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The spring has been very kind so far. Two weeks ago we had a useful bit of rain that helped wash the newly planted Brussels sprouts plants into the ground. Before that we had some dry weather that provided an opportunity to wipe out weeds and sow more seeds. When the rains came, the seeds, especially...
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Recent dry, sunny weather allowed the slugs and the first wave of weeds to be tackled. Subsequent rain restored soil moisture leading to ideal seed bed conditions. The downside was that weeds germinated in hundreds, but just in time the weather turned dry and vigorous raking again polished then off....
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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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With record numbers of enquiries to the RHS gardening advisers about weedkiller damage to potatoes that often appear to be linked to manure contaminated with the pasture weedkiller aminopyralid , my heart has been in my mouth that I too might have bought dodgy muck. But so far so good – all looks well...
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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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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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