New Years Eve Visit

With the weather being mild before the storm today I had another longish session on the allotment. As usual the Last of the Summer Wine mob were all there (John, Wally and myself) we all arrived just after each other and 10ish we all left more or less together at 12:30.

I had my Ryobi circular saw with me and cut up the rotting timber from the bed frame I lifted to put in the two raised beds next to the asparagus bed. I used this timber to line the inside of the bottom frame of the current raised bed to act as sacrificial timber and hopefully give the new scaffolding board frame work a little more life.

he woodchip laid yesterday was pulled into the middle of the bed and the timbers inserted. The woodchip leveled and compacted with the rake.

I then covered the compacted woodchip with cardboard and two more barrow loads of woodchip added and leveled off.

Second Barrow load of woodchip to be added to the bed.

Levelled off and compacted with the rake as a pounder. Next Job to make the framework up for the next level to be added, and then the soil and compost filled in the second level

I found a layer of path worthy woodchip and started to fill the path to the last Raspberry bed. The ends have been left as I need to excavate and remove the bindweed roots before proceeding with laying new woodchip paths.

The path on the right needs to be excavated and weeded and then once more path worthy woodchip found in the pile or delivered replaced

My robin came and sat on the picnic table and was eating the seed and I was pouring the seed into it. He is getting so tame, the next step is to have him eat off my hand.

Working On The Raised Bed

A good long session on the allotment today. My robin came into the potting shed again to tell me he had run out of seed and to fill up his picnic table. I'm having to shut the door when not in there just encase he accidently get locked in there.

Clearance of weeds around beds. Extracting good soil from the next raised bed to be constructed, and filling the hole with cut branches and raspberry canes then a layer of well weathered woodchip.

He then flew into the potting shed and into the bench next to me and I said " OK I will fill up your picnic fable"

Which I did and he came and fed in front of me

I took the plastic trays off the raised bed and excavated the spoil heap around 5 buckets of soil

hen filled the hole with cut branches

Better view of the excavated hole. I ran out of flower buckets to fill up and it was about 3 hours in and I had basically had excavated all I could for the moment.

Added cut Raspberry canes on the top of the tree branches.

Then a barrow load of mulch quality woodchip went on top of the tree branches 

I will let the woodchip weather and wash into the gaps between the raspberry canes for a few days then cardboard the bottom and fill the bottom of the raised beds with rotting timber and more branches and woodchip, then make the second frame and fill with excavated soil and the risings from the four year old paths between the raspberry beds.

Bindweed Blues

I removed the roofing battens from the bed and found that the mass of bindweed roots had got out of the bed and into the woodchip under the path. Bending double to get this stuff out is exhausting, so I found  other areas I could tidy without as much bending. 

I'm getting a bit of the Bindweed blues so next visit I'm going to focus on the next raised bed and come back to the bindweed in the raspberry bed and surround paths. once I have the raised bed completed.  

I unscrewed the timber edging to the bed I have removed to put in the raised beds and this timber will be ripped up and put in the bottom level of the raised bed as a packer and sacrificial timber 

This timber will also be cut and installed as a filler to the bottom of the raised bed 

Slugs & Snails

Tackling slugs and snails seems to be a multifaceted approach, you just need to find out what works best for your plot.

People have tried the following:-

Strulch

Mulching

Beer traps

Nighttime removal of said pests

Wool matting / pellets

Sacrificial planting (lettuce, brassica babies)

Eco / wildlife friendly slug pellets

Crushed egg shells

Copper tape / wire

Diatomaceous earth

Prickly / brambles fencing

Removing hiding places

Adding a hiding place you can control

Slug nematodes

Garlic spray

Coffee grounds

Combining a few of them should give you a fighting chance! The bigger the barrier(s) the more likely they will look elsewhere!

Good luck! And let me know your winning combinations 

In My Seed Box For 2025 - Sweetcorn

 

My daughter Kelly declared early on in my ownership of an allotment that all sweetcorn grown was hers. Historically we have had some great harvests and the two types of corn that I have grown between 2013 - 2019 have been Swift and Lark F1. 2017 was extremely disappointing but it would appear that most people in the UK had a bad year with their Sweetcorn. 

In 2019 Marshalls sent me two different varieties to trial which were Alliance F1 and Tyson F1 again due to the leg injury I didn't get the infrastructure in to trial both varieties in 2019. 

The results with Marshalls Alliance F1 Hybrid Sweetcorn were nothing more than spectacular (see photos of harvest here) and I have to say they were the best Sweetcorn that I have grown to date, Tyson F1 grown in 2021 were good but not as good as Alliance. 

In 2022 I attempted to grow Marshalls Moonshine F1 - 50 Seeds - £2.99 - packed year ending 03/21 and best before date 09/2022 The germination rate was less that 40% and what did finally grow got hit by the rats with fluffy tails that run along the top of the wall that's built on my plot boundary.

