28 nov 11 – notes

limped over lotty to make sure kids had put tools away after our hasty exit yesterday, which they had, although DSK’s idea of digging up and bagging potatoes isn’t the same as mine and he’d left several on top of the soil. I bet there’s still loads left in. i should have been at home resting but I had DFS and his brother sitting there on phones and laptops discussing buying motorbikes…

Weeded carrot bed (very roughly with my grub hoe), tipped the barrow load of compost I’d emptied yesterday on as a mulch – didn’t cover much nor very deep; will need 4-6 loads!

cleared yellow leaves off red cabbages, added pointed summer cabbage to new compost bin – need green stuff!

took tops off sprout plants but too many white fly to be useable

hoed (hand weeded a few couch grass) onion bed, raked, planted red baron red onions with DFS – he didn’t want to but I think he enjoyed it once he started. He’d been walking around with his hands in his pockets talking of going home all the time he was there…

when we rolled back the tarp 60cm that is covering bare soil so we could get to the onion bed without standing in puddles, we found lots of piles of slug/snail eggs. left them uncovered hoping thebirds find them.

Foot now much better. Swelling down but toes still don’t touch the floor and its very painful. I jump if anyone gets within a 30cm radius!

Pallets and feet don’t mix…

This afternoon, I dragged DSK over the lotty to help with DSI as so much needs doing. DSI fell asleep so DSk started digging up potatoes while i lit the firebin. I then started emptying the old compost bins, putting uncomposted stuff into the bin DSK and I made yesterday. The top half of the first was full of leaves which were very dry. After putting some in the new bin, I decided to put them in bin liners, wet them and leave them to rot. I continued on bin one but it was really dry especially at the back where, what I think were mice started hopping out! The last 45cm or so a

nd some at the front of the bin wasn’t bad compost so I started putting it in the barrow to use on the root beds. DDJ came over the lotty with a mug of coffee and distracted DSK from his potato digging. Then I went to put the bag of leaves out of the way and a pallet that I’d ledged up the front of the

compost bin- stupid -  fell on my foot. I was wearing only croc type shoes – again, stupid. OnceI’d done swearing under my breath, I slipped off my shoe and my foot looked like this:

After a couple more minutes it had swollen all over up to my ankle (sorry I didn’t get a photo, I was otherwise busy!),  I couldn’t put my foot down and was in a conundrum. I was half a mile or more from home, with a foot looking worse by the minute, and three kids, one of which was in a pushchair. I had a fire going in a firebin (safe) and tools everywhere. I got the kids tidying away while I figured out how was I going to get home. I tried to walk but no joy, I could hop but I couldn’t really get off the site as my plot is so uneven. The only other people on site were the newcomers and I felt a real pratt asking them plus they were in a big van.  Hoping DFS was on his way home from his sisters 15 miles away I rang him but he was still there. I said not to worry and rang my parents who didn’t answer. Then I decided to ring DSL as  his girlfriend has a car. As I was talking to him my brother, whom DFS had rung, rang me and suggested I get an ambulance. I didn’t want that much of a fuss! In the meantime, DSL and his girlfriend headed home. In my stubborn fashion, I figured out that I could sort of walk if I put my weight on the pushchair and only touched my heel on the floor. I rang DSL to tell him I didn’t think it was broken and I’d rest it and see what happened but as I did, they pulled up outside. Coming in and taking a look at my foot they insisted I go to hospital to have it examined.

So I went to our local minor injury unit with DSL’s girlfriend (GFK) and DDJ while DSL and DSK stayed with DDI. When we got there (and they didnt consider that I could hardly walk so I was struggling to keep up!) it was packed with over 30 people waiting. I’d have happily gone home but GFK and DDJ thought I’d be better off having it checked and voted to go to a hospital I hadn’t heard of before that is normally quiet. It was about half an hour away and yes it was quiet but it also didn’t have an xray department which the nurse said i needed; they then suggested I either go home and rest and go back or head off to a bigger hospital and they gave me crutches that I need to return. Thinking I’d rather get it sorted now after we’d drove around for over an hour and sat in waiting rooms, we headed off with the help of a satnav to find the other hospital. The satnav was directing us one way but GFK spotted a sign for an A&E department  so we aimed for that one instead and ended up at a different hospital to the one we’d been refered to. GFK wasn’t convinced (right city, wrong name but I wasn’t going to argue) so we went in. Thankfully they did have an xray and a nurse who’s first consideration was patient pain relief! After another hour it was confirmed, as I’d thought, that it wasn’t broken but it needed rest.

