Changing ways. Permaculture here I come

I had second thoughts about the jerusalem artichoke tubers I put in and I removed all of them yesterday. 12` tall, likely to be blown over in the wind as well as a bit invasive. All tubers were still firm and whole, no growing roots. That patch is now very clean of weeds and is an ideal, unexpected, candidate for a spring sown cover plant selection

Strawberry plants will be arriving today and I will get them into the ground asap

Japanese knotweed, what a nightmare. A friend had a load of soil delivered into her west Wales cottage garden. Loads of knotweed came up

No more arums have popped up, the plot as a whole is very organised now and is an easy walk-around.

I found www.rachel-the-gardener-blogspot.com/2017/03/how-to-remove-arum-lilies.html

which might be of interest to you. Re a tool I find useful for plants with longer roots = I've got one of those two-pronged long-handled dandelion weeder tools and that certainly works quite well on dandelions and I use it on other plants too.

At least it's not Japanese Knotweed I guess or bamboo. Where I've moved from I was on the lookout for JK (as it's edible) and I never ever found any. Here (small West Wales town) on the other hand I've spotted several small patches of it (as well as the couple of bigger ones I know of) and promptly told the person owning that land (ie person living in the house concerned - if it was a garden for instance), with the confident expectation they'd say "Oh NO! Thank you so much for telling me and I'll get right onto it" and every single time their reaction was inappropriate and shocking of "Oh......oh.....#shrugs.....oh well......". I was gobsmacked at getting such inappropriate reactions from them and thought "No wonder this area has a problem with it - all these characters reacting inappropriately to it".

Charles Dowding calendar came yesterday, it is brilliant

A quick plot visit yesterday and more bocking 14 planted, that is 26 so far, including 3 root cutting which I marked with sticks as there is no sign of baby roots. The other 18 are looking very healthy and green with silky white roots

9 strawberry plants ordered, 3 varieties in 9 cm pots. I will make 3 rows in a 1m raised bed and plant borage and marigold in the bed behind. I ordered 33 marigold plugs too

The sunny weather right now is ideal for surface hoeing of weeds, the tiny weeds died. overnight Next visit, I will be inspecting the asparagus bed, it might need hoeing before re-covering. Planting first week in april. I bought 50 excellent canes from elixir gardens, I am very pleased, have had rubbish canes in the past from ebay sellers, am storing those in my garage. One tall cane in each asparagus position this year. Tall stronger support and wire will go all around the raised bed to support the ferns, the site is windy.

I slept on it Cariad and have decided similar. I went to the plot today and spotted just one small arum leaf in a different place and that came out with its corm. I will never be able to get down to the whole tuber of the mature plant, nor the pieces of tuber so I will `starve` it to death, keep chopping it down to the ground. Covering with thick feed fabric and deep bark chips had no affect, it still shot up and made a hole in the fabric

I did find an arum tuber once, it was very big so there is a large amount of food to keep the plants in survival mode for years

Luckily my plot is now very ordered ie covered 6" raised beds and the paths are weed fabric topped with lots of bark. I will be able to see the young arum leaves, which also look like spinach or sorrel and are very poisonous

I planted 15 bocking 14 today, they are so beautiful in flower and I will never worry about them going to seed. They are permanent. Those two beds will be easy to manage

I took my chillington hoe to 4 beds today, chopping up surface soil. I do now think that the bed I was speaking about will be ok for me to sow a green manure mix in march, it is 60% rye, 30% vetch and 10% mustard. I think I will be able to terminate that crop by june or july and then plant overwintering leeks. Manure mix from growseed

I examined the parsnip bed too, have not added any manure to that, it is generally an old bed but the soil below is clay and wet. I will get forked parsnips but they will help dig into the clay so I am sticking with my plan. The parsnips forking does not bother me. It took me a long time to dig out another invasive weed from that bed, red sorrel and that bed had weed fabric on it too

Your marestail would have given me the heebie jeebies

I am going to plant crown prince squashes through the thick plastic over the old fruit cage area. I need to keep that plastic down for another year to smother the bindweed

All in all, I feel very satisfied. Oh yes the wild garlic is settled amongst the autumn bliss raspberries at home. They were well grown plants

I'm also remembering when a bit of marestail unexpectedly started growing in my garden - eek! Goodness knows how it got there - and I assume I'd unknowingly got a bit onto the sole of my footwear whilst out walking and trekked it into my garden.

