All work and no play......

Well now, it has been a while since an update purely because I have had about 3 days in the last month down the allotment at most due to a combination of bad weather and my fathers ill health meaning I have been doing his list of job at my parents house including the garden and painting.

The onions I have growing at their house seem to be doing well as I am practicing a don't disturb the soil approach with them meaning I cut off the nasty weed but eave everything else alone and it seems to be working at the moment as the onions are a good size for the year we have had.

Now Answers on a postcard I have no idea what this stuff is but my 2.5 rod potato bed is covered in it and I really mean covered as in not 1 bit of soil is visible ( the spiky edged looking leaves between the potato ones)

 

 I picked up an electric strimmer today from Homebase and they didn't have the one I reserved in stock like it said on the website, instead they gave me the next model up at no extra charge to make up for the hassle. It is an Art 26 Li Bosch cordless electric, I really wanted to go petrol but its just such a hassle transporting one from home to lottie and back all the time and the car started stinking of petrol as well which would of hacked off the wife.

 

I have noticed my Brassica's seem to have hardly developed at all in the last month raising concerns about soil fertility or maybe some disease like club root or soil Ph being wrong so..... I got hold of a soil Ph tester and it came out at about 7 give or take a small amount which is about right as far a I know which rules out that. I next tested fertility by giving half a row some blood, fish and bone last week but despite the decent weather they don't show much of a difference (I know BFB ideally needs to weather in) and lastly I dug one up to check the roots but the roots seemed clean and healthy although still quite small.

I am really at a loss now, all I can think to do is give them a good dose of nettle tea which I have brewing and if that fails to help them along I may just pull my hair out followed by the plants and try putting in something from a different plant family and see what happens.

One success story this year despite the lack of sun is my strawberry's as they are in the 2nd and 3rd years and most of the fruiting stalks have 6+ strawbs.