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Plough
Field Allotments at Amerton
Gardening
Tips
By Mrs FM
Hartley.
Unusual
& Old
Fashioned Fruit
Trees.
Unusual
Vegetables,
Herbs & Other
Edible Plants.
Environmental
Issues And Going Green.
Vines
And Other Climbing Plants.
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Books
By
Alan J Hartley
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Plants Everywhere!
By mid March I had germinated
trays and trays of seedlings in my house which had then been taken to my
Greenhouse. Some were sowings of vegetables that can go in early like
Leeks, Chard and Brassicas, but many were trays of Flowers like
Rudbeckias, Lavatera and Helychrysums. Practically all of them were
germinated on my Kitchen Windowsill as I don’t have any heated
Propagators anywhere. I do have heat on in my Greenhouse, but only on a
Frost Setting. Most seed is happy to come up in the Kitchen like this,
but the Parsley seed failed this year and on the packet it says that it
wants high moisture levels to germinate well, so I guess it was just too
dry in the house. As we went through March I sowed a lot more tender
things like Sweet Corn, Squash, Courgettes, Ridge Cucumbers (Outdoor)
and Tomatoes, but I left the all of the Beans until later and will sow
them as we go through April because they come up and develop very
quickly.
As usual I jumped the gun a bit and planted my Potatoes in Mid March
even though Pink Fir Apple are, I believe, a Main Crop and shouldn’t
have gone in then. Wanting space in my greenhouse I also planted out my
old Chrysanthemum Stools, although again, it was too early really.
 Trying to make space in my greenhouse also meant that the pots of Chives
and Rooted Sea Kale Cuttings that were starting to shoot, went out onto
my yard. In fact on my plot I had had my first harvest of Sea Kale back
at the start of March and had lots more throughout March.
With so many young seedlings in my Greenhouse I had to keep a good watch
on my unheated Plastic Greenhouse Propagators as we started having many
more warmer, sunnier days, to make sure that they didn’t overheat. The
young Seedlings had been put in these to give them a bit of a boost,
especially at night-time. Generally, seedlings are very vulnerable to
drying out and will frazzle up in a short space of time if you don’t
keep a watch on how moist they are. Propagators can also simply overheat
in the sun and if they get too hot the seedlings virtually cook inside
them, killing them. It is very much a balancing act to keep them at a
beneficial temperature until all of the days and nights are warmer in
later Spring and the Windows and door can be left open. Then as we go
into Summer and things get hotter still, it will be time to put some
shading on the Glass. I usually use the whitewash type that you roughly
put on with a large, soft, brush. At the end of the Season it washes off
again very easily and is quite cheap to buy. Some people put up shade
netting, but that can be expensive to buy and more fiddly to put up. As
for putting up Bubble Polythene in the Winter, you can put up Netting
using Drawing Pins in Wooden Greenhouses, or the special little Plastic
Clips that insert and twist into the channels of most metal Greenhouses.
They can easily get lost from one year to the next though, so I save
mine in a little screw top Jam Jar because they are not cheap to keep
replacing. In the Jar I also keep spare Glazing clips that pop out
sometimes and spare Nuts and Bolts some of which have little rings
through them. These can be bolted into the Framework to tie strings on
to, to provide support for things like Tomatoes and Cucumbers a little
later on.
As usual I have been re-cycling/re-using lots of old pots and trays that
have come my way from various sources. It may be that the old style
Black Plastic Pots are out of favour because they can’t be re-cycled
with other plastic, but the best way to re-cycle them is to simply wash
them and re-use them year after year until they break up. I have been
mean with my Potting Compost this year as well because I decided that it
was too expensive to keep using freshly bought Potting Compost. Mixing
it with Loam/soil to make it go further might not, in some circles, be
considered Environmentally Friendly, but when the Loam has come out of
our Communal Compost Heap on the Allotments, I feel that it is about as
Green as you can get. The Sites Weeds have been used to make the Compost
which is then used to pot up more Plants that will be sold in our
Fundraiser and they will eventually be planted on the Allotments putting
the Soil back where it came from.
