What the pH

I’ve just measured the pH of the soil across my allotment and I am a bit mipHed. The one area I limed at the beginning of the year showed little or no dipHerence compared to the rest of the plot! Either I’m wasting my time or the hungry brassicas have gobbled up all the lime I put down. The other pHinding is that it’s all too acidic - at a dismal pHive point pHive on average. (OK I’ll stop that now) Well at least I know how to provide the biggest boost to the veg next year. I’m going to dose it up big style with lime this winter (except for where the potatoes are going). Here’s a link to a site I’ve pHound (I lied) with some of the best grapHics demonstrating the effect of raising the pH into the zone where the soil nutrients become available.
http://www.blogdivvy.com/growing-vegetables/soil-ph-for-garden-vegetables.htm

Has anyone ever used the pH tester kit involving a test tube? It seems terribly fiddly to me, and requires some subjective judgement, although it is always the standard recommendation in books! I’ll stick to my probe and meter. It allows you to take as many readings as you want quickly and at no extra cost. It certainly reacts differently to different soil, but sometimes I do wonder if it is correctly calibrated, as I’ve had it for years.

Remember remember...

It's worth looking back.

Being a weekend gardener the winter is important if you are to keep ahead of the weeds in the summer!

I see I started my blog in January doing the work I should have done in November! So this year I'm going to start in November: digging in manure, liming and fencing off the brassica patch ready to be topped out with plastic netting.

Planning and ordering seeds. Now these are the fun part of allotmenteering! I'm going to treat myself to a few experimental purchases. Ooh it feels like Christmas has arrived early! I couldn't resist picking up a (tiny) bag of 'roseval' potatoes at Waitrose yesterday. I counted them first 15 tubers for £1.49 makes them cheaper than the potato day supplies. But I have to store them over winter safe from frost. Last year's Shetland Black and Edzell Blues from the same source did well so I reckon it's worth it and increases the variety of spuds I'm growing.

My recent activities have been to cadge some paving slabs and some bricks locally. So I'll be reinstating the path that runs the length of the plot.

Some people seem to thrive on building work and spend a lot of time on their projects at the allotment. I resent spending precious time on non growing tasks, but this task is long overdue as the few slabs I laid years ago have slithered sideways and all but disappeared under the weeds.

Getting back to my roots

Been waiting for the first frost to dig up the first parsnips. Saturday morning the car was iced up. Yipee! They tasted so sweet.

Spud-U-Like?

I've been plodding along digging up a row of potatoes each vist (I can't carry more). Just one row to go. Here's some Sarpo Miro that have scrubbed up nicely.



They're just what I want at this stage: not so many but a good size and precious little disease or slug attack. Eating qualities yet to be tested properly. Their shape is a bit odd. Not only are they long, they're also flat!

Now for yield the Rooster wins the prize and they make wonderful flavoursome mash and roast well. I've been checking out the store in the garden shed for damaged tubors (of which there were few), and picked out some for baking:



Provided they are stored properly we should be eating our own well into the New Year!

Horseplay

The horseradish that I tolerated has been making an escape bid across the mutual path, so I had a war of attrition against it. The horseradish won - there's some stubbornly holding out. I'll be going back to finish it off.


Having dug out a couple of pounds worth I decided to preserve a good supply in vinegar. First of all it had to be peeled and then macerated in a food processor. Then salted, bottled and covered in vinegar. My error was to take too lightly the advice not to sniff the blitzed root. It nearly knocked me out, and I had to take the dog out for a walk to give myself some fresh air. Do not try this at home... After a break the process was completed. I've also kept some in the fridge without vinegar and some in the freezer just to see how they compare. I'll let you know how the test works out. Here's the one in vinegar:

It's bean too long...

Here are some Wisley Magic I grew just because I had some seed left over from last year. They don't taste as good as White Lady which has been this year's staple, but they are impressive! The White Lady are still flowering (see below), and producing beans for the table with the suplus going in the freezer.

Chuffennel

Never had such good fennel!





This second row has surpassed the first by not bolting. I guess it is down to the time of sowing, having sufficient nutrients in the ground, and the wet summer! Ordinarily we would just have it in salads but we have extended to braised fennel this year (and it was really good).

I'm fair chuffed.