Master Rebecca Hewett

The biggest news and a great relief to finally get the hear after a long wait, is that Rebecca has gained a massive 77% and a well deserved distinction for her dissertation.

As well as her BA she now also has a: MSc HR (Consultancy) with distinction


What a clever person she is, and an up and coming gardener as well.

(Please ignore the title of this post, it was the best I could think of. Also, for those of you who don't have Batchelors and Masters but are good at grammer, should it be 'a MSc' or 'an MSc'?)

Good Friday at the allotment

More standing on ladders with a large hammer in your hand going on at the allotment on Good Friday. What a lovely day it was too.








The duck compound is built with the exception of the gate which will be the project for the week in anticipation of Salisbury Poultry Auction on 14 April. A second layer of wire has been added making a six foot fence and we will put fine mesh netting over the top with a tarpaulin in the autumn and winter.




Rebecca was busy with the weatherproofing of the house. There was a bit of concern at one time, that the house wouldn't fit in the compound as the boys have added central posts, but sleep easy, it fits!

The central posts are so that we can divide the compound in two as ducks have a habit of making a wet muddy mess, we will have one side occupied and one side resting. We have a bag of grass seed ready so that each resting side can be resown with lush tasty grass.



Always one to show an interest in the goings on of his star allotmenteers (we like to think we are anyway), Ted popped in to visit, so for those of you who haven't met him, here is Ted - site foreman and allotmenteer extrordinaire. He has been working his plot for over 30 years and what Ted doesn't know, Bob Flowerdew does. He is our gague of what to do when and the time has come to start carrying your parsnip seeds with you just in case if is time to sow. Not today though so they are still in the pocket. Parsnips are notoriously bad to germinate and any sign that the soil is too cold, too warm, too damp or too dry, there will always be another day.



We did do some actual gardening and the first of the peas went in supported by the hazel sticks that I cut from the hedge. The broad beans that Bex planted in February were ready to go out and a lot more than we expected so should get a good crop.

The potatoes are planted

We have planted the potatoes at Old Basing. Remember the varieties that we got at the Potatoe Fayre well here they are in the order in which they should be ready to harvest i.e. first earlies, second earlies etc.

This is the largest bed that has been well manured so we are confident of a good crop this year. One benefit of potatoes is that they break the soil well down giving a good loam for next year. That is the theory anyway.

Filling the bath

This weekend we brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'filling the bath'. We have put the bath on the fruit patch on 51 and this year it will be used to grow pumpkins in, which is the reason why it is being filled with manure. This will compost down well so that from next year it will be home to the mint and horseradish.

We have also been rather cunning in leaving the plug out and putting a bucket in a hole under the plug home so that any water that drains away will be collected and will be an alternative liquid feed to comfrey tea.

It's what brothers are for

Back at the allotment today and we make our usual pre-gardening walk about. 53 looked OK except the rabbits had been nibbling at the steps of the fig, I then opened the gate to 51/52 and had the great shock of a present left by Ted tied to the door handle of the greenhouse.

When we saw him we showed our gratitude and interest in his trapping of them and what he did with them next but wandered back thinking what on earth do we do now.



Only one thing for it........ the cavelry was called.





Those of you who are squeemish stop reading now.





It didn't take long for them to be skinned and prepared. It is a shame that we don't know any way of preparing the skins as they are so thick and fluffy at this time of year.

I was rather pleased to see that we have trendly rabbits at the allotment as once their coats are off they are kitted out in the greatest ski boots with matching tail! (click on the image for a closer look)

This is a reminder of why I love the allotment so much!

5.30p.m. Canary Wharf station on the Jubilee line.

More disaster

We are totally stumped by the rabbit situation. We wedged the gate shut so that they couldn't get in through there but it seems that there is another way in. Total inspection of the fence undertaken and we found one small hole that could be a posibility. They have not decided that they like onion tops, this is probably because there is nothing left on the brassica patch worth eating. The netting on the brassica patch was all over the ground but we cant blame the rabbits for that - it was the weight of 3-4 inches of snow earlier in the week.