It doesnt look too bad now and much of the swelling is reduced though I still can’t stand on it. partly because it is so swollen still that my toes don’t touch thefloor and partly due to thepain. How easily we do these things but I’m really thankful I’ve got tough bones!

Here’s an update of it two day’s later.

Pallets & potting

Last night, DSK and I popped over the lotty to drop off a few pallets DFS had bought home a few weeks ago. I think they must be hard wood because they weigh a ton! I first thought they must be wet as I struggled to pick them up,but realised they were just heavy. Between us we loaded them onto the wheelbarrow and pushed it, screaching as the tyre rubbed the bottom of the barrow, up the plot where we stacked them ready to be made into a new compost bin as the old ones have collapsed because we didn’t level the soil.

Today, we went over and DSK looked after DDI while I put them together. First I had to move the dry, dusty soil mound that was there. It was a heap of old stones that another plot holder was moving off his plot and DFS said he’d use it as a path. It’s now going to be another job figuring out what to to with them all! To make the compost bin

I was planning on screwing them together with my new drills but didn’t have any screws long enough so I tied them with rope instead. I don’t know how long they’ll last.

 

Later, I came home and potted up all of the plants and bulbs I’ve bought lately.

Soil testing

After all these years of gardening I finally got around to testing the soil. It comes after semi-watching Carol Klein showing the science of gardening on a Gardeners World episode I’d recorded back in march. Also,  a plot holder had a load of soil conditioner delivered and there was a question over it’s quality. It’s not that I haven’t had good intentions of testing my soil. I gave bought the probe type ph meters in the past. The last one I bought was from wilkinsons that had a terrible meter. The helpful customer services did contact the manufacturer and emailed me to explain how to use it but I’m always wary of the accuracy. I might try again with it (when I find it) now that I’m armed with the results of the following test.

Back on topic, and I went off to the lotty armed with 3 plastic bags and got a sample of the conditioner plus one from two different locations on my plot. At home, I put soil from the two samples into seperate glass jars and filled with water and a tiny drop of fairy washing up liquid then gave them a shake. I’ll leave them a few days and have a look then.

Then I tested the ph of all the samples using a B&Q chemical test. I bought the ph and nutrition test a while ago and found out upon opening that it doesn’t contain the further information inside that it says on the back the pack . A quick google revealed that I’m not the only person to have found this out recently. Though, as I have no longer got a receipt, I don’t think I can expect a refund. I continued the test anyhow and tried to conclude my results using the muddy liquid.

Using these results it seems that the conditioner is alkaline and my plot is acidic. Someone else on our site tested the conditioner and found it to be acidic so I dont know how accurate the test is.

The results are:

soil conditioner

 

soil sample one

 

Every little helps

Ok so while DDI was doing this:

I was doing this:

It doesn’t look like much but this was one of the worse areas full of nettles and a few brambles. I dug out quite a few pototoes. The rogue pink fur that I left in and decided to leave as I wasn’t going to be using the ground and some mr Little’s Yetholm Gypsy heritage potatoes that I bought as a trial pack of 5 tubers from JBA.  The gypsy’s didn’t do bad considering we haven’t improved the soil with a 1.7kg crop for eating and a 400g crop to use as seed. I’ve read that you shouldn’t really save your own seed but reading this blog it seems that it is possible – and she’s growing yetholm gypsy!

yetholm gypsy -1.7kg eating & 400g seed

 

