Tales from the Plot June
As I’m writing this it seems ridiculous because we’ve had the wettest coldest beginning of the year I can ever remember. Because of the cold everything that I have planted has taken some time to establish itself and get going. Nature and the climate have a habit of giving you a challenge in one way or another every year.
I’ve really struggled this year, have set seeds in the same way as I have for many years but this year germination has been pretty awful, I think it’s just a combination of the cold, wet and the peat free compost we now use. Sweetcorn has been a prime example, there always used to be 50 seeds in a packet I would set all 50 and usually get about 45 come up, this year the packet now only has 30 seeds in and I literally only had about five come up……I’ve ended up purchasing another packet of seeds and set those, I’ll let you know if they do any better but sadly so far it’s not looking good. The lettuce I’ve set the seeds of start to show their heads above the compost and just die off, I’m beginning to think it has to be a problem with the compost, I keep trying different varieties. Hopefully I’ll stumble upon reasonably priced compost that works.
June was always known as flaming June and is normally a time of year our plants need more water. Soils that are rich in well rotted organic matter are the best for retaining moisture as the organic matter acts like a sponge. Mulches are great for retaining moisture and when applied to already damp soils, mulches reduce requirements for water. I mulch everything with leaves, grass cuttings and wood shavings out of my chicken coop etc. This not only means less watering, it can mean less weeding!
Water butts are a must all year round, but especially so in the heat of summer, rainwater is far better than tap water it also saves the trudging backwards and forwards to the water troughs so I save as much as I can.
My leeks have been growing undercover so far, it’s normally this time of year I put them in their final growing position. I’m going to try and keep them covered this year. I’ve also planted marigolds around where they’ll be grown – all in an attempt to keep the allium leaf miner away from them – last year they were devastated by this pest. It was never heard of in this country but over the last 10 years or so it has migrated north and I’m told now infects crops in Scotland so giving alliums protection is a must.
Potatoes are all in and showing their heads, sadly the weeds are also in full production and hoeing is never more important than now, if I can just whip over with the hoe at least once a week then normally I can keep on top of things. I always try and space my crops wide enough to get a hoe between them otherwise it can be a backbreaking, soul destroying job plucking them out by hand.
Pinch the top out of broad beans about now, this helps with the black fly – I still use a few drops of washing up liquid with some rape seed oil added, about a tablespoon to a half litre squirt bottle, but this has to be done daily for a week because you have to kill several generations to get them. My nest box has a thriving blue tit family nesting, a real joy to see the parent birds working in tandem to feed the young chicks. The box is situated about 10ft off the ground. It’s a great reminder that our plots can be important wildlife havens, many allotments are in urban areas where green spaces can be in short supply for wildlife.
All now seems to be going well so hopefully soon we’ll be reaping the rewards of the work we have put in so far this year.
Richard Thorpe
Syston Allotments 15b