It's a bit of garden where I have paving stones and it had started to grow up between a couple of them. So I employed similar tactics there. That time - I got out a pair of nail scissors and trimmed it right down to the ground (so that I could literally only see the tiniest bit of green dot so to say). Then threw boiling hot water over it for a couple of good drenchings and then covered it up with loose bits of those paving stones for some weeks (so that sunlight couldnt get at it to help it grow). I repeated that once or twice and it did the trick.

Another time I'd had a stretch of the garden soil here replaced - all the old out and lorryload of new soil brought in. Duh - the bl**dy guy who sold me this hadnt checked his source of supply properly! So I found an absolute crop of one particular weed (cant remember the name of it now) coming up all down it that I've never had anywhere else in my garden. I also did the cover-up technique there and put a load of that garden fabric stuff all along that stretch and then shovelled a 1' or so depth of my new soil over the top of it and a few inches of bark chippings and planted some of the food plants I wanted in it and waited it out. A couple of years later I took off that 1' or so of soil piled on top and ripped out/chucked out that garden fabric, put the soil back down on it and then a thick layer of bark chippings and I reckon the mis-sold seedy bit of soil had been covered up for so long that it killed off the seeds of that weed and it's not turned up since.

Would it help if you absolutely drenched those unwanted plants and then covered them up with something heavy-duty (eg black plastic)? A couple more of my mistakes were planting a shrub and a couple of other rampant type plants - and I don't have that much physical strength to deal with things either. So I chopped off what I could of the surface growth, then "drenched like mad and covered up" and removed the coverings temporarily to "drench" some more. It seemed to help somewhat.

The idea was to get them rotting away - after all, I gather, that's one natural type way to removed tree stumps I gather. So I thought it was worth a go....

It was not one of those optimistic days today, in spite of the lovely sunshine. I am starting to discover the real state of the plot

I got my plot on november 2nd and spent on average 5 hours a day, just clearing and digging out enormous roots and trees. I never noticed the time go by but suddenly I would be tired and went home

Now my plot looks cleared, I still have basic clearing but plastic will hold that back. I went on my bike today, full of the joys of spring. Lo and behold I saw weeds poking up through weed fabric. They are very poisonous arum maculatum, lords and ladies and are very invasive with tubers that will keep on growing. The tubers are very very deep and impossible to remove.

All I can do is to keep taking the shoots off to weaken the tubers. I must say that was disheartening as was the state of the `soil` under the weed fabric. Cold, very wet, claggy and dozens of sprouting weeds

I am hoping I won`t find more nasty surprises in other beds and coming up through paths

I am changing plans on what to grow in that particular bed. It will need to be a good green manure ie caliente mustard. I will be able to keep that under control ie cut to terminate and turn it into the soil. I will also need to think of a weed-suppressing cover crop for winter. Sigh

I am deciding to work on 2 loose rotations in a few beds this year

1 Caliente mustard ( march) followed by leeks
2 brassicas followed by legumes (field beans this autumn)

Next year it will be 2 beds in each rotation

ie brassicas to legumes to brassicas to legumes

and leeks to potatoes to leeks

I want to incorporate cover crops in as many beds as possible in a year. Generally I have always used phacelia and then covered for winter but will be experimenting with grazing rye on the present allium bed, which is an old bed, had rotten wooden sides. I will be needing to add a new bed before sowing with rye to enable path spacing, will then transfer the same soil and cover with mesh as it will be tempting to birds

I bought myself a new set of shears, gave my old ones away with last allotment. These are sharp lightweight shears and I bought a sharp sickle. The strimmer would send the rye leaves all over the surrounding bark paths

I have ordered a roll of 35g fleece 1.6 m wide. I want to cover eg parsnip seeds to keep moisture in the soil and stop them flying away

All the used compost will go onto the beds when the buckets are emptied

I have underfloor heating downstairs, am going to put `the sutton` trays on the floor as they will go out into a mini greenhouse as soon as they are sprouted. They are good in cold

Seed sowing going on at my house. No greenhouse so I am doing it all very tidily indoors. Yesterday, marigolds and I soaked `the sutton` last night, just 24 seeds which is a double row of 12 and big enough for me. My propagator is half full already, just at 18 degrees. I have bought a timer switch and will turn the grow lights on as soon as seedlings emerge

Its like twilight time, got to do the seed preps but the weather is not inspiring but it is all too easy to miss the boat

I need to buy 8 bags of a multi-purpose compost to mix with my compost for the potato buckets. I will leave the bags on the allotment until I get to the safe frost date. Also a bag of westland john innes seed compost. I am liking westland compost and having seen rocketgro reviews, will not be touching that stuff

karmalady

That made me smile Cariad.

