Raised Beds for Exhibition Carrots.

The raised bed is built! I filled it using nearly 2 ton of sharp sand.

I've cored out 52 circles with a drainpipe and filled it with fine compost mixed with top soil, sand and fertilisers.

I will plant the 'Sweet Candle' seeds in a couple of weeks.

A lovely April 1st today with a Frost this morning. Lovely clear day with clear blue skies and temps around 13c.

Here we have the barrels filled with the same mix ready for the exhibition carrots. These varieties are 'Red Intermediate'. I will get 8 in each drum.

The allotment has been cultivated twice and dressed with some Fish blood and bone ready for planting out. I waiting a while yet before planting my first new potatoes. I do have some seeds prepared in the Greenhouse.

The soil in incredible dry for April, as you can see.

20 metres of soil waiting to be planted as the weather warms up!

Moving on.... The Dahlias.....

Today I've moved the Dahlia tubers into the garage. I couldn't lift them earlier as the Frost hadn't killed off the foliage. In fact we still have only had one slight Frost and its nearly the end of November.

The Greenhouse is looking a little bit tidier now. With some Geraniums and a few Gladdies drying out.

The Green netting in the picture is Scaffold netting and will hopefully keep the Pigeons off my lovely Savoys next year! And, honestly, I hope they all die... Pigeons suck!!!

I got the netting off Ebay for about £30 and there's about 35 metres of it!!! Might cover the whole Allotment.

Dahlia's are up!!!!

Today I finally lifted my Dahlia's. The weather continues to be very mild, with no signs of any frosts yet! I've read that you need to let the frost kill the foliage to push the Dahlia into a dormant period. I can't wait any longer though, as the weather could get very wet and the Dahlias would rot in the ground.

I will let them dry off a little, before cleaning them up, applying some yellow sulphur and then I'll store them in the Garage. I'll place them in some fresh compost. Lots of people lost their Dahlias last year due to the freezing temperatures of -10C!

Despite the time of the year I actually cut the lawn today! I managed to get a lot of tidying up done and cut back the remaining plants that were just about hanging on. I trimmed the Rudbeckia, slashed the Crocosmia, and cut the dying Peonies. I planted 5 alliums in the border and raked up all the fallen leaves. Its actually wonderful to be able to potter around the garden and get some fresh air.

Preparation of Carrot Mix

I'm shamelessly copying a couple of bloggers and sieving my compost and bagging it up for next Spring. I will then add some special ingredient to complete it. There will also be sand added with some general fertilisers. I will give full details when I mix it all together.

You get quite a lot of debris in a bag of compost, stones, twigs and horsehair type stuff. It takes me about 40 minutes to sieve a 75 ltr bag. There on offer at B&Q buy 2 get 1 free!

I hope to get an electric garden shredder and bang it all through it a couple of times. I'm keeping my eye out on Ebay. I recently saw one auctioned at Melton Market and it went for a tenner! I hadn't got my wallet with me! They also auctioned a Rotavator with loads of attachment. It was old but started first time! It went for £40....... I was gob-smacked!

Here you can see the rubbish from one 75 ltr bag! I'll chuck it on my Allotment to help break up the clay like structure.

I'm also going to build a Propagator for my Chrysanthemums and Dahlias:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardenersworld/video/toby_30minfix/heated_propagator.shtml

Dahlia's still hanging on....

My Dahlia's are still hanging on. November the 8th and no 'real' frost to talk of. I love Dahlia's and grew a lot more varieties on the plot this year. They say you let the frost kill them before lifting them, drying them out and overwinter them in a frost free environment. Lot's of people lost their stock last year when temperatures went as low as -10C!

I've cleaned out my Greenhouse using Jeyes fluid to wash all the glass and fumigated it with a Yellow Sulphur Candle from B&Q that cost about £5.00. I had problems lighting it, and I have read of people experiencing this problem. I made a 'new' wick and re-lighted it. The next day there was just a thick tar in the bottom of the tin, so I think it did the job. They say that new Euro laws are coming in next year and they will be banned...... Just good old Jeyes fluid next year then.

I've put the winter woolie's on my greenhouse, bubble wrap brought from Ebay. Hopefully I can overwinter a few Geraniums in there. I grew a few Chrysanthemums this year. Not too successful, small blooms. I don't think I fed them enough and also I didn't de-bud properly. I brought a DVD on growing Chrysanthemums from Harrogate show...... so you watch next year!!!

A good friend has given me 2 old plastic barrels to grow my long carrots in next year. I have 5 barrels now and should get 7 carrots in each one. I'm following a few other blogs to get advice from and will sow them in March. I've got to order some builders sand and think I will need a couple of tons. I'm also setting up one of my raised beds for stump carrots..... may try a few different sowing dates to give me a selection for pulling in August and September. Going to try showing at local shows. I'm hoping that by growing to show will lift my general growing skills.

October marks the beginning of the end of the growing season. In some ways, it also marks the start of the new season - planning for next years crops & flowers, choosing next years plants and seeds from the many seed catalogues.


2012 is my ninth year on this allotment and it's time to start growing some exhibition standard veg. I'm going to try a few categories:- Stump carrots, Long carrots some show potatoes, runner beans, parsnips and onions. At home I will try and grow some show Tomatoes, a variety called Cedeco. I'm going to build some beds in the Greenhouse to improve feeding.

I've double dug a large part of the plot after a friend of mine got me about 3 ton of old Horse manure. Another friend acquired about 4 tons of top soil to add to my patch, which, in some parts, is quite clayey. So I've got a depth of soil at the top end of about 2 foot. At the bottom end I have some raised beds. I intend to grow my stump carrots in half plastic barrels and the longer ones in full size barrels.

I may have to reinforce the raised beds as I made them with 6 inch gravel boards 10 foot by about 3.

I hope to get some old scaffold boards to do the job and may reinforce the sides with some tie rods through the boards. I've seen this done on another blog. You then sit the barrels on top and they have extra support.

This gives an idea of what i'll be looking like. I have 2 large barrels, a half 45 ltr drum and the small drum on the right which I will cut in half for my stump carrots. I will need to buy some builders sand to fill the barrels, then 'core' out for the carrots growing medium, which is a special mix of sieved compost, fertilisers and special ingredients posted on the National Veg Society's web site. Hope you enjoy my journey.