27 Apr- End Of A Busy April

Despite a change in the weather for the worse, the last week to ten days has been fairly busy. The hard work of planting my main crop potatoes was completed on the 21st April on a hot day. My main spud of choice is Sarpo Mira, I've never planted these before but I have heard good things about this blight resistant variety.

I set out the Sarpo Mira's 18 inches apart about 6 inches down. I earthed up immediately after planting to create a large mound over the trenches. I added a general fertilizer to the trench and surrounding soil. My main crop have been planted in the other half of a 32 foot bed which already contains three rows of 15 tubers of 'Rocket' earlies (planted mid-March and are showing strongly). I have three rows of 10 tubers of Sarpo Mira as main crop require a greater planting distance between them.

On the 5th April I sowed some Cucamelon seeds, new to me, which I will put in large pots in the greenhouse when they develop. I also put in some Sweet Dumpling Winter Squash - an attractive little squash which I planted for the first time last year. I used a heated propagator to germinate them as I find squash can get a little temperamental with irregular temperatures; they were showing through the compost 8 days later. Below is a picture of them 22 days after sowing - they are doing well and I will pot-on at least once (maybe more) before they are planted out in June in the space vacated by my early potatoes (well, that's the plan anyway).

I sowed two crops on the 7th April: French Beans and Courgettes. Unfortunately my French Beans, 'Blue Lake', are looking rather weedy and I think this is because the seed is a little old. I'm considering nipping to the shops this week and buying the more prolific 'Cobra' seeds and starting again. My courgettes are the standard 'Black Beauty', nothing special but they don't have to be as they produce well in a normal summer. I put two seeds in a pot and thinned to one - I'm looking for five strong plants though I lost one last year just after planting and four was still plenty. The picture below are the courgettes 20 days after sowing with good true leaves already.

The next day (8th April) I put some sweet corn, Swift F1, into some deep root trainers. Again I used a heated propagator for ease and they were up exactly a week later on the 15th. They are looking OK to me, nice and green; hopefully they will do OK in the deep root trainers as I've not used them before. They will go out toward the end of May. Picture below are Swift F1 Sweet Corn 19 days after sowing.

Unlike my dodgy French Beans, my Runner Beans are up and away. I planted my runners, Scarlet Emperor, on April 12th in deep root trainers and they were showing 10 days later. Like the rest of the crops pictured here, they were transferred to an unheated greenhouse to grow on. The picture below are Scarlet Emperor Runner Beans 15 days after sowing. I hope the weather warms up soon as these monsters will need to go out in the next few weeks but they will sulk in cold, wet weather and won't get away well without warmth.

I planted out some basic Iceberg lettuce on the plot this month and, despite the odd slug attack, they are developing OK. I forgot to sow some Lollo Rossa lettuce last month when I sowed the Iceburg so I did it this month. I've transplanted to one plant per cell and they are coming on. I'll give them another fortnight or so before thinking about putting them on the plot. Below, Lollo Rossa lettuce.

I've also sown my Butternut Winter Squash, Hunter F1. They went into pots on the 15th April with heat and the majority were up 8 days later. They currently have their seed leaves so not much to see at the moment. That's it really for April - it's been a busy month with lovely weather at the start of the month which turned wet and colder at the end. Still, virtually all the crops have been sown now and I can look forward to May when beans, lettuce and a few other things can start to be planted out. See you soon ...

16 Apr - The 'Challenge' To Good Allotment TV

Since I heard about BBC2's new program, the Big Allotment Challenge, I've really been looking forward to it. Can TV actually make a good program about allotments? So, last night I was sat there at 8pm waiting in anticipation for a new series about people preparing their plots, sowing their veg seeds and tending their crops. What BBC2 actually offered was Fern Britton presenting an insipid garden version of the Great British Bake Off with little to recommend it.

We got a few glimpses of the plots before they started, pristine rectangles in a lawn that could could have been Lords Cricket Ground, no weeds, no mare's tail, no old baths, not even a single sheet of rusty corrugated iron to shift.  The purpose of the contestants' plots then was to grow veg for a 'show challenge' - this week radishes were on the bench.