My mind is becoming boggled, My green manures came and most are for sowing to overwinter, apart from caliente mustard phacelia and a spring mix (legume). I have no idea what has been in the soil I have re-used as the plot was thoroughly neglected. No idea if there was white rot etc so am going to go softly softly this year

The caliente will cleanse the soil and I will be sowing alliums after that. That is one bed sorted. The legumes are relatively easy as their rotation is not so crucial, however september is the time for field beans or a mix so I can sow other beans before

Another bed can take beetroot and fordhook chard, both are quite neutral

I bunged a mix of alliums in an existing wooden bed, now partly dismantled. Grazing rye will go into that soil

Argh, I keep buying seeds, greyhound cabbage, guardsman spring onion, more leekes etc I wish I could sit on my hands

We have a wonderful day here called Seedy Sunday where we have seed exchanges and lots of talks about gardening. It hardly costs anything and there is masses of information from seasoned gardeners...

Have a look at Selections.com based in Milton Abbas. They do metal raised beds amongst other items usually at reduced prices. We got ours from there and also liners and a plastic cover for winter months if you are not growing in them. They also do wooden ones but I think there will always be a problem with them in wet ground. I have had lots of bargains from them and their service is good.

karmalady

That reminds me when I bought tall raised beds from harrods horticultural. They were smart and for the back garden. I filled them with the usual stuff and they were good for apple trees, then one day I saw honey fungus and yes they were rotting. Seven years is all it takes, I did use preservative but soil was in contact with wood

I theenk that might have been where I got my wooden beds from - duh! They weren't cheap then either were they? I put mine down directly onto the soil too (again - no-one had said "Don't do that").

You don't want to know the price I've paid for my metal ones now - and I haven't got them on the soil and am using them to hide part of the tarmac and paving part of my garden now.

Cariad I warned dh not to plant horseradish in the vegetable garden where the best soil is, as I know how invasive it is growing wild on verge sides. Did he listen? Of course not and now he is not supposed to dig it is muggins who is constantly digging it up every year.

That reminds me when I bought tall raised beds from harrods horticultural. They were smart and for the back garden. I filled them with the usual stuff and they were good for apple trees, then one day I saw honey fungus and yes they were rotting. Seven years is all it takes, I did use preservative but soil was in contact with wood

You've just reminded me of another mistake I made - I believed a firm that sold wooden raised beds and there was a 10 year guarantee (if I recall aright). Errrrm....they didn't last anything remotely like 10 years before they started rotting. Nope it's not a thing anyone would know that they expect you to treat said wooden beds at intervals - so how would I know, given that they didnt say so? Perhaps I should have got onto them and said "You said 10 years", "You did NOT say use preservative at intervals on them".

I've now got metal raised beds instead....

That made me smile Cariad.

My mind is becoming boggled, My green manures came and most are for sowing to overwinter, apart from caliente mustard phacelia and a spring mix (legume). I have no idea what has been in the soil I have re-used as the plot was thoroughly neglected. No idea if there was white rot etc so am going to go softly softly this year

The caliente will cleanse the soil and I will be sowing alliums after that. That is one bed sorted. The legumes are relatively easy as their rotation is not so crucial, however september is the time for field beans or a mix so I can sow other beans before

Another bed can take beetroot and fordhook chard, both are quite neutral

I bunged a mix of alliums in an existing wooden bed, now partly dismantled. Grazing rye will go into that soil

Argh, I keep buying seeds, greyhound cabbage, guardsman spring onion, more leekes etc I wish I could sit on my hands

..and I'd add that it's all a learning experience.