Figgie pudding

We have planted the fig at the bottom of No 53 with the intention that it will give a bit of shade to the pond. We used a section of old water butt, which was buried in the ground, to get the fig to put down deep roots. I have great hopes for fruit this year as it produced a load of small ones last year which we removed to allow the plant to strengthen itself.

How to make Newspaper Pots

1. Use a normal tabloid size newspaper, different sized newspapers will provide an assortment of pot sizes. One sheet of newspaper opened out flat:
2. Fold the page in half along it’s spine:
3. Then fold in half again:
4. ..and fold in half again:
5. Now is the tricky bit. What you are trying to do is fold the bottom right hand corner, as you see it in the picture above, inside and to the centre. What I do is lift the fold up so it forms a right angle and then push the centre in towards the centre of the fold. You will end up with a triangular shape with the original newspaper spine flat. This is where I think most people hit a brick wall, do persevere, once you have got it then you can churn them out in seconds. It’s not easy to explain or photograph but here goes:



6. Fold the top left ‘triangle’ back over to the left to form this.






7. Repeat step 5 on the other side so you end up with this:






8. Now you need to fold the edges in to the centre, like so:






9. ..and then fold them into the centre again, like this:







10. Now flip it over and do step 8 and 9 on the other side and you will end up with this:




If I am making a batch of these and not using them right away then leave them in this state and sandwich them between 2 books with a weight on top. When you come back to them the creases will be nice and crisp and they will stay together better.

11. To make the pots fold the top flaps back first, then carefully open up the pot by putting my hand inside and gently forming it into a cube. Make sure you dont push the folds open. It may seem like it will never hold soil and just open up. Don’t worry as long as your creases are nice and crisp then it will be fine once the soil goes in, it actually helps keep them stay in the right shape.



This is what you should end up with!

Too good to resist

It is very rare for me to use a public toilet but recently the call of nature meant that it was necessary in a pub in Chichester. I think it will be something that I may consider doing more often as I didn't realise the sort of treasures to be found. Two empty toilet roll tubes. Thankfully I had space in my handbag.

Rabbit pie coming up

We were devastated to find that the gate on 51 had not coped with the wind over the last couple of days and had been blowing open at night leaving a perfect opportunity for the rabbits to get in and decimate our remaining crops. They must have thought it was Christmas and Easter all rolled into one. The stems on the purple sprouting broccoli was stripped, the sprouts had been eaten off the stems as far as a rabbit can reach and the celery was vertually non existant.
They even had a go at the swede. The only thing they hadn't touched were the walking stick cabbages.





I managed to salvage some leeks but they had had the tops nibbled.









At least we had plenty of tea to lift our spirits but I forgot to take cups so we had to improvise with the bottom of lemonade bottles. The hot tea softened them so tghe final shape was not how it started. You can also see from this picture why was are called the owl people.

Corms and tubers

We also bought some artichokes at the potato day. The large two are Jerusalem Artichokes that have gone straight into the ground and the smaller ones Chinese Artichokes. I have put them in pots as instructed but haven't got a clue what I do with them after that expecially how to eat them as they look more like maggots than vegetables.

We forgot that the gladioli from last year were still hanging to dry in the small greenhouse at home. I stripped back the old corm and the dead stalks and we have 92 large corms ready to plant. The advantage now is that you can tell what colour the flowers are going to be by the colour of the corms.

The Potato Day

The potato day was even better than expected. Although we missed the talks we got there for the last couple of hours in the afternoon. As well as potatoes there was the chance to buy organic seeds, seed swap, details about recycling and composing and how to assess your carbon footprint.

We decided to sample a few potatoes, both for show quality and taske to know what we should specialise in next year.

