Monday, January 12, 2009
Friday, January 09, 2009
Plan for 2009
We had an allotment meeting last night to discuss the rotation / layout for 2009. We all had our own ideas on what we wanted to grow but I think Dave has the best plan by following this simple method.
Answer the following questions on each fruit / veg:
1) Is it tastier than the supermarket equivalent?
2) Is it expensive to buy?
3) Is it easy to grow?
If you answer No to 2 or more questions then it's not going in the ground.
So therefore we are culling the following:
Potatoes: Blight
Aubergines: Pain the arse - never have a decent summer.
Garden peas: Eaten by slugs / not a good cropper.
Spinach: Doesn't get eaten.
Brussell Sprouts: One good stem out of 5. Nuff said.
We need an anti-mammal technique for sweetcorn as we had literally NONE last year due to rats and squirrels. We are ,however, giving broadbeans another shot. (I'm dubious as I know it will be infected by blackfly in seconds but hey-ho - it's a May cropper so what the heck?)
We're also going to try Jerusalem Artichokes! No idea how these will turn out and we've got to get seeds/tubers (i have no idea as of writing this!!) and put them into action for Feb/March.
We are definitely doing:
Manage Tout
Tomatoes
Squashes
Leeks
Climbing French beans and dwarf variety
Runners (cos it's an alllotment staple!)
...plus moving the herb bed as it's overgrown.
We have also played with the idea of doing chillies in the cold frame. Risky but worth a try.
So, that's the plan. Better get a final version laid out. :)
Answer the following questions on each fruit / veg:
1) Is it tastier than the supermarket equivalent?
2) Is it expensive to buy?
3) Is it easy to grow?
If you answer No to 2 or more questions then it's not going in the ground.
So therefore we are culling the following:
Potatoes: Blight
Aubergines: Pain the arse - never have a decent summer.
Garden peas: Eaten by slugs / not a good cropper.
Spinach: Doesn't get eaten.
Brussell Sprouts: One good stem out of 5. Nuff said.
We need an anti-mammal technique for sweetcorn as we had literally NONE last year due to rats and squirrels. We are ,however, giving broadbeans another shot. (I'm dubious as I know it will be infected by blackfly in seconds but hey-ho - it's a May cropper so what the heck?)
We're also going to try Jerusalem Artichokes! No idea how these will turn out and we've got to get seeds/tubers (i have no idea as of writing this!!) and put them into action for Feb/March.
We are definitely doing:
Manage Tout
Tomatoes
Squashes
Leeks
Climbing French beans and dwarf variety
Runners (cos it's an alllotment staple!)
...plus moving the herb bed as it's overgrown.
We have also played with the idea of doing chillies in the cold frame. Risky but worth a try.
So, that's the plan. Better get a final version laid out. :)
Monday, January 05, 2009
Happy New Year!
Here's to a blight-free 2009 with more sunshine than ever before! With the economic crisis being as awful as it is - I think we deserve more sun this year.
I will be taking more boxes up the lotty this evening to be used as raised beds. It is absolutely deathly cold out there at the moment so trips to the lotty are restricted to 30 min MAX! After that my hands go numb. :(
I tried to rinse out a slug trap in the water trough but the ice in them was over 2 inches thick on Saturday! Apparently Roath Lake has frozen over as well!
I will be taking more boxes up the lotty this evening to be used as raised beds. It is absolutely deathly cold out there at the moment so trips to the lotty are restricted to 30 min MAX! After that my hands go numb. :(
I tried to rinse out a slug trap in the water trough but the ice in them was over 2 inches thick on Saturday! Apparently Roath Lake has frozen over as well!
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