Lasagna composting

Along with most people, 2012 was a real wash out for my garden and allotment. Apart from a great garlic crop (which we are still getting through) and good autumn fruiting raspberries, everything else was either washed out or munched to oblivion by slugs and snails.
After the long and cold winter that we've just had, I am really looking forward to the coming growing year with a renewed enthusiasm. My greenhouse is full of seedling trays, to such an extent that I'm having to come up with creative ways of finding more space in there.
Last autumn we gave away some bikes to a couple of friends, who in return offered to make me some new raised beds at the allotment. This was done a couple of weeks ago. They're great and double height to minimise the amount of bending that I have to do.
I've always had the aim of getting to a 'no dig' system at the allotment which is what I have at home, but the pernicious weed problem has so far prevented this. We have a significant amount of mares' tail and bindweed as well as the other usual suspects (couch grass and dock). However, I was inspired by a talk given by Alys Fowler that I attended this week to give lasagna composting a go in my new beds. She used in it her back garden and effectively has eradicated mares' tail from her growing areas. This method involves gradually building up in layers and letting nature take care of developing a healthy balanced soil over time.
I've done a bit of research on the web and from a few, mainly American, sites have I think got an idea of how to do it. What I have realised after starting today is that this method takes a remarkable amount of material and I can tell that I will need to reserve my green waste over the next few weeks for this alone, rather than putting it out on the compost heap.
The bed that I've started on is 8' x 4' and is 12" deep, sitting on top of an existing 6" raised bed. I started off my trampling over the existing green growth in the bed, and then added a layer of newspaper (4-5 sheets thick) which I watered well.

I then added a layer of partially decomposed leaf mould

then some green waste

then another layer of wet paper and finally some well rotted compost and manure.

As you can see, I have got about half way up the bed so am anticipating that I am going to have to repeat all the layers again plus keep topping up as it settles.
I am hoping that I will be able to grow courgettes and squash in there this year and have a bed that is ready for full use by next spring.

Bite sized chunks

I woke up this morning in a weird mood. This doesn't happen to me very often thankfully, but when the  black dog does start to descend on me, I have to take my self off and do something - usually involving dirt and plants. So this morning I went down to the allotment at about 7.30am. At first I was filled with panic, it was so overgrown. All I could see was a jungle of weeds (and our allotment plot is a who's who of pernicious weeds), and what few crops that were remaining had been attacked by slugs and snails. I know that when I get that 'this is too much to cope with feeling' I need to take it a bit at a time and not look beyond the bit that I am working on, so I started harvesting and digging up the last of the broad beans and starting my counter attack from there.
It got me thinking about what a useful approach this can be in other situations that feel overwhelming because there seems to be so much to do. It's a tactic I should use more at work. There are times when my 'to do' lists become the problem rather than the solution, if like the allotment this morning, I look at the whole thing rather than taking each bit at a time.
So I got some digging done, harvested my paltry potato crop and started planning in my head for next year. This year's rain and slug and snail problem has literally washed out all my aspirations. However just as I was leaving today, I looked at my autumn fruiting raspberry canes - which are flourishing with hundreds of fruits coming on. My default positivity was restored and I went home to cook a masterly veggie breakfast.

Where there is disorder..

Thank you to Nigel for giving up a few hours yesterday to help me get on top of the allotment, which had been rapidly spiralling into oblivion under couch grass. This had been caused by a combination of adverse weather, health and the great growing conditions for weeds.
Now, a few metres of strummer wire and pulled muscles later, I feel back on top of things.

A smile of thanks for Nigel because I know that there are many things that he would rather have been doing yesterday.

Good use being made of all the old 'Advisernet' CDs we found when we moved office a couple of weeks ago. The pigeons had been at my peas.

The autumn planted garlic, onions and shallots are doing well.

The wet, muddy and aching look - what a style guru I am!

'Twas a cold & frosty morn

I got to the allotment today for the first time in many weeks - having been held back by firstly a trapped nerve in my arm, and then a chest infection.
It was a beautiful crisp and clear morning and luckily the allotment had not suffered too much for my absence. Yes, I've got some weeding to catch up on, but the autumn planted garlic and onions are coming up well. The kale has done really well, and doesn't seem to have objected to the recent neglect, so I'm looking forward to some of that for tonight's meal.

I'm itching to get going again now. I have seed potatoes to chit and seeds to organise, and some to start planting over the next few weeks.

Catching up

The last year has been really madly busy and, cliched as it is, I just do not know where the time has gone. I will attempt a quick summary:

• Callie & Alfie have been living back in Ipswich for a year now which is wonderful. They are only five minutes away so we usually meet up at weekends.
• Work is monstrously busy - more work, effectively less pay. A familiar tale I am sure.
• We managed to get away twice this year, firstly to Salthouse, Norfolk at Easter, and then a surprisingly great summer holiday in Lincolnshire. Miles & miles of sand and no one around.
• Allotment had a productive year but suffered from the low priority it got in my time management. I am resolving to improve this next year. I have already planted onions, shallots and garlic and have over wintering peas and broad beans to put in next weekend.
• The animals are all well & healthy although Timmy is charging around scared by fireworks as I write this.
• I got a distinction in my first OU module which I was incredibly happy about. It has given me impetus to carry on my studies.
• We had a weekend in London with our good friends Sarah & Ken. We went to the V&A and Kew gardens and topped it all off seeing Lou Reed at Hammersmith Apollo. A lovely weekend of culture (and wine).
• All my projects have also been a little side lined by everything else, but I managed to complete a really fab knitted snood and my 2011 chutney (extremely spicy carrot) has been going down a treat. I am struggling to keep up with all the demand, but am keeping on top of it due to a seemingly never ending carrot glut.

