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Field Allotments Hixon
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Tips
By Mrs FM
Hartley.
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Lots Of Potting.
As we went through February and things started to get a little warmer
with fewer cold nights I did some Seed Sowing. A few were Flower Seeds
such as Sweet Peas, (that I had been given from some Pods that had been
saved) and others like Heucheras and Rudbeckia were out of bought
Packets. The same was true of the Vegetable Seeds that I sowed. The
Broad Beans and Cinamon Vine Seeds were some that I had saved whereas
the Asparagus, Globe Artichokes, Cape Gooseberries, Tomatillos, Parsley
and Leeks were all from bought Packets. I always used to sow everything
from Packets, but more recently I have been trying to use my own Seed
saved from the previous Seasons Crop. This works very well for Beans as
they come true to type due to a quirk in the way they are Pollinated,
but it may not work so well for other things where the Genetics of the
Plants are not stable and then you end up with Plants different to their
Parents. You may also get variation due to cross Pollination. In theory
you can put Paper Bags over Flowers after Hand Pollinating them to
prevent Cross Pollination, but it is a bit of a faff to go to.
As the Seeds came up, I got busy pricking them out. I had done the Broad
Beans in Modular Trays so those could develop without pricking them out.
Then, as they got bigger, they were transplanted outside in my Allotment
Bed where they were to mature before harvesting sometime around June. I
have found from experience that although they will happily germinate
outside in March, Mice love to eat them and then you are lucky if you
get many of them survive germination. The Globe Artichokes, Cape
Gooseberries, Rhubarb, Quinces, Crab Apples and Tomatoes were also quick
to come up. They all went into 3 ½ inch Pots and were given a good
dousing with water. I tried to do them when it wasn’t too sunny as
freshly pricked out Seedlings will burn up very easily. Just to be sure
though, I kept them overnight in my Workshop after pricking out to let
them settle a bit before going into my Greenhouse to grow on. Most of
them, with the exception of the Tomatoes, would have happily gone
outside on all the days without a Frosty night, however, I wanted them
to get some extra warmth to bring them on a bit. However, when they have
grown a bit more, the hardier Plants will go outside to make room for
the more tender Trays of Beans that I will be sowing next. Prior to
pricking out the Seedlings, I had already put out dozens of Pots of
Chrysanthemums, that had been over Wintering in the Greenhouse, to make
room for the Seedlings to grow on.
Going into March I put in a few Trays of Sweet Corn and towards the end
of the Month I will be putting in Cucumbers, Squash and Pumpkins. These
all need a few weeks to develop enough to be ready to plant out as April
ends. The Runners, Harricot and French Beans won’t go in until at least
the 2nd week of April because they come up and develop very quickly. If
they are sown too early, they will be full of growth with stems and
leaves sprawling everywhere and they can’t go out before May anyway as
that would be too soon with the possibility of Frosts that would surely
kill them. It is possible to get a rare Frost in May, but it doesn’t
happen very often. I can only remember one bad one in my lifetime! With
the sunnier days in March, it was tempting to take down my Bubble
Polythene that I lined my Greenhouse with, but I was still wary of the
chill in the air that we were getting on some days and Frosts can still
be about all through April. My Heater has certainly been temporarily
relegated back to storage though, but I will leave the Bubble up for a
while yet. However, I do open the door a little on warmer days to keep
the temperature down a bit. A decent Greenhouse should maintain a
temperature a few degrees above that outside, especially with Bubble
lining, so my Heater may not be needed at all from now on until the
Autumn comes back again.
Apart from lots of Seed sowing I started to dig up and divide various
Herbaceous Plants as we went into March. The idea was partly to reduce
their bulk and rejuvenate the plants, and this needs to be done every
few years, but also to provide me with some material to Pot up for our
forthcoming Fundraiser Sale. With this in mind, I dug up my Helianthus,
both my pink and blue Asters, my Golden Rod, Shasta Daisy, Stachys,
Sedum and both Lysimachia. (the tall one and the Ground cover one.) I
also divided up some lovely Pots of a blue coloured Grass and a
variegated one some of which I took to Work. A Friend also gave me a big
plastic box full of the common Salvia, or Sage, that is an evergreen
Herb with quite attractive blue Flowers. I roughly divided the clumps up
and got quite a few Pots out of the pieces. I will be putting one small
piece in my Plot for the future as well.
