fruits begin to form, they will be suspended from the trellis, making them easier to harvest and protecting them from insects and disease.

My first compost bin is ready. I used four pallets and screw them together using deck screw. (The wisdom using deck screws is that they dont rust.) The compot bin was filled with leaves and the plan is to turn it weekly.

Raised bed ready for the New Year

Finally we manage to get the raised beds completed. Hard work breaking up the pallets with so many nails in them. We'll stick with eight and see how it goes next year and then decide if we need anymore. But I feel they will be filling up with plenty of vegetables.




On the 4th we planted some broadbeans in the box right at the back. According to the moon cycles that was the best day. The first batch went in to early and the frost knocked them.

From Keith's Moon Planting Page:

Second quarter planting, or the time from the half-full to the full moon.
Plant annuals that have above-ground yields which are vining and produce seed inside the fruit.
2nd Qtr. Examples:

• beans, peas, peppers, squash, eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers.

A lunar info box was added to show the phase of the moon. Next to go into the allotment this quater will be some garlic.

Carrots in 'tub'

Following the allotment program on BBC I tried to grow some carrots in a 'tub'. In this case a crate for hydraulic components. The idea behind using a tub is that it keeps the carrot fly away. The carrot fly is too lazy too fly higher than 2', thats why the 'tub'.

Don't forget the bunnies though. I placed a bale of straw, slide 4, (for the straw potatoes) next to the 'tub' and bunnies manage to get in and went digging. Caused a real mess, slide 6. The recovery of the carrots were amazing.

And yesterday only to find a mouse (presumable) went digging tunnels in the 'tub'. The carrots showed great strengh this time round.

The carrots is coming along nicely. It survived the first frost and the roots are forming nicely.

Straw Potatoes
I thought I'll try to grow some straw potatoes to have little new potatoes for Christmas. Read about this way of growing potatoes at allotments-uk.com. Ordered some Nicola and Mars Pipers.

First the soil was turned and racked even. The potatoes were simply placed on top of the ground. I used mushroom compost and a bale of hay to cover the potatoes. something I learned is to make sure the compost/straw is not very 'tight' as the chits struggle to get through.

Well, it started of very well as the photo show. Then the blight struck very quick with devastating effects. The blight could very well have come from the tomato plant right next to the potatoes which were sowing signs of blight. So second lesson is, keep the two apart. The tomatoe plant can be seen in the first photo.

Yesterday lifted and cleared all the potatoes. The Nicolas were very prolific. One plant had 37 little potatoes. Would have loved to seen them through to Christmas. The Mars Pipers produced bigger new potatoes in the same time. At least had a cullender full of baby new potatoes.

Verdict: Will definitely try to grow some more straw potatoes in the New Year again. The earthworms have also picked up in numbers under the straw. The rest of the winter they can work on the straw and compost which I simply turned over with a spade. Come spring we'll plant some cabbages.

Four Raised Beds

I can proudly say that Plot No 2 now have four raised beds completed. Even the paths between them are covered in wood chippings. Workmen were clearing some woods behind our house and kindly left some wood chippings.
A fifth frame is awaiting the side supports and wood for another two is ready for a total of seven beds.

The winter green manure has started to seed in three beds. The neighbour from the next allotment have promised some horse manure. One bed I want to fill up with horse manure to the brink and let the earth worms get on with it over winter. Interested to see what they can achieve. The rest will be double digged.

Another view on the good pieces of wood. A good place for bum to rest on when weeding and digging.

The first raised bed have been build. Green manure have been planted to prepare the beds for the new year. After building the bed I dug it out and filled it with annual weeds, hedge cutting and vegetable peelings. For good measure I stuck in some nails to provide some iron.

The beds were constucted from pallets that was broken up using crowbars. Some pieces of wood were joined together to form the ends.A week's growth of green manure. A mixture of

• Field Beans Vicia Faba,
• Lucerne (Alfafa) Medicago Sativa,
• Vetches(Tares) Vicia Sativa,
• Hungarian Rye Secala Cereale and
• Trefoil Medicago Lupilina were used.

I used alternating rows for the beans and tares. The trefoil and alfafa were sows liberaly. They have to fight it out between themselves.
Hungarian Rye
Eight weeks of growth will bring us to the new year. At that stage I plan to chop off most growth and end Jan dig it in.

In the first bed will go some mammoth onions.