A second planting of Sweetcorn Picasso F1  - 35 Seeds - a New Variety to Mr Fothergill's in 2022 was tried, the germination rate was poor and then the rats with fluffy tails hit regardless of the pop bottles I had placed over the corns and I ended up with only 8 corns that were viable. Worst year for sweetcorn ever. 

In 2023 I tried growing Sweet Corn Illusion F1 - 25 Seeds - a new variety from Dobies & Sweet Corn Eden F1 - Suttons Germination rates were down, but once again the rats with fluffy tails just beat us to some of the sweetcorn and our harvests were as good as in previous years.

I still have Sweet Corn Pot Of Gold F1 - Suttons - 20 Seeds - Cost £4.99 - Item Code 10 02 99 - that was Packed year ending 2023 and has a Sow By 2026 date. 

A 21 hole planting sheet would be ideal if there is 100% germination, 18 hole works for a 90% germination rate.

I have been sent a new variety of sweetcorn from Suttons Seeds who have added the variety to its catalogue for 2025 called Sweet Start F1 - Average Pack 30 Seeds - 3.99  

Depending on the germination rate I can use 2 number 18 hole planting membrane sheets in two beds or one 24 sheet membrane in a single bed, if a germination rate of 80% achieved . 

Marshalls have kindly sent me a pack of their Mira Picnic F1 Sweetcorn seeds that are new for 2025 with a RRP of £3.99 for 20 seeds. 

Sow March to May and Harvest August to September. Succulent and sweet, it can be eaten raw as a tasty snack! Medium-sized cobs packed with supersweet kernels, great for the barbecue. Early-maturing variety. 

 

Planting Membrane for Sweetcorn 

I have 3 different planting membranes that can be used for sweet corn they are 18, 21 & 24 holes and look like this 

In My Seed Box for 2025 - Index

Boxing Day Visit

Vegetable peelings from the family Christmas and Boxing Day Roast dinners for the Hotbin Worms to consume. 

Starbucks coffee grounds placed in foil tins and coffee pucks cut up with the paving knife and placed on the bench in the potting shed to dry out. These will be used on the next beds to be weeded and mulched. 

Full postal address with post code added to the notice board encase the need to call and ambulance to someone on the allotment or the need to get compost of anything delivered by our new or existing plot holders.

My Robin came out to see me as I walked onto the plot so I filled his hanging picnic table with more seed.  

Kings 15% Of Seeds Boxing Day Sale

 

BOXING DAY SALE, NOW ON! Valid for 24 hours only.

Enter code 𝐁𝐎𝐗𝐈𝐍𝐆𝟏𝟓 at checkout, to get 15% off seeds, excluding collections.

**𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 9𝑎𝑚 𝑜𝑛 26.12.24 - 9𝑎𝑚 𝑜𝑛 27.12.24, 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑤𝑤.𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑠.𝑐𝑜𝑚 **

A Great Family Christmas Day

 

Merry Christmas

 

Christmas Eve Visit

A Christmas Eve visit and it's a little warmer than it has been in the last week and another bash at getting the bindweed out of the last red raspberry bed.

I would be so knackered without the long handled fork and trowel from Kent & Stowe. As I can't get down on my hands and knees anymore and have to just bend down and with the arthritis in my hands it's taking me ages to get as much bindweed out of this bed as I possibly can, before I mulch it. You can see in the photo I have half filled the green tug with bindweed roots, and only one half of the bed has been worked so far.

After a while I reverted to getting the rotting woodchip off the membrane path and topped up the second square flower bucket and nearly filled the third one.

Then after standing for way too long I got the seat out and sat there happily cutting up the raspberry canes, and just enjoying watching my little red breasted friend looking for things to eat where I had been working.

My Robin is getting way too tame and pops into my potting shed to let me know he wants feeding even after I was providing him with worms from the path.

I would be so lost without these

long handled fork and trowel tools from Kent & Stowe

Making Slow Headway

View from the potting shed of plot 1. 

Another cold visit to the allotment to work on the de-bindweeding of the last Red Raspberry Bed. Removal of Raspberry canes that came up in the Adjacent Asparagus bed last year.

Cleaning up of the surrounding paths, including the removal of the very rotted down wood chip path leaving the underlying weed membrane exposed ready to refill with path quality wood chip, that I have found at the bottom of the pile in the car park.

Wide Asparagus bed to the left, last Red Raspberry bed on the middle and the last mulched raspberry bed on the right.
Started to remove the weathered and rotted woodchip between the two raspberry beds

View looking down the plot at the Asparagus bed that needs the woodchip margin to the path slabs weeding and woodchip removing and relaying.

Raspberry canes stacked on the Rhubarb bed that need to be cut up at some stage when I start clearing the bindweed roots to the left paths and around the Rhubarb.

Green Tug fill of bindweed roots, Blue Tug filled with cut Raspberry canes. Weed Membrane as good as the day it was laid some four years ago.

Weed membrane makes removing the old weathered and rotted woodchip easy to lift and place in the Square Flower Bucket, ready to be added to a bed or go into a composting Dalek as browns. There are those that advocate magic cardboard but I have proved that is gone after a year and contributes little in the way of assistance in holding back weeds after that year. 

