Well today was a very exciting day in the PlottingUp camp, for today we have planted our first crop of spuds and sown our first seeds directly into the ground. I’d like to think of it as a mile stone moment.
Besides myself the allotment has a hive of activity today too. More people than I’ve seen so far since October. Everyone busying them selves like bees digging ground, using rotavators, erecting support canes and generally going about the business of growing. There was definitely the feeling that Spring was in the air. Flowers were blooming, birds were swooping around and we had a near encounter with a small fury creature. It darted into my neighbour’s compost bin before I could catch a glimpse of it enough to see what it was. It was brown in colour – too big to be a mouse and jumped so not sure if it was rat or something else like a stoat.
I have also taken the first step on my scientific experiment of using Biochar. We have mixed it in to the soil where I have planted out the spuds and also where the other roots have been sown. We have not used a specific amount but just generally spread it around. I will be conducting the controlled experiment portion of the study back at home where I intend to fill to raised beds of equal size – 1 will contain Biochar and the other will not.
So along with our “Rocket ” first early spuds I also sowed 2 different varieties of carrot. Our “Fly Away Hybrid” and also “Royal Chantry” which is small stubby type. Next to these I sowed seeds of “Student” variety parsnips. I actually ran out seeds to fill the bed I was planting and so I decided to fill the last little bit up with some radishes.
The different beds have been marked out on the ground using some old timber that was lying around at the bottom of the plot until I can find more suitable materials to use to make proper defined edges.
Lastly I went to use the ploy tunnels I purchased on line and am sorry to report that there were not of a standard I felt confident in using. They were very flimsy and the second one I opened up didn’t even have the correct number of loops to pass the wire hoops through. Disappointing but not entirely unexpected as they were very cheap. We live and learn.
I’d just like to finish my saying that I was overall very happy with soil structure and that the pre christmas digging and covering over definitely paid dividends. The soil just crumbled as i pushed the fork into it. It hardly needed any digging – just a quick turn and then raked over to make a nice even bed.
Hears to hoping the rest of the year is as enjoyable as today was.