 

organising, planning and folia

Every year i spend countless hours trying to organise myself and my plot. I want a system that tells me when to sow, transplant and harvest. I’d like it personalised for my plants and it would be nice if I could link it to moon planting! My problem, I think, is that I make it harder than it needs to be. I suppose I could just use a diary but I’d like a record I could alter each year as many things will be repeated. I decided to try to make a database. I wanted one that linked to a spread sheet that updated as i added new seeds but it’s too much for me to get my head around. I’ve got AS levels in office but I seem to have forgotten it all and now my brain has gone foggy and I just don’t take it in, I’m tired and don’t have much time. I never get quiet time so it’s a battle to learn. I also have hundreds of packets of seeds to enter! And plants  (fruit, flowers etc) that I’d also like to include now that I think of it…

I thought that somewhere, someone on the web might have made something similar to what I wanted and would be willing to share so I hit google. I found hundreds of people discussing similar but not really what I wanted, or they cost too much (£100 for a template that comes with access?!) or no longer worked. In the end I found a post from a lady on a site called Folia. The lady (I won’t link to her as her inbox would probably melt!)  is kindly sharing a database that does almost what I’d like. I’m even struggling to get my head around this too – how did I forget what a query is and how to change it? Anyway, it also introduced me to folia. I made an account and I’ve spent ages in between (and at the same time as!) looking after house and family entering seeds, plants etc. It’s brilliant! Ok so it’s probably old news to the thousands of people who use it but it’s new to me!

I’d like this system or something similar on my computer as the options I’d like you have to pay for and I also like to know that I have a back up if anything goes wrong or the website closes. In the meantime I’ll carry on trying to make my own – eventually I might get somewhere and when I do, I’ll post it on here!

24 june 2010 (from memory, stupid one note)

Harvested our first potatoes! As the plants are starting to flop over. I read somewhere that it was because they are ready – they aren’t really and it will take 3 or more plants to make a meal but we’re looking forward to them! I think they’re falling over as they have grown so tall. Some people are saying it’s blight but I had that on my tomatoes last year and it’s nothign like this; the leaves are clean and i’msure blight has brown marks on the leaves.

We fed the plants tonight. We mixed the comfrey tea – 1 mugful to a watering can  – and watered most of the lotty with it except the potatoes. Might do those when I can get round to it. Also bought home the onions I’d lifted and placed them in the greenhouse on a the 4 tier greenhouse which we’re using as shelving.

Spent most of the day decorating – mainly dfs. The kitchen looks loads better even if it is almost the same colour.

Lotty may be in the paper

Didn’t’ sleep till 5:30. Feet swollen, too hot, uncomfortable – im hoping it will get better after Izzy is born. I’m watching every twinge at the mo waiting for the big day which is 3 weeks away today.

beans & brassicas

(taken from diary)

Went over lotty this evening again.

Planted out calabrese

Planted out sprouts 2′ apart, 6x purple sprouting & 6x white sprouting broccoli at 2′ apart – Planted salad onions between row and nasturtian tom thumb every other plant

10x runner bean “painted lady”?, 1x wisley magic plus a sweet pea plant per pole.

Rain & Romas

(taken from diary)

Rain all day today – first lot of rain for a while

Potted 6 roma tomato plants into half a growbag in small greenhouse

More plot pottering

(taken from diary)

Forecast rain tomorrow so trying to get some jobs done.

Sowing of peas made on 22nd may have started to sprout!

Dug out 3, 1 foot holes, part filled with sawdust & manure mix from rabbits and chickens, refilled with soil and planted a courgette plant (1 zuboda, 1 gold rush) in the 2 end heaps; leaving middle heap for pumpkin.

Forked one fork deep and raked a row (16′). Sowed alternate rows of carrots & beetroot; 4′ carrot (name?), 4′ boltardy beetroot, 4′ chantennay red cored carrot, 4′ yellow cylindrical beetroot.

Broad beans plastered in red ants which means they’re probably covered in black fly/aphids. Keep finding ants as I dig, they obviously like the dry conditions, don’t know where the nests are but will need to find them. I can see that being easier said than done