We got 4-8 of:
Lady Crystl
Juliette
Osprey
Romano
Winston
Royal Kidney
Manna
Pink Fir Apple

Plus 2.5kg of:
Kestrel
Picasso

We also took the change to get seeds of more unusual varieties to experiment with:
Purple Podded Pea
Seedless Grape Tomato
Dwarf Soya Bean
Jenny Lind Melon
Cherokee Purple Tomato
Green Globe Artichoke
Black Salsify
Mamoth Sandwich Island Salsify
Prague Giant Celariac
Gynera Cardinculus Cardoon
Lily White Sea Kale

and a bag of Topper Shallots

It is finally here

http://thewhitchurchweb.org/potatoday/index.htm

9th Hampshire Potato Day
will be held on Sat 27 and Sun 28 January 2007
10am - 3pm
Testbourne Community Centre, Micheldever Road, Whitchurch

Lots going on at Churchill Way

As well as lots going on there is lots gone. The strong winds finished off the cover of the small greenhouse that served us so well last year.






At least I can keep an eye on Nick weeding. The peas have survived very well and seem to have benefitted from exposure to the elements.





We decided to take advantage of Homebase having a 20% off weekend and splash out on a new cover for the grand price of £10.40. It is lovely and cosy and having strengthing threads throughout means than it should survive better and will also act as a sun filter when summer comes. The great fear is that the guy rope tabs done seem as strong but we shall see.

After the warning last year of the smell of Comfrey Tea, I have discovered, the hard way, that Nettle Tea is almost as bad in a highly concentrated form.

I will quote from organicgarden.org.uk who say:
Nettle spray
Bio-dynamic gardeners and growers have a very high regard for the common stinging nettle, using the leaves in sprays of several kinds. As well as using nettles as an activator on the compost heap (page 27) the organic gardener can use them as a liquid manure and as an aphicide.

Gather 224g (l/21b) young nettles and soak in a bucket of water for a week. Strain and use undiluted as a control of aphids on roses and celery leaf miner. Add the mushy nettles to the compost heap.

Although they do head the page with:
Please Note: Under UK and EC law it is illegal to use any preparation as a garden spray, or treatment, that is not approved for such use. This information is for historical reference only and its inclusion here does not imply a recommendation for use.

I think the big problem was that they have been steeping for two months which will have added to the strength and also the smell although once bottled is does look like good stuff.

We had a lucky find last week, when Ted told us about a load of rhubard crowns that had been left on a deralict plot. I don't know the variety but they are now on the bank in front of 53. We planted 8 in total so should have a good crop in 2008.






The visiting allotmenteers were with us again this weekend and thankfully the sun shone, although it was very cold so after moving 15 barrow loads of manure and a lot of digging Rebecca decided that valuable work needed doing in the greenhouse. The second batch of broad beans have been sown ready for successional planting at the end of February.




The boys toys were out again, I couldn't even lift the sledge hammer never mind swing it, and it is amazing how quickly the posts went up for the duck compound, with Nick holding and Matt swinging the sledge hammer. It was very scientific and a great relief that they were wearing the same size boots to be able to measure accurately between the posts. The back and side posts are up so the wire can start to go on which hopefully with help keep the rabbits out. The compound looks a bit like the OK corral and with sturdy 8 foot posts (with 2 foot of that buried in the ground) I don't think they should blow over.









The latest produce from Pyotts Products is vegetable crisps. A combination of potatoe, parsnip and beetroot. It is a shame I didn't think of them earlier as I am sure there is someway of making courgette crisps. This is the prototype and it received mixed reviews such as 'more chewy that crips' and 'different' but I like them.

A winter update from Old Basing

The difference between OB and CW are incredible. We have been working away at CW but the soil at OB is so heavy and waterlogged that all we can do is drink tea and watch the world go by (or not as the case may be). We have volunteered to help in the shop and have been put down for Mothering Sunday so a quick reminder if you see us between 10 and midday send us to the shop.

Don't panic, they're not ours

Still harvesting

Sadly the weather has been against us recently so not much news from the allotment. We did do a bit of muck spreading on Sunday and harvested some leeks (we have eaten them) the last of the parsnips (pictured) and a box of rocket from the greenhouse. This should keep us in sandwick fillings through the next couple of weekss until the lettuce is worth pulling.