This was already somewhat of a misnomer as the majority of people who have allotments don't show vegetables at their local show, they just eat them. Growing giant and/or perfect veg is a skill and hobby that is not exclusive to allotmenteers so I tried for sometime to work out why the two ideas had been paired as if sticking them together was somehow inevitable. Then I realised that this program wasn't really about allotments at all. Allotments were just the context for another BBC2 TV competition.

By the time the flower arranging and jam making challenges had arrived I had lost interest in all the superficial froth of this show. I was hoping for a good program about growing veg on allotments. This wasn't it. It wasn't even a good program. My twitter feed seemed to agree; the official hashtag #allotmentchallenge had a timeline with the usual flow of polite comments one would expect 'oo that jam looks nice', 'I can't grow radishes either' etc - the #allotment hashtag however was far more critical of this TV fluff and it soon became clear that people who actually had allotments or gardens, or a window box or had even walked past a flower bed once, saw this program for what it was - a mere schedule filler between the Sewing Bee and the next series of Bake Off. The first episode was flopping for veg growers - though quite possibly it was never intended for us.

The most charitable twitter theme was along the lines of 'anything that encourages growing your own is a good thing isn't it?' I'm not sure - this program might actually put people off growing their own as supermarket perfection is rarely attainable on the plot and not even desirable to be honest but, someone with no knowledge, might think allotment growing is ultra competitive where, in my experience, it's just the opposite - friendly, supportive, fulfilling, social and fun.

This brings me back to my initial question. Can TV make a good program about allotments? Well, the best to date was made by ITV West, simply called 'The Allotment'. It was a low budget regional program that actually went to talk to people who knew about allotments and featured two experienced plot holders (David Cemlyn & Jane Moore) who, amongst other activities, help a novice clear the plot and plant. There was loads of good advice though the quirky 'what's in my shed?' feature got a bit tedious especially if you watch the programs back to back on DVD. Nevertheless, 'The Allotment' series is worth a watch for beginners and can be ordered from www.allotment.info

Then there was BBC's 'Allotment Wars' a reality type documentary promising to "dish the dirt" in a voyeuristic program about arguments between plot holders and their site committee and with each other etc - all very stereotypical and tedious. The allotment was the context of the program but it could could have been any club or organisation really - nothing to do with growing veg. Another 'lowest common denominator' program from the BBC - aping the crass output of other nameless channels who do the format decidedly better.

However, the most awful thing aired on TV about allotments was a regular insert in Gardeners' World when the program had totally lost its direction with Buckland, Fowler et al. Joe Swift, supposedly a garden designer, was given an allotment to cultivate for a season. Everything he did was the worst thing possible - for example - Swift was advised by an experienced neighbour to dig and weed his plot carefully by hand as it would benefit him in the long run. Swift nodded sagely and then cleared his plot with a JCB (we all have access to those don't we?) then rotavated his patch, chopping up all the cooch grass which of course came back with a vengeance a few weeks later. The whole series insert (and an edited together special) seemed to fizzle out when Swift and his production crew realised that they couldn't create good results instantly with their ineptitude. To add insult to this broadcasting injury was the appearance of the inevitable BBC book, 'Joe's Allotment' (2009) which made the already tarnished Gardener's World offering a laughing stock by those in the know. Do yourself a favour and give 'Joe's Allotment' a miss - you won't regret it.

Yes, we've had Carol Kleine's (another flower specialist) 'Grow Your Own' in conjunction with the RHS; the early River Cottage series; Monty Don's odd insert in Gardeners' World and the quirky but great Beechgrove Garden from Scottish TV - all mention veg growing - all good but often just an addition or an off-shoot to another show - not really allotments.

