Showing posts with label westland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label westland. Show all posts

Saturday, 6 April 2024

Getting The Onion Sets In


The aim today was to go the allotment in the morning, find as many of the 105 hole planting membrane sheets as possible, plant the Blue Suede Blueberry (Vaccinium) plant, come home for lunch and then return in the afternoon with Emma to plant as many beds of onions as we could. 

Ericaceous compost used for Blueberries, tamped down into a square flower bucket with drainage holes made with a soldering iron 10mm up from the bottom so it can hold water at depth. 

I used a pot the same size to form the perfect hole in the compost for the plant to be placed in. 


Plant firmed in then a covering of more Ericaceous compost. I have 3 more blueberries ordered and they will be going behind the climbing frame greenhouse.


Emma and I got the first two beds of Onions in before the rain started this afternoon, Strawberries Covered with debris netting, this morning Blueberry plant potted up, and rubbish taken to the skip.

Thanks to Wally for his assistance this morning getting the old rusty incinerator with a broken chimney and no bottom anymore and all the contents into the skip, in the drop off and pick up area. (aka the Car Park)


Beds 4 5 & 6 had been ear marked for the onion sets, however two Daleks were placed on bed 5 last year and both were filled to the very top as the vegetation of the allotment was stripped back.


Photo of Beds 5 last year. These two Dalek were continually topped up with greens and browns including coffee grounds and comfrey and were topped off with shredded paper.

Note to self

Always top of with greens as the the very final layer had not completely decomposed but both bins are now only half full showing that nature has done it's magic and I have some nice compost to extract from these bins to be used on the potatoes in buckets this year.

As a result of Bed 5 still having the Daleks on, an alteration to the plan in that beds 11 to 14 will now be Onion Sets and the brassicas planned for those beds will now go into beds 4 to 6 and possibly 7.


With the change in plan Beds 14 & 13 both now have 105 Red Baron Sets in each bed and I need to clear bed 12 ready to get another beds with in, plus I need to make two more 105 hole Planting Membrane sheets.


The beds in the greenhouse climbing frame need weeding and the return bed needs completing before the need to plant in there is with us so that's a job on my to do list. The mesh panel was put in place as Mr Fox had been in there and dug in the bed.


The area behind the greenhouse climbing frame needs to be cleared of weeds and a floor of woodchips needs to go in as that will be where the Blueberries will go so that I can net it to keep the birds off them.

Wally took the Rhubarb from the bed that I have now planted strawberries in and have put some netting over to keep the squirrels out off because last year they ate and dug up my plants.

Sunday, 25 June 2023

Morning Raid


Daughter Emma did an early morning weeding raid on my allotment for me and weeded around the paths and the square foot garden beds again this morning bless her. She did help herself to some raspberries for breakfast.


Urban Jungle at home


Tomatoes at home in Flower Buckets

I got the excess tomatoes brought back from the allotment into flower buckets and the urban jungle in the back garden whilst it was in the shade this morning.

Visited the allotment plot between 6:00 - 7:30pm to water inside and out and whilst there took a series of photos of the Westland Horticulture V Dalefoot Composts tomatoes and I have to say with two of the Dalefoot Compost tomatoes curling up their toes and the huge difference in the growth of the pairs of tomatoes Westland has won hands down so far, I really can't see the Dalefoot tomatoes catching up.

Update At the end of the challenge Westland won hands down for the size, amount of fruit and the general well being and healthy plants it produced. I will be using their tomato compost and feed again in 2024.


Westland V Dalefoot Tomato Compost Challenge.

Saturday, 22 April 2023

Potting Shed & Climbing Frame Greenhouse


I spent some time sowing in the Forest Garden Potting Shed as it had been raining yesterday and over night.        

I was bitterly disappointed with the Westland Multi-purpose Compost with John Innes.  


The pound coin was not found in the compost it's there so you can judge the size of the stones that I was finding as I used the compost. I'm usually very pro Westland's compost but the state of these bags was appalling. 


