Onion White rot

I have mentioned before about having white rot in my onions and treating the soil with garlic powder.
I still had white rot badly this year (2014) but reading that others seemed to have more success I thought I would try once more. I am not sure where I got the garlic powder last year but when I got some more this year as used for horses it smelt a lot stronger than last years, so I have once more treaeted the soil and will see what happens next year.

Black Berries and sweet peas

I did post a picture of the large flowers on my blackberry canes , now I have started picking some very nice large blackberries

A fortnight ago I had some success with my sweet peas that I now grow on the allotment, four first prizes with one cup, one medal and a certificate.

Had to thin some of my gooseberries this morning, this is their first year but the branches were touching the ground. I did buy from a  fruit nursery so that they were lifted one day and I planted them with a little "root grow" the next day.

Spring Show 2014

We managed to put a few entries into the LGA show, Ann got best flower arrangemant and I got the Henry Reader Cup for the best vase of trumpets. I did stage a vase of 3 "MollyAnn" but only got a second.

"Molly Ann" a variety that we have registered with the RHS and Daffodil Society named after our grand daughter.

Managed to win the six vase class and a few others, the single bloom is Bravoure quite a nice 1w/y.
The top photo is top to bottom left to right. Achduart,Estrella, Privateer,Golden Aura,Gold Finger and
Perbeck.

Cutting flowers for flower shows

We try to get members to cut their flowers early for shows but many do not think this is possible so I thought I would show how I manage now that we live in a flat and all my flowers are grown on the allotment some 3/4 mile away. The top picture are flowers cut ready for Saturday's show at Bidborough , today is Wednesday, the lower picture are the flowers I used last Saturday at Pembury, they where nearly all cut the previous Sunday as we were going away for a couple of days. Some of the lower ones may be used again this Saturday.

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ready to start begonias

I have just got my begonia corms out ready to start. I would if I had some heat etc. have done this some time ago but now I have to make the best I can. Some of these tubers are over 25 years old.

start of the New Year

 Nice sprouts now forming on my seed potatoes but not sure when the ground will dry out enough to think of planting

 Bought some seed potatoes yesterday so have laid them out ready for sprouting. Picked sprouts and purple sprouting this morning on the allotment also managed to weed daffodils ready for a feed of Vitax Q4.This picture was taken mid January

 

my new plot

When I took these first two photos I had just been given another plot on the allotments last spring so I thought I would try and show what I do with it as it is in a rather poor state at the moment, so I start with a picture before I do anything. I think the previous owner had seen a television programme about raised beds and had put a lot of wooden surrounds in but no extra soil?

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The next two photos show my allotment plot 12 months later

Onion White Rot

Onion white rot is the cause of sometimes a complete loss of an onion crop. The onions grow well but towards the end of the season they start to look rather pale and poorly, when you go to lift you find all the roots have rotted and most times there is a white mould visible on the base.The spores from that crop remain in the ground until another allium crop is planted then they attack the new crop. Up to now there has been very little that can be done to overcome this since they took Armillatox away, but now several have tried using a garlic solution on the soil immediately after lifting before the spores go dormant. This has the effect of getting the spores to germinate but as there is now crop for them to infect and live on the spores die out. I am trying this on my plot where a had an infected crop last year. This picture taken in January shows my autumn planted onion sets 2 weeks ago and I will try and follow them through the season.

 

 

The next picture taken on May 4th shows little change due to the long cold spring but they still look

I must now admit that the garlic treatment does not seem to have been effective as the plants are looking very sick indeed ,I have recently read that you need to treat the ground twice so maybe that is where I went wrong. I think later after I have cleared this crop I may try garlic powder and only plant a few sets just to try next spring. If anyone reading this blog has a comment about garlic I would be pleased to hear from them. 

Does frost really kill pests ?

We have had several quite servere frosts in recent days but when I went to pick some sprouts I found these little fellows having a good feed.

The sprouts themsleves are quite good, the variety is Bridget

Crop that did promise

In the pictures of my promising crops you can see my sweetcorn. I picked several cobs and they were so good. My wife Ann thought she might have added sugar as they were so sweet but it was the variety, however the next time I went to my plot , I had had a visit by a badger he had climbed over the fence and eaten every cob.It has been suggested that he would have burrowed under the wire but I think I would see some sign of this and it is known that badgers can climb.

promising crops

Several people are having a bad year for runner beans and some with sweetcorn I have done nothing special but at the moment both of these crops with me promise to be good. I sowed the runner beans at intervals so that hopefully I will pick well into October ,weather permitting. These pictures weretaken on Tuesday 21st August

I had a load of manure delivered but it was some way from my plot so it meant a lot of wheelbarrow work.I have lifted most of the old wood surrounds so now need a good bonefire.Managed to get enough claer to plant a row of raspberries.

