https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GobOD96uspQ
I’m following the plan I described back in February, putting the allotment first. So no hiking or cycling today, just grafting on the plot. Hopefully this means no feeling of burnout by the end of May! I should still have plenty of time for other hobbies, just AFTER I’ve finished my allotment jobs, rather than before!
Today’s main jobs was to clear the kalette bed. It’s started to get cabbage aphid on the flowers, which always happens at this time of year so it’s best to remove it. The best leaves have been taken by the pigeons anyway and we still have 6 plants at home, which are clear of aphids.
The pigeons have fed happily on the top leaves
I’ve tried a new technique for clearing the bed this year
I’m always trying to find better ways of doing a job and this year I realised that rather than trying to chop up the plants at the compost bin, it would be much easier to do it in situ. This way I have two hands for chopping and the ground/roots acts as a very strong extra pair of hands. This worked beautifully and I just kicked the stumps over at the end and removed the roots, then raked up the leaves for composting.
I often leave brassica roots in place and mulch over them with an inch of compost, but this bed will soon be carrots and so the roots had to go.
My new mega cold frame
This photo above shows my new carrot frame, which will be the home for the winter carrots and I will be planting Eskimo. This bed is one of the very few that’s not badly infested with Marestail and bindweed, so it’s ‘perfect’ for carrots.
I’ve also realised that there’s a lot of opportunity to add a cold-frame top to this bed. This mega frame is easily moved to any of three beds on my plot that have the same dimensions. My existing coldframe plastic tops fit on it too and I often have spares of these too, so I don’t need to make extra.
I don’t be using it as a coldframe until winter, when I trim the carrots down to about 3-4” of healthy leaf. I usually do this in December after I remove the nets, by then carrot root fly is not an issue.
I then put the coldframe top on and this helps keep the bed unfrozen, although still cold enough for super-sweet winter carrots. It also keeps the bed moist, but not saturated, which is much better for carrots and reduces slugs.
Finally by harvesting every other row of carrots in December and January I am left with 12” rows into which I can plant lettuce, Asian greens, early spinach, early beetroot and much more. Because the carrots were trimmed they don’t interfere with their new neighbours and when I finish harvesting the carrots in April they have the bed to themselves.
I also planted beetroot under fleece and interplanted the last of my Red Baron onion seedlings into the gaps. Finally I popped my last 12 Swift seed potatoes into their pre-prepared pots, I just dibbed holes and dropped them in.
Noticed the first flowers on the early tomatoes
Heron spotted while duck watching with Willow this mor