I took many photos of what I have been sowing as I wanted an up to date list. I had created the labels over Winter as normal.   


Bunches of Spring Onions in vending machine cups with two drainage holes formed in the bottom with a soldering iron. These cups get washed and reused each year.


Bunches I then started in digging out the beds in the Greenhouse Climbing Frame to the depth of the spade, and bottom out the trench.  

Once bottomed out I placed two of the 30 Litre Square Flower Buckets into the end of the trench to infill and enable me to pull out once I had finished filling the trench with the cuttings from my daughters property. 

The hedging was placed in the trench and watered for some time.


Buckets that are holding the excavated topsoil where then placed on the hedge cutting in the trench and watering continued, and settlement of the cuttings could take place.

Saturday, 8 April 2023

Sweet Peas


Sweet peas had been made popular by the work of breeder Henry Eckford during the late 19th century, and by 1901 William Unwin was growing several rows of these plants for cutting. One evening he noticed some blooms of ‘Prima Donna’ – a plant bred by Eckford – looked different, with larger, showier, rather frilly petals. He saved the seed and the following year his new selection, named ‘Gladys Unwin’ for his daughter, flowered. It was an immediate hit; everyone wanted to grow this new sweet pea. William went on to breed from his popular new flower, creating a strain of ‘Unwin type’ sweet peas, which were impressively stable in colour and flower shape.


Find out more about Unwins and Sweet Peas here 


I picked up some free Sweet Peas seed from the Unwins stand at the Garden Press Event in February and thought I'm going to have to grow some and see what all the fuss is about. 


In the photo above, what will become the gable end of the Greenhouse Climbing Frame behind the boundary beds is the ideal spot to grow them and let them climb and beautify that face of the structure.




Sweet Peas seeds were soaked over night and then I used a dibber to make hole as regular spacing in the back of the boundary beds in front of the security panels.


Once sown in the holes I filled in the holes and put a layer of Westland Muiti-purpose compost with John Innes over the row of seeds. 


Wednesday, 8 March 2023

Greenhouse Loft Extension II

Today with the bad weather and not being able to get to the allotment I assembled the next loft conversion for the Plot 1A Greenhouse.



Nice heavy box of westland Easy Wildflowers seeds that was ideal for holding the corners of the first two walls upright and square whilst I tack welded them to the roof with the glue gun.

Tack welding one side letting it dry and go hard and white then coming back and doing the next section or side.  The art to assembling this is not to rush it and try to do it all at once.


Before Tack welding the internal corner and the front. 


After Tack welding the internal corner and the front.


Unwins Seed Box, and westland box of Easy Wildflowers seeds used to hold the third wall in place. The Unwins Gardeners Seed box will be living in my new potting shed when it comes.

Unwins Gardeners Seed Box, and westland box of Easy Wildflowers seeds used to hold the third wall and timber batten in place for tack welding.


Internal corner


External dormer cheek tack welded


Internal cheek before tack welding internally.


Internal cheek after tack welding internally.


Underside of roof after silicone applied along the joint.


Dormer ready for fitting of the fans internally and the solar panel and mounts fitted on the roof eternally after I've manager to test the fans and solar panel once we get some sun!

Friday, 8 April 2022

Pacific Purple Asparagus from Suttons

 

The Pacific Purple Asparagus Crowns from Suttons arrived two days ago and this was my first opportunity to get down to the allotment and plant them. as it's been very wet and windy plus I had no one to look after my wife to allow me to get down to "Avalon" aka Plots 1 & 1A. 

There has been some major confusion with the dispatch date for the five "Burgundine" crowns that were also ordered back in November about when they would be shipped and although it said 21 days 30 odd days ago, on the web site they didn't arrive. I then discovered that other people I know that had ordered 25 Burgundine crowns were informed by customer support that they would not be delivered until next year! 

