Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Psychic moment
To vary the diet of senior moments we now have psychic moments. Flora - an Excel model - was running overnight and I woke just as it expired at around 0400 - not my usual waking up time at all. I remember such a thing happening once before. Then during the day following I went to inspect it, again just as it had expired. I will have to start keeping records so that I can work out whether something other than chance is at work.
Mild weather continues to favour allotment activities. FIL told us last weekend that dandelions grow to around 4 feet in the Canary Islands. Presumably he means that the flower stands that high, the leaves being rather low in habit. I wish I had seen such things when I was there. In any event I have decided to grow a speciman dandelion to see how big it gets when not entangled in grass and regularly cut down. Looks a bit weedy after transplanting but I dare say it will go. They usually do when you don't want them to. I will be surprised if I do more than a foot. Stake it?
The mole plants transplanted from Gosport are looking a bit sorry for themselves. Don't think they are going to make it after all although it is possible that they will shoot from the base.
FIL also gave me 10 suckers from the Autumn Splendour (or something) raspberries which he planted about 15 months ago. I left them in their plastic bag half a day longer than I had to and it will be touch and go if they all survice. Had a mild frost the evening after planting, that is to say yesterday evening, and some of them were looking decidedly limp by 1600 this sunny afternoon. Maybe they will pick up if we have some damp warm weather rather than the present dry warm weather - which is not making it any easier for the remaining broad beans to break through the crust that all the March rain made.
Inspected my seed potatoes which are shooting merrily. Fat white things about 2 inches long - having decided that chitting was not the thing. The book says that chitting speeds up growth but in my poor soil slowing down growth is more appropriate. But how does one stop the things shooting in the dark?
Tried a new planting method for the Kestrels - second earlies. Last Autumn dug out two trenches about 3 foot wide by a spade deep (the depth of the top soil) and filled them will half rotten leaves - about twelve barrows to the row. Covered them back over leaving two ridges, about 4 feet apart. Cleaned them off with a Chillington hoe this afternoon (which included chopping down what looked like minature versions of the dying mole plants but which I think were actually euphorbias), then planted the potatoes by digging individual holes, again about a spade deep. This was easy as the soil had been well shaken up in the Autumn and was good and loose under the crust. The pulled the soil back up to leave the one and a half ridges. A lot quicker than digging the narrow and shallow trench which is my usual form. Plus the potatoes are rather deeper, the rows are rather further apart and the leaf mould should provide a water buffer if we have another dry summer. We will see if we do better than my usual indifferant.
The seed potatoes were a lot larger this year than last, with the result that two bags only did one and a half rows rather than three. I will have to check whether the bags are the same weight and roughly the same price. It may be that I will get a better crop from bigger seeds - which would be well worth while. More news on that front in three months time or so.
Mild weather continues to favour allotment activities. FIL told us last weekend that dandelions grow to around 4 feet in the Canary Islands. Presumably he means that the flower stands that high, the leaves being rather low in habit. I wish I had seen such things when I was there. In any event I have decided to grow a speciman dandelion to see how big it gets when not entangled in grass and regularly cut down. Looks a bit weedy after transplanting but I dare say it will go. They usually do when you don't want them to. I will be surprised if I do more than a foot. Stake it?
The mole plants transplanted from Gosport are looking a bit sorry for themselves. Don't think they are going to make it after all although it is possible that they will shoot from the base.
FIL also gave me 10 suckers from the Autumn Splendour (or something) raspberries which he planted about 15 months ago. I left them in their plastic bag half a day longer than I had to and it will be touch and go if they all survice. Had a mild frost the evening after planting, that is to say yesterday evening, and some of them were looking decidedly limp by 1600 this sunny afternoon. Maybe they will pick up if we have some damp warm weather rather than the present dry warm weather - which is not making it any easier for the remaining broad beans to break through the crust that all the March rain made.
Inspected my seed potatoes which are shooting merrily. Fat white things about 2 inches long - having decided that chitting was not the thing. The book says that chitting speeds up growth but in my poor soil slowing down growth is more appropriate. But how does one stop the things shooting in the dark?
Tried a new planting method for the Kestrels - second earlies. Last Autumn dug out two trenches about 3 foot wide by a spade deep (the depth of the top soil) and filled them will half rotten leaves - about twelve barrows to the row. Covered them back over leaving two ridges, about 4 feet apart. Cleaned them off with a Chillington hoe this afternoon (which included chopping down what looked like minature versions of the dying mole plants but which I think were actually euphorbias), then planted the potatoes by digging individual holes, again about a spade deep. This was easy as the soil had been well shaken up in the Autumn and was good and loose under the crust. The pulled the soil back up to leave the one and a half ridges. A lot quicker than digging the narrow and shallow trench which is my usual form. Plus the potatoes are rather deeper, the rows are rather further apart and the leaf mould should provide a water buffer if we have another dry summer. We will see if we do better than my usual indifferant.
The seed potatoes were a lot larger this year than last, with the result that two bags only did one and a half rows rather than three. I will have to check whether the bags are the same weight and roughly the same price. It may be that I will get a better crop from bigger seeds - which would be well worth while. More news on that front in three months time or so.
# posted by Jim @ 8:52 AM 
