After Christmas it’s Veg all the way now
Santa came and went and a very good time was enjoyed by all. There is always a fly in the ointment and one moaner – me.
My hopes of the yuletide muck delivery came to naught – it didn’t stop raining and Santa could not deliver. Well, that’s life, I am sure I will get it later and will just have to improvise on my ideas for minimal soil cultivation – the closest I can get to being a no-dig allotmenter. I do need to improve my vegetable production and usefully our talk in November (it seems an age ago now) was on vegetable growing and pest control and Roger Umpleby which gave some really good tips which I shall definitely be trying this year – it could be the year I actually produce a usable parsnip!
Now, I don’t know if you noticed but it was a bit wet on the lead up the Christmas. It has been pretty much impossible to get the normal allotment preparation done and I, for one, found the damp dull days a bit wearing. You can only sort your seed packets a limited number of times and as I am not a naturally organised person sorting things has never been a strength of mine. Retirement theoretically should have given me the time to address this shortcoming but it is difficult to change your nature and so, disorganised I remain.
I have plenty of other interests but again Linda (an oracle of logic and reason) pointed out that they are all weather dependant (cycling, paragliding and astronomy) so I have had to resort to writing this article. Spring officially starts in March (according to the Met Office).
I am reliably informed that the weather will be warmer, the sun will shine and work in the garden and allotment can get underway. One of the good bits of advice in that November talk was to ignore the dates on the seed packet, only sow when the soil is warm enough to avoid the seed rotting and also to sow little and often to avoid the customary gluts and famines. Also, just grow what you want to eat.
It is not unusual to see crops remain unused in allotments which is such a waste of effort and resource. Lastly, do try new varieties but don’t forget the old faithfuls – they are still in the seed catalogues for good reason – they usually work and have good flavour.
Happy gardening
Tony Lewis