When chased I was sent an email on the 4th April with a dispatch date of 20th March, and an email informing me that the Pacific Purple dispatch was delayed and they would be shipped on the 5th April. 

On the 7th April I received an email from Customer Support apologising for the misinformation re not being available until next year.

We are getting in touch to apologise for an email you were sent in error, relating to your Asparagus Crowns.

 

It appears we got something wrong and advised your order was going to be delayed until 2023. We would like to assure you this is not the case, and we are expecting your order to be with you by the end of next week.

 

We are looking into how this error has occurred and we are very sorry for any disappointment and inconvenience this matter may have caused.

This is the web site today 



So with Dispatch down from 3 days to 48 Hours I'm hoping the crowns will be with me well before the end of next week, my problem is going to be getting them down to the allotment and into the ground as quickly as possible once received. 



Back to planting the Pacific Purple Asparagus from Suttons. I uncovered the trench to expose the farm year manure in the bottom. Some of the side to the trench had collapsed in a little due to the rain and wind over the last couple of days since I excavated and laid the westland Gro Sure Farmyard Manure.



I gradually filled in the triangular sloping mound area as in the diagram on the left making sure I extracted any weeds I saw.




I laid out the crowns with 200 & 400 each end so that I can stagger the pattern when the next 5 crowns finally arrive from Suttons.


Some of the roots had come detached when bundled, and I was incredibly gentle handling them getting them out of the bag they were in, laying them on the mound and then opening them out like a spider on top of the sloping mound. 


I laid them out like spiders as I had seen in the books and the Thompson & Morgan video I posted on my blog in a pervious post about Planting Asparagus


I did receive a piece of paper giving guidance on how to plant and prepare the ground for these in the box the Asparagus Crowns came in, but Suttons could do a lot better and provide some guidance actually on their web site and product page for Asparagus, perhaps with photographs. 

I have fed this information back to Suttons marketing team. Feedback should always be taken as being positive, as it means your customers are engaging with you and letting you know how you can improve the service you provide. 

For a good marketing team there should never be negative feedback.


Better view of the crowns


View up the trench.


Using the rotary sieve I worked the square flower buckets of excavated soil so that I could cover the asparagus in fine soil so that they can easily get through. Due to the heavy rain we've had over the last few days the soil in the square flower buckets at the bottom was very moist and clay like.


The Rotary Sieve is a great piece of equipment and is useful when processing my own compost for use, it is so fast and efficient this one I bought from ebay a few years ago, shipped from Germany and cheaper than the ones available from Wales see post Here .


Once I had the trench more or less level I added two sacks of Equigrow Fertile Mulch, now I have to say these sacks had been near the bottom of the pile, of composts and soil improvers I've had stored for this year, and I was expecting perhaps some consolidation may have happened, but this mulch spread easily from the sacks and I had thought it may have needed some loosening up. 

I love the look and texture of this product, and waiting to see how weed resistant it proves to be longer term, being made with horse manure and fertile it should help my Asparagus to establish themselves, and using Equigrow Fertile Mulch may become an annual event for the Asparagus beds.    


As the drawing on the left I tried to make the mound on the trench 3" higher than the original ground level.

I did spread about an inch thick either side of the trench and in fact took the mulch in the middle of the two beds to the bed edge

I then have the Asparagus a good watering and covered it to stop the foxes from digging it all up. I need to look at the permanent protection solution for this bed to protect it from Basil and his mates.  


Flower buckets of soil left over were stacked along the path to the bed and then the two rows one on the path and the other in the trench holding the sides up were covered in the glass panels I use so they can dry out and not get rained on again. 

What's left over from the first trench will be mixed with coir and some compost and used for the potatoes, wich really should have gone in already!


When going to Plot 1A to collect the glass panels I saw the bluebells in the comfrey bed. I love them they give some early colour and food for the bees, as well as crowding out weeds until the comfrey come and crowds out the bluebells