Time is probably at the crux of the question about making good allotment TV - it takes too long to create the series and the potential audience seems limited. That's why the low budget 'The Allotment' program seems to have got closest as it was filmed cheaply over a proper season at real allotments. However, the time and investment might pay off in viewing figures for a more mainstream attempt as I think the audience is far wider than TV companies realise. People have a hankering for such programs; baking, sewing, craft, gardening, etc, look at the book 'Self Sufficiency' by John Seymour, sold millions but very few readers sold their town houses and flats to buy a small-holding - it's aspirational - the publishers were clever enough to see this and added ' ... for realists and dreamers ... ' to later versions of the cover. I believe a 'proper' allotment program would be the same. So, come on TV make a proper allotment program, no contests, no JCB's, no arguments, no flim-flam: let's just have a program about growing and eating veg presented by people who know what they are doing. Please ...

11 Apr - Carrots and Beetroot

The weather has been pretty good the past few days and the soil has warmed up. My early potatoes continue to sprout rapidly so I've been earthing them up to avoid any frost damage though it's been above above freezing for a while now.

I decided to put some carrots on the plot this week. My clay soil is awful for carrots and I seldom get anything worth shouting about. This year I wanted to try a different method so, to start with, I've bought some decent carrot seed. The seed is Sweet Candle F1, a blunt ended carrot that can win a vegetable show and will still taste great on the the plate.

To try and overcome the problem of a heavy soil I have used a bar to create a decent size conical hole, a few inches apart. I'm not sure how deep the holes should be so I hammered the bar into the ground around a foot and a half deep, the depth of my top soil before it starts to go to clay.

To half a bucket of light compost I added a couple of trowels of sharp sand to aid drainage and some general fertilizer. After a really good stir I back-filled the holes with the mix, effectively creating growing tubes. On top if each position I sowed three Sweet Candle seeds and will reduce to one plant. If germination is poor I'll re-show with more seed. No idea if this will work but the results will be seen later in the year. As a comparison I also created a dozen newspaper tubes, filled them with the same compost and sowed with the same seed. I'll plant each tube, paper and all, when they sprout.

Along side the carrots I prepared another strip by forking over and raking the soil to a decent tilth. While I'm not a great beetroot fan, I do like pickled beetroot, especially at Christmas. I sowed a row of Detroit beetroot and intend to pick them relatively small though last year I forgot about them and they became too large and woody - I still pickled and ate them though.

Bye for now ...

04 Apr - Growing Update

It's been around 10 days since my last post and that was a link to my monthly video so I thought it about time I posted a few pictures of what's going on in the green house.

The Primo II summer cabbages are looking good. These were sown on 9th March and were thinned to one per module. They will probably be potted on again and will be planted out sometime in May.

I also sowed a few Kohl Rabi (Korfu F1) and red cabbage (Ruby Ball) on the same date and again these are doing well. I've only got a few of each as we only use red cabbage in the odd summer salad and I want successional sowings of Kohl Rabi.

I've transplanted the largest lettuce plants (Iceberg) into individual small pots to grow on for a few more weeks. These will probably go out into the plot by the end of this month if the weather is kind. I've also sown a few modules of red Lollo Rossa this week for some extra choice.

I find peppers develop slowly - I sowed a load of bell peppers in February and despite a heated propagator they took nearly 20 days to germinate and it's only now they are beginning to develop their first 'true' leaves. They have already been potted on into individual small pots. On the other hand the tomatoes are looking very good indeed. This is the first time I've sowed them in February (17th) using heat and they are really enjoying the spring sunshine in the greenhouse. I normally sow them in mid-March so this year I'm a little ahead.

The leeks are putting on a few more leaves after being transplanted to their deeper tray though I will have to watch the heat in the greenhouse as I find that they do much better outdoors in their tray once the weather warms up a little. They won't go into the plot until mid-June.

On the plot itself things are slowly developing too. There are green sprouts on a load of the onions and I've had to take the plastic cover off my early potato bed and earth them up as the odd one was poking through. They should be fine for another few weeks now. Lastly a picture of the broad beans and garlic; both are really coming on too. The garlic, having been planted in November, looked a bit winter-worn but after a feed with a general fertilizer and a bit of sun, new growth is to be seen. The large temporary cloche has been on and off the broad beans but, given the lack of frost, I've decided to leave it off now unless there is a specific frost warning for my area. That's it for now - the next few weeks will see another busy time of sowing.