Last Winter I planted/sowed some Mushrooms on a small block of straw
that came in a kit which a friend gave me as a Christmas present. The
instructions said to grow that particular variety of Mushrooms in the
warm, inside the house, but this year I ordered some Mushroom Plugs that
were simply small pieces of wooden dowelling impregnated with Mushroom
Spores. The instructions that came with them said that a length of
freshly cut branch as thick as your leg, should be drilled and the Plugs
hammered into it at a defined spacing. It said not to use Pine Logs, so,
as I had just brought some small lengths of freshly cut logs home to
finish edging a bit of path that had been missed when I had done the
rest of my garden, I decided to use a couple of those. I don’t know if I
should have used Holly, which is what they were, because the
instructions did not specify that, but they did imply the use of
Deciduous timber as they specifically said Beech, Oak Etc. However, I
otherwise followed the instructions and wrapped the two small logs up in
a black bin bag for a few months. Apparently, I am then supposed to
unwrap them and keep them in a damp, shady spot, where they should
produce edible Mushrooms for up to 5 years, or so. I actually only used
half of the pack of 30 plugs and took the rest to work for one of the
Staff to try. She used a Beech Log as instructed so we will see whose
does the best.
My Brother has had a Passion Flower in his garden on a large support
network of posts and timber cross bars for some time and it puts on
quite a show every year. He gets lots of exotic flowers followed by the
bright orange, plum sized fruits. He has tried eating them, but there is
no real substance to the fruits of the hardy Passiflora Caerulea. There
are other fruiting varieties that are edible and are often available to
buy, but they are not tough enough to survive our weather outside here
in the UK and need to be grown in heated greenhouses. Even the so called
hardy variety will be damaged and can be completely killed by really
severe winter frosts. Most years I save one or two of the Fruits from
his vine, and sow the seed that they contain, to grow a number of plants
for the Charity where I work. They seem to germinate easily and grow
quickly, but need some protection for the first winter until they get a
bit bigger and develop a more woody stem. Then, when planted out, they
should survive.
I thought about putting a Passion Flower over the Shed on my Plot some
time ago, but never got round to it, so, recently, I decided to put up
an arch like framework to grow one up at the end of one of the beds on
my Allotment. I was going to use 8 foot treated posts and fasten some
cross bars to them, but with the shortage of Timber and subsequent
escalating prices due to the problems caused by Covid, I have not been
able to do the job yet. Officially, all of the Covid restrictions had
just about been lifted by the start of March, but I guess it will take
time for the supplies of everything to get back to normal and the
Russian/Ukrainian War is only going to exacerbate the problems, so the
Archway will have to wait until later in the Summer. The plant that I
brought from Work, (One of last years Seedlings) will be happy enough in
its pot until I get round to doing it.
One Vine that I have done quite a bit of work on recently was my row of
Grape Vines. They should really be Pruned right back to the main stems
at the end of every February, but I was a bit late this year as it was
into the start of March before they got trimmed hard back.
I also cut back my Kiwi Vines and was pleased to see that the Cuttings I
had put in earlier were starting to Bud up which is a good sign that
they are taking up moisture even if not properly rooted yet. At least it
shows that they hadn’t rotted over Winter.
My Twisted Willow, at home, was growing over the Path so I decided to
trim the Prunings and put some of the thicker pieces into a Jar of Water
on my Kitchen Windowsill in the hopes that they will root as well. I
have done them before like this with a lot of success and if they do
root they may be ready for our Fundraiser sale as well.
In fact I have been potting lots of little Tree Cuttings/Seedlings up
into larger pots, but I think many of them maybe too late but for our
Fundraiser this May and even for the Jubilee and the “Plant A Tree For
The Jubilee!”
Still, there is always next year I suppose ! ! !
You could “Plant A Tree In 23 ! ! !”
 
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