Last time the Gas Man looked at my Meter he despaired of the giant
Pampas Grass that was smothering it with its razor-sharp leaves. For
some time, I had been thinking about digging it up and reducing its
bulk, so this prompted me at the beginning of March, to get out a
variety of Tools and attack it. Firstly, I covered my Hands and Arms
with some thick Gauntlet type Gloves and a thick Fleece, then I reduced
its size by removing about 20 Compost Bags full of Foliage that I cut
off with my Shears and Long Handled Loppers. Next, I set to on the
massive basal part of the Plant. My large and I thought, tough Fork, was
the first thing to fall in the battle with one of the Tynes buckling.
So, out came my Pick. I hacked viciously at the offending mass and
gradually removed some of it bit-by-bit. Next, I got out a Pruning Saw
and tried cutting through the Root mass. Then, again using the Pick, I
then managed to lever out and break off a sizeable piece. Next, using a
trowel, I dug away under the remaining clump. This wasn’t too difficult
as most Grasses are fairly shallow rooted. Then I wrenched the whole of
the remaining piece out with the Pick. The Piece was so big that I
couldn’t carry it, so I had to drag it onto my Drive before cutting it
up with a sharp Spade. I put one large piece back where it had come from
after freshening the soil up with some compost out of the Compost Bin on
my Allotment. I also potted half a dozen large pieces and about 20
smaller ones to grow on for our Plant Sales. Then about a dozen pieces
were taken to Work to be potted up there. Hopefully, most of the Pots
will root properly and grow. Some may rot, but with so many pieces
potted, there should be enough that do take. Back in the 60’s and 70’s
Pampas Grasses were all the rage and they have since become less
popular. They will get rather large, but as a statement Plant they are
one of the best. In the right place they are absolutely spectacular, and
Grasses are all the fashion at the moment, so with luck we will do OK
with them and raise a decent amount of money in our sale.
As well as the ginormous Pampass Grass, I decided to deal with a Bambo
in my front Garden that was starting to get a bit out of hand. The
variety was a “Clump Forming,” one rather than one that will spread
rampantly. However, it had got quite big and was encroaching into an
adjacent stone chip path, so some of it needed digging out. I had to
carefully collect up the chippings from the path before tearing up the
underlying membrane and plant that was growing through it. The only way
of disentangling the plant from the membrane was to carefully cut away
the plastic leaving the roots of the Bamboo as intact as possible.
Bamboos have very tough, woody roots from which additional shoots will
come and not much in the way of fibrous root growing from them, so I
tried to save as much root as possible. Then I divided the pieces up
into more manageable sizes and potted them. Bamboos do take a long time
to recover from such rough handling and I have found that they are best
kept out of the Sun until they do recover. Hopefully, there will be new
shoots on them by the Autumn when we have another Plant Sale.
With Spring just about here I have been doing some other Potting and
have divided and potted up a Yucca that was in a large Tub on my Yard,
as well as potting on some cuttings of Cotton Lavender that were
starting to bulk up a little.
On my Allotment I dug up and potted some Jerusalem Artichokes and Oca.
The Mashua, Crosne and Yacon roots that I potted in the Winter, have all
started into growth in recent weeks in my Greenhouse. So, I will now
begin to take the hardier ones outside in the daytime to slow down their
growth a little bit. Now that we are getting some real warmth in the
Sun, if they were left in the Greenhouse, they would quickly become
drawn up with soft and fleshy growth that would be no use.
In late March I also Planted out the Potato and Onion beds on my
Allotment, along with my Flower Bed that had a few Lythrum, or Purple
Loosestriffe that I think I have managed to divide successfully, my
Chrysanthemums that I always put out too early, and some Alstroemerias
that I also managed to divide.
Another job that I did on my Allotment at the end of February, was to
cover the Sea Kale plants with upturned Buckets and then I began
harvesting them a few weeks later, at the end of March. Sea Kale is one
of those long forgotten Victorian Crops, but I quite like it because it
harvests very early in the Season when there isn’t much else doing and
it isn’t much trouble although roots will spread a little, in the same
way that Raspberries do. When picked, the Stalks taste a little like,
and cook and eat like, Asparagus, which will follow on and be harvested
as the Sea Kale is coming to an end.
Things like Leeks will be soon going to seed if left and Brussels
Sprouts will also soon be over, but Early Cabbages, Spring Onions and a
few other things will be available to harvest. Then of course, as we go
into April and May everything happens on the Allotment and a few
frenetic weeks follow until the Autumn when things slow down again.
 
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