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At last allotment work is easing off and the plot is mostly up to date. I have to say I am relieved – it has been a bit hectic harvesting and replanting at the same time. With only six weeks or so of growing weather left, plants must not run short of nutrients. However everything looks mighty lush and...
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The very best land, much in demand by commercial growers of vegetables, fruit and salads, is sometimes called ‘double cropping’ land because it is supposed to grow two crops a year. Allotments are very seldom to be found on double-cropping land; they are almost always on land no one else wants. However...
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Planting-out is nearly done with celery, celeriac and tomatoes going out last night. This followed planting of summer and early autumn cabbages, cauliflowers and calabrese as an intercrop in between where the winter cabbages, sprouting broccoli and kales will be planted at the end of the month. The cool...
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Heavy rain has restored the allotment soil to full moisture. Winkling out spent winter crops revealed bone-dry powdery sand beneath, so it is certain that flowering broad beans and peas were suffering and would set fewer pods and potatoes would not initiate their full cropping potential. All that has...
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Will I have to water, won’t I have to water? Rain so far has usefully wetted the ground, but more is forecast and with luck it will top up the soil at just the right moment as seeds are emerging, lettuces hearting up, spuds initiating their tubers and peas and beans are in full flower. Enough rain now...
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Colder weather has led to nasty little ground frosts that have nipped the spuds. Only the ‘Charlotte’ has been badly affected, where about half the plants are unlikely to come to anything now. The others should all recover soon. Perversely, salads begin to mature when the weather turns chilly with the...
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At last the tide has turned and I can now sow at will in good weather and with warm moist soils – perfect. Carrots for winter harvest were sown this weekend. For rotational reasons they are not grown on my raised beds this year but in open ground. This sandy soil is ideal for carrots, but it is also...
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Wind and sun on Saturday dried the soil out just enough to work and make a seedbed for the peas and broad beans. Legumes are a very important crop for me – they are the best early summer veg and fill the freezer as well. The main sowing is made now as the earlier the sowing the heavier the crop. March...
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