Vinny's Allotment Plot

All looking very smart, Vinny

Looking really great!

Can I ask about your leeks - when you sowed them? I sow feb/march and plant out in June so wondered about th advantage of planting earlier.

And probably far too late, but I freeze my excess parsnips chunked and ready for roasting, but still raw with no obvious difference in flavour or texture.

Looking really great!

Can I ask about your leeks - when you sowed them? I sow feb/march and plant out in June so wondered about th advantage of planting earlier.

And probably far too late, but I freeze my excess parsnips chunked and ready for roasting, but still raw with no obvious difference in flavour or texture.

The leeks were vegetatively propagated from one seed head of leek grass.Not bad, 100 leeks from one seed head! They are clones of the parent which was my best leek last year.Planted in seed trays last October and then potted on into modules and individual pots where they have grown on in the greenhouse over winter. Put them in the cold frame about a fortnight ago to harden off. The leek was from a strain of show pot leek that I saved from oblivion when the showman died and I begged a leek off his daughter two seasons ago, just to keep the strain going.
The show men grow them on with heat and don't plant out until mid June after all danger of frost. Mine have been grown on without heat so are hard enough to go out now.

One of the show growers on our site asked if he could buy four leek plants off me when I was planting them out? I naturally wouldn't accept anything for them and he went away a happy man saying I had made his day.

Quick visit to plot to water stuff that needed it.

While I was there I put cardboard on the last two beds on the left side of plot and spread a bag of compost on each. I added a pane of glass to cover each of the three smaller beds to warm them up a bit.

I was told there was some woodchip at the local village hall that I could have. When I got there it had all been taken.

Called at allotment mainly to drop off cardboard and water plants that needed it. I had forgotten that it was the AGM and felt obliged to stop and hear what was going on. Not much change this year thankfully so at the end of meeting I paid my annual subscription and left to do some shopping.

Sneaked away from my 'carer' duties for 1.25  hours today to lay cardboard on some paths and sprinkle 4 bags of wood chip over it. Not nearly enough wood chip but hopefully enough to keep the cardboard from blowing away until I get some more put on.. Paths are 14 inches wide but I couldn't be arrised to cut all cardboard to 14 inches so it looks a bit messy for my liking. Maybe I will attack it with a pair of scissors when I get some more wood chip added? or possibly straighten up the edges by using compost along bed edges?

Piccies are of my five prepared beds on the left side of allotment which will have dwarf french beans, Broad beans and red torpedo onions in the smaller beds and courgettes and some other cucurbit in the larger beds. The only beds then left to plant on that side will be the long fence bed and the very bottom bed (yet to prepare which will have tatties in it.) Not sure what to put in long bed yet?

Forgot to mention that all top five beds have followed the Charles Dowding pactice of adding a couple of layers of cardboard followed by a layer of compost. We shall see how this works out at the end of season.

If I understand this right, you've covered nearly all of your plot with cardboard and covered it with compost where you're going to grow veg and with wood chips for paths.
You must have had a truckload of cardboard.

Looking good matey

I like the idea of compost at the edges of the paths since you are already using the cardboard and compost no-dig strategy. Sounds like less work and improving the bed to boot.

My beds aren't ready for a close up yet... All looking great, Vinny.

If I understand this right, you've covered nearly all of your plot with cardboard and covered it with compost where you're going to grow veg and with wood chips for paths.
You must have had a truckload of cardboard.

It's surprising how much cardboard you need! It's all good organic matter though so you can't have too much methinks. I have stopped getting the cardboard from my Daughters Deli but I may ask her to start getting it for me again. I have even toyed with the idea of having cardboard then mulch then cardboard again before planting brassicas through it. You wouldn't need brassica collars then but could possibly encourage slugs under it? It isn't the prettiest of mulches either though, but maybe a few grass cuttings would disguise it a bit.