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After three weeks of sowing a wide range of things at home in the raised beds, hardly anything had germinated – apart from two poor rows of radish! So I decided to delve deeper and see if there was a bigger problem than just the cold weather. And I’m glad I did. Two things became apparent. The soil had...
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Well hopefully. Although I've got to say it's a slow start to the year - probably not warm enough for seeds to germinate properly and, as a result, not much is showing in the veg plot at home. Of all the things I've sown so far only the radish and broad beans are doing anything. How's...
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Very busy times in the garden now and the warm and dry weather has meant great progress in the new kitchen garden. Most of the soil preparation is complete, to the relief of all the gardeners involved (some were beginning to get overload - see picture), with the mushroom compost, manure, composted bark...
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Having had a prolonged veg-free start to the year - I blame the weather and too many other things to do - I've finally managed to getthings started in the veg garden. I know it sounds like an excuse, but last year we started too early, everything grew too much before the weather was right for planting...
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The snow has gone at last, thank goodness, so work continues apace on the raised bed building in the new productive area. Once beds are drilled and screwed together, the fun bit of lining them up on the ground to fit the design begins - not always as straightforward as it sounds, especially on a site...
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Well, actually, it's the end of a lot of bad things! I've started clearing out the greenhouse and beds of all the summer crops and consigning the plants to the compost heap - and boy the compost heap's getting big. Although there are still a few peppers and chillies in the greenhouse I've...
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Right! This is getting silly! I know each year in the garden is different – but I just wish they were different in a good way. Two years ago we were over-run with tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and aubergines and the freezer was swollen with ratatouille. Last year was the ‘blight year’ and tomatoes and...
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Spent the early part of the week repairing damage from Sunday's gales and heavy rain - propping up the broad beans, tying escaping peas back in, staking battered cut flowers. Last week's blog about plant supports turned out to be uncannily appropriate... We have been regularly harvesting lettuce...
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Despite some other commitments this weekend, I've managed to catch up with my backlog of veg jobs. I picked the last crop from the broad beans that had been inhabiting the growing frame at home (that's where they were overwintered) and then cut down and pulled up the plants - stripping off all...
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Planting out French beans on the 3x3 plot today in a fairly strong wind on our open site brought home forcibly the need for good, strong supporting frames for climbing veg to grow over. The beans - a type of borlotti bean to supply beautiful red-splashed pods for eating as well as beans for drying -...
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My itchy fingers from last Friday were well and truly scratched over the weekend - I had a good catch up at home and at the allotment. My main bug bear was the number of tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, cucumbers and squashes that needed to be potted up into their final growing pots. So, armed with a trusty...
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Boy, how they're itching! Last weekend I spent absolutely nil time in the garden and there is lots that needs doing. The recent lot of rain hasn't helped - poor light levels have drawn everything up, only for the weather to bash it down again. My non-gardening sins of last weekend were due to...
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Yet another forecast for a mixed bag of weather meant that this weekend I needed to get cracking early – just in case, just in case things turned really nasty and put the kybosh on my plans. As a result I was out in the garden by 8o’clock on both days. The weather wasn’t as bad as I’d expected – Saturday...
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Because we’ve been away the last couple of weekends and haven’t managed to spend much time on the garden or on the allotment, jobs were beginning to pile up – and both my girlfriend Clare and I were beginning to get just a tad twitchy about the situation. So this weekend we were going to get on with...
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