Just to update on the progress with my new plot. It is taking time as there is such a lot of couch etc. to get out but I have now planted a row of raspberries. Another plot owner helped me by taking away all the old carpet etc. that was between the wood surrounds left by the previous owner. Wednesday 14th March I spend about a couple of hours most days digging and cleaning , I have planted some black berries and strawberries. I am told the badgers like fruit so will put some wire netting round that area. I have about half of my new plot dug now.

Progress on my allotment. Most things are growing quite well , I have planted some raspberries,strawberries and blackberries, these should all crop well next year although we are getting a few strawberries now. the potatoes, parsnips,swedes ,onions,beetroot and various brassicas  are looking good. I am getting quite a lot of weeds coming back but hope to keep on top of them.

Sweetcorn is looking good along with the parsnips. I have had to put netting round as I am told the badgers love both.
We are now picking runner beans (3rd Aug) I have planted at intervals to get a long period of crop.
The tomato plants are grafted as they are supposed to be resistant to blight.It looks as if there will be a very large crop.

I have mentioned that having moved and lost our garden and greenhouse etc. I now have to do things in a different way. One thing that changed was having my begonias in pots in the greenhouse further down you can see I had them last year in containers but then I had nowhere to dry them off, so they have been in the shed with a fair amount of the old compost still attached. Normally I would have started them into growth by now but with no greenhouse this could not be so. Today March 18th I have cleaned them up ready to put them into trays and I thought you might be interested to see the amount of roots I get by covering the corms with compost rather than leaving them on the surface as we used to. The whole corm can produce roots if in contact with compost and when we used to leave them on the surface this was not possible. You should not worry about water collecting in the top of the corm as the compost will draw this out.

Doing things in a different way

A different way of gardening.
 As I have mentioned before now we have had to move I have no real garden but I still want to grow my sweet  peas. I got permission when we came here to have a row at the bottom of the grass area in front of our flat. They did ok but I had very good plants to start with as I then had my greenhouse etc. to do the job properly. I have no greenhouse now but sowed the seeds as I always do on October 8th, from 50 seeds I have 49 plants, so far so good. The problem then came what to do with them, they were on a garden table but in danger of getting blown over in the strong wind. I have now planted them in the row where I hope they will grow and bloom. I have never planted this early before so will get some fleece to cover them should we get severe weather. I have taken a picture of them so you can follow their progress or failure as the case may be.

I did say I would follow through even if failure and that is what has happened. The plants were not looking too bad but severe weather was forecast so I used hoops and fleece as some protection. The wind one night partly opened one end and before I put it right a badger went in, could not find his way out so destroyed the lot. There are only two plants any good so I will be re-planting with some from a friend and I have sown a late batch of seed.

Amaryllis.

The bulb in this pot is about 12 years old if they are fed well after flowering for around 6 months and you leave the leaves to died back then they should flower and increase each year.

Changes in Gardening

My gardening life has changed rather recently, I have spent nearly all my life as gardener in private service. This has meant living in a tied house and when you change or lose your job you also change or lose your home. Thus happened to us in October 2010 when the person we had worked for for 25 years passed away. This has meant that from having as much garden as I wanted to having no garden at all.This has made me think of other ways to grow my begonias etc. Near our flat is an area of ground close to a very large pine tree, the area is full of large roots and could never be cultvated so I now have all my begonias in containers and made a feature of them on this unused ground .
To grow some vegetables I have taken on a small allotment which is in rather a bad state. Over the next few months I will post pictures to show progress, if any, with these ventures


It starts to look better as the plants grow but I will have to change the edging as the strimmer rips it part





So that we can have some vegetables I have taken on a small allotment which is in a very poor state but will try and follow through the year with both events.

Things are getting better. After I had planted the sweetcorn I am told that the badgers love sweetcorn, they wait until it is ready to harvest and then help themselves. I have put wire netting round in hope of getting some to eat. Have had good lettuce and fair potato crop so far but there is bad blight on one plot and nothing is being done to it so I exoect it will spread to all our plots.