Started to clear of rotted woodchip off the weed membrane, one can see how the bindweed has traveled in the woodchip paths above the membrane.

It looks like the slabs along the ends of the Raspberry beds need lifting, the existing woodchip weeding and removing and new woodchip placed under the slabs.

Lots of worms found in the woodchip path, and my robin took advantage of what I was doing

Still Battling The Raspberry Bed Bindweed

A very chilly morning with high winds but unexpectedly dry! I didn't think today would be an allotment visiting day, but washed dressed and out at 9:30 for a couple of hours on the plot with my Robin, once again working on clearing the last red raspberry bed of canes and ultimately the Bindweed.

Photo above at end of play for the day. There is Bindweed to dig out but essentially the bulk of the bindweed that was wound around the inside of the framing to the bed has been removed. Only John and I on the allotment this morning working and Adam came with kitchen waste to drop off in his compost bin.

I need to fix a corner of the framing as the timber has twisted and pulled apart, and then remove the vertical roof battens from the corners of the bed framing.

Only the old and the hardy come and work their allotments when its this bleeding cold.

Two tugs on the adjacent bed one for the cut raspberry canes and the other that got filled with the bindweed

Then off to meet Kelly at Emma & Andy's for a Digby Hug and some lunch.

Marshalls New Vegetable Seeds For 2025

If you look on the Marshalls Web Site at the moment the New Vegetable Seeds that are showing are those for 2024. The 2025 edition V of the Little Book of Seeds show a few varieties that are being introduced in 2025

There are however more new varieties than those highlighted on pages 4 & 5. 

Below is a list of all of the new varieties of vegetables for your consideration, that I have found flicking through the 2025 catalogue with page number, code & product Description. 

Personally I love to trial new varieties as they are released, and it's one of the things I do when I get any new catalogue, is to seek out the new varieties that have been added each year. 

10   10303023   Broadbean Duet

11   10303022   Haricot Bean Golden Gate

12   10303021   Dwarf French Bean Martini

24   10303014   Spring Green Winter Jewel

37   10202228   Gherkin Partner

39   10202994   Basil Everleaf Emerald Towers

29   10203009   Sorrel – Red Veined

43   10303017   Lettuce Adelita II (baby Leaf)

43   10303016   Lettuce Crispita II (baby Leaf)

48   10203003   Onion White Star

48   10203000   Onion Walla Walla

59   10303018   Chilli Peppers Havana Gold

61   10303024   Pumpkin Fireball

61   10303029   Pumpkin Lil Pump Ke Mon

61   10303012   Mini Pumpkin Mix

63   10303015   Spinach Nevada

64   10203008   Squash Bush Delicata

70   10203001   Bush Tomato Orangeto

73   10202995   Plum Tomato Black Moon

73   10303019   Plum Tomato Pink Tiger

74   10203010   Salad Tomato O’ Happy Day

75   10303011   Beefsteak Tomato Buffalo Steak

93   10806057   Asparagus Bacchus 5 crowns

93   10806056   Asparagus Bacchus 10 crowns

93   10806050   Asparagus Javelin 5 crowns

93   10806049   Asparagus Javelin 10 crowns

93   10804048   Asparagus Erasmus 5 crowns

93   19006052   Asparagus Erasmus 10 crowns

Winter Solstice 2024

Today is the Winter solstice 2024 in Northern Hemisphere including the UK and will be at 15:56 GMT, from today we will see our days become longer as we have more extended periods of daylight, which is a good thing as I hate the dark mornings and evenings of Winter.

The solstice also marks the first day of Winter, of course, and as well as becoming longer, temperatures will also start to drop. They are already warning of snow during Christmas week in the UK. 

Now is the time that a lot of Allotment holders look forward to the Spring we are looking at seed catalogues we have and those that will come just after Christmas, planning what they are going to do and grow on their allotments. Me I've been planning that since the start of Autumn and I still have a way to go and some decisions to make, especially re a possible polytunnel or more smaller raised beds.

Updating Notice Board & Last Red Raspberry Bed

2C overnight and ice on the cars this morning rising to 5C.

The ice melted with the sun on the car for a little while, so I decided to pop down for a swift visit to put the guidance re the expectations of New Tenants added to the top row of the notice board along with the an updated notice re using the Drop Off & Pick Up area / car park

Bottom row information re the new tougher Inspection process and the different types of notices being served for 2025. 

All plot holders now know what to expect in 2025.

Then I spent just over an hour cutting back the Raspberry Canes and getting it ready to start pulling out all the bindweed roots that have been traveling round and round the framed bed.

I still need to sort out the bindweed and canes on the path behind the bed, but the next few visits should see the bed finally weeded and mulched. Then I can deal with the paths between the Raspberry beds.

View of the last Raspberry bed to be weeded and mulched ready for 2025. The roofing battens need to be unscrewed from this bed.