Yep.....for sure. Errrm....guess who won't be planting horseradish ever again for instance. Planted 2 horseradish in a raised bed and a couple of years later had to replace all the soil in it - as it was absolutely riddled with it. Bought 2 toona sinensis trees - and both of them gave up the ghost on me (well at least the blessing there was I'd planted them in HUGE pots - so they didnt land up spreading). Cue for yet more fruit trees replacing them. A garden has gotta have trees imo and they're all mini fruit trees (though no-one has told a cherry tree of mine it's supposed to be a miniature - cranes neck to look up at it....).

The list of mistakes goes on.....

I think you did it the right way round katmalady, doing the hard physical work in the winter months gets you off to a very good start. I don’t have an allotment, but do have a big garden, and over the last few years I’ve learned the lesson of not just being a fair weather gardener. Once things start growing it’s virtually impossible to keep up with the weeding on top of planting, tidying and harvesting if you haven’t done the groundwork.

Jane Judge, do that application, you can always say no when the time comes. Not forgetting that an allotment is a green gym and keeps us on the natural seasonal cycle

I met someone once who had been given a plot. She was disillusioned, from the SE and came to Somerset. She said how she imagined it was a bit of hoeing and sitting drinking tea with friends. She got over that and has worked hard, her mental and physical well-being are beneficiaries

People do get disillusioned when the sheer amount of hard work plus cost become realisation

My green manure seeds should be arriving very soon, I cannot wait to get some beds filled with cover crops. I am going to start field beans at home, to get off to a quick start. I have lots of root trainers from the old days

I did my seed sorting last night and will need to keep my propagator in a spare bedroom. Tomato sowing today, they will be for home, not allotment ie halo on top of a bucket half full of a compost mix. I now have 15 strong 30 litre black buckets, I will need 11 for my potatoes, which I will keep at the allotment

I will be buying rocketgro for the first time this year, produced in somerset. I put old compost in each of my 3 compost bins, for stability and using that to mix with rocketgro will do fine for the buckets. In the meantime I need to hammer metal supports behind the bins, on the north side. The wind will take them if I don`t weight them down. I bought garantia thermo king 3 x 400 litre bins. as soon as I got the plot. I see a lot of rotted `bins` made from old pallets, not for me. I want easy non-rotting structures

I never intended to grow strawberries but will be growing a few on the plot on half a 1m sq bed, backed with borage. I have 50 ever bearers at home, in troughs but ground based, full sized plants will be better and I can cover with loose laid mesh. The borage will be buzzing with bees and easily self-seeds

My plan for the difficult remaining area is cardboard and ground mulch, I will need to spend money but time is not on my side. I will have plenty of mulch next year and a huge amount of mulch and compost from 2027.

I had half a bin of black gold from one of my small, at-home hotbins. Lots of worms in it, the comfrey is a fine addition to compost, heats up very fast. I have been shredding paper, added some to each home hotbin plus a bit of composted bark. I should be getting a first cut of comfrey in a matter of weeks, from the established home-bed and will fill up that empty bin as soon as possible

BTW I have never needed to grub up any bocking 14 comfrey in 15 years, it is all about planning carefully wrt planting positions. Forward thinking

This sounds brilliant

I think I'm going to apply for a plot. You've convinced me. I have a greenhouse but not the space for much more as the dog needs the little grass we have. I am however, covering my front lawn with clover instead. It's infested in chafer grubs and seems pointless to have it if clover will thrive.

Remember when improving soil quality it is best to plant legumes as they have a long, deep root system and add nitrates direct to the soil

midgey

Be very wary of comfrey! I remember my mother having to use the lawn mower to try and control the stuff!

Yes, I agree - only grow comfrey in large tubs, never directly in the ground unless you want to be spending a lot of time grubbing it up for ever. The damnable stuff is more than persistent and adds a whole new meaning to the word "perennial"!
I burned mine off eventually, over the course of 3 years. I put in stinging nettles instead (to use for fertiliser - same soaking method as for comfrey) which had the added benefit of being loved by insects.

karmalady bluetits make short work of sawflies. They feed them to their young.

A member of my group allotment has been offered 5 bags of goat manure and has just messaged to ask if she should accept it.

YES PLEASE!!

It’s very good for brassicas and as I’ve spent the last two years trying to improve the soil on our plot (making bio-char attracted a great deal of interest,) I look forward to seeing the results after it has continued rotting down in bags behind the shed.

My small conservatory always doubles up as a greenhouse at this time of the year as my two little plastic lean to ones are still too cold.

Warmer weather is forecasted! ☀️🌞🤞🤞