I have just had a week off work and spent it in Walberswick where I was helping Nigel's Aunt to deal with some of his late Uncle's possessions. Whilst I was kept very busy during the day, it was fantastic to have the chance to walk the dog along the beach every morning. It has reinforced our plans to move to the coast one day - having been born only about 50m from the sea, I always feel like I have come home when I am on the beach.

Badest blogger

I have probably been the world's worst blogger over the last few months so now resolve to update this poor neglected blog over the weekend.
My excuses are the usual - life, the universe and everything getting in the way and demanding of my priorities.
Luckily my allotment is nowhere near as neglected and I'll give an update on my promised blog post.
See you tomorrow!

Planting

Today had just a hint of things to come. The level of light seemed to have increased, it was milder than it has been over the last couple of days and when we went for a walk this afternoon I saw my first snowdrops of 2011 and the birds were chattering away in the trees - heralding the spring to come. However as was said on Gardeners' Question Time this afternoon "there's a lot of weather to come before spring gets here".
I spent this morning clearing out the greenhouse to make room for some planting, and planted broad beans, tomatoes (four varieties), cucumbers. aubergines and  chillis. Outside I put in some spring onion sets and a crown of rhubarb. It felt good to actually be doing something, though after a recent bought of flu my energy levels were somewhat sapped by the end of the morning.
I've left the greenhouse shut up snug and warm with the paraffin heater on low. I must remember to keep checking in there over the next few weeks.
I've also made myself a mental plan of what to do at the allotment this year. Last year was my first full year of growing there and I have learned a lot from it. It's also been illuminating to find out what we've used and what we haven't and how I can make better use of the space. I know that I need to get much better at successional planting of things like peas and beans to avoid being stuck with a glut all at once. Having drowned in courgettes my first year, I didn't really keep on top of them last year and should have planted more.
I should now stop reflecting on all things dubdug and get on with my OU essay that has to be in by Thursday..oh well...

'Twas a cold and frosty morning

We woke up to a beautiful winter's day : clear skies and a magical covering of frost. I wrapped up warm and took myself down to the allotment. Not surprisingly I was the only person there.
I thought that the ground might be too hard, but luckily the recent milder weather has defrosted the soil and apart from a frosty crust, it was easy to dig. I got up the last of the sprout sticks and put them in the compost bin, and harvested the remaining parsnips. I feel large quantities of spicy parsnip soup coming on - I must clear some space in the freezer!
My celeriac have been an utter disaster, only having reached the size of a small tennis ball, one of them will be usable once the mud and roots have been cleared away, but the others all went for compost.
Amazingly the Aquadulce broad beans that I put in as an autumn planting have survived the winter so far, and the garlic is thriving in little straight rows of erect green shoots.
Having now warmed up a bit I am off down to the kitchen to listen to the Archer's omnibus and do a full Claireish breakfast - potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, veggie sausages and chutney - YUM.

Robert de Niro's waiting...

It was a 1980's party, and we'd thought we'd go as Bananarama but got mistaken for Dexy's Midnight Runners!
I never normally wear make up, so this felt particularly weird to me. However, I felt the dungarees were strangely familiar...Berni & Penny went out to buy theirs specially, mine were already in my wardrobe!

Bad fireworks

I have never really enjoyed fireworks particularly. Apart from a few pleasant childhood memories of standing in the local churchyard with a polystyrene cup buckling under the heat of some tomato soup in my hand, my enjoyment of fireworks has not got much further than twiddling a sparkler or two.
I have always thought that fireworks are selfish as those who are letting them off have no control over who they are exposing to them.
This weekend I have been furious. We have worked really hard with Timmy (our nine year old rescue dog) over the past few months to help him decrease his anxiety levels and have really achieved some great things with him. Bang goes all of that this weekend - literally! He spent Wednesday night shaking after a couple of fireworks were let off outside the house. I had been putting a few drops of Rescue Remedy in his water, but soon realised that this was not enough. So Thursday we went off to the vet and came back with a pheramone collar and some doggy diazepam 'just in case'.
I soon realised that we were going to need the diazepam when he was actually sick with fear on Friday night, so Saturday was spent giving him plenty of exercise during the day and then it took a double dose to get him sufficiently relaxed so he could lie in front of the fire without being too troubled by all the explosions outside.
I remember a few years ago spending bonfire night in Leicester with a friend who had grown up in Derry during the 1970s. Walking back from the pub with him as fireworks were going off around us was the only time that I ever saw him shaken.
I think it is about time that we questioned our right to impose the experience of fireworks on people and animals who have no choice as to whether they want to participate or not.