Feed the soil

I was talking to a fellow allotmenter, just two plots away from mine, who complained it had not been a good growing summer for her.  I certainly tried to not to show it, but I had a rather self satisfied feeling at that.  True, it's been far too much work, but at least I've earned a fleeting moment of superiority about my yields this year.  I gave her a cucumber.

Why has mine in particular been so productive?  Here's what I think:  

• The inordinate amount of sheet mulching I've done over the last eight years, involving copious amounts of straw and horse manure
• Additionally, the very thick mulch of wood chips covering nearly every bed this year

The annual (or even twice annual) addition of all that organic material when sheet mulching has made my soil incredibly rich and moisture retentive.  Even though I've been fighting (and not winning) against couch grass this whole time, my beds have been gradually getting more and more productive, as documented on this blog.  I've been using sheet mulch as a strategy against the grass:  to knock it back long enough for my transplants to get a foothold.  Then do it all over again at the end of the season when the grass takes back over.

Wood chips have been a game changer;  until last year I would cover my bare soil with straw from the horse manure pile on site.  It served its purpose of keeping in the moisture but also had some drawbacks:  enhanced slug habitat, quick to decompose (needing regular top ups), and full of weed and grass seeds.  When we began getting free wood chips dumped at the site last summer, many people spread them on their paths;  I went a step further and started deep mulching my beds, starting with just a couple as an experiment.  Truly, it's been pivotal.  It keeps in the moisture like the straw mulch did, but has no seeds.  It also lasts much longer before needing a top up, and slugs don't hide in it as well.  Maybe the woodlice hide in it, but I had woodlice when I used straw mulch too.  

I suspect if I had access to wood chips and not horse manure/straw at the beginning of my allotment journey in 2018, my soil might not be as excellent as it is now (I still have access to both).  I'm also a more experienced allotmenter than I was then, even though I had already been gardening for years by that point.  Growing veg in a couple small beds is far different from keeping a full allotment ticking over year round, and I've learned how to do this little by little.  My overarching goal has been full self reliance in vegetables:  I've never been so close to achieving this, and as well as my hard work and experience, the vast improvement in my soil has been a key factor, in my opinion.

The son was very impressed when I went up to show him (it's a single bunch!), August 2026

Hot again, carry on cucumbers, bugs and good bugs, ducks

We've had record breaking heat this past week, almost unbearable at my work (a school kitchen);  because it's been so hot I've not done as much at the allotment as I'd planned--it's been too hot to get things done after my shift.  Normally this time of year I'm there both morning and afternoon;  instead I've been going straight home after work to try and cool down in the ten minutes before I have to walk up to collect the daughter from school.

So in the 15 or 20 minutes I have in the morning before school and before it's got too hot, I've finished planting out all my leeks at last, continued picking mange tout peas (sold to me as snap peas, but these are definitely flat podded peas, not the round swollen pods I expected), picked the last of the gooseberries, carried on loosening and pulling bindweed from my wood chip mulch, and of course watering all my containers.  Not all of these jobs in one day, unfortunately!  Though the daughter has helped water in the morning and the son and husband have done so in the evening.

The cucumber saga continues:  the plants growing in my kitchen garden are indeed growing, while I've lost a few more to slugs at the allotment.  Regardless, I feel a little more confident about the possibility of harvesting some, at least at home.  However, I may not be able to save seed as I have two varieties growing practically in the same bed:  a pickling variety and a salad variety.  I don't want cross pollinated seed as I really do want both types;  I might have to buy seed for next year.  Though if the salad variety at the allotment manages to produce I may be able to save some uncrossed seed from them.

It's only in the last week or so I've seen the cabbage white butterflies out and about, fluttering around my brassicas.  I've even found a few inside the insect mesh at the allotment;  the cabbages have grown so tall they've pulled the netting up enough for butterflies to sneak in.  While I have a few unprotected plants at home--the mature spring cabbages I've been gradually harvesting and a few late-sown kohlrabi--I put my last small piece of mesh over my newly planted pak choi bed.  

On the positive side, there are also a lot of hoverflies in my kitchen garden this summer.  And I mean a lot!  I've read they eat aphids in their larval stage, so I can only assume they've been busy earlier in the year.  I think they're really cute, hovering around my flowers and plants.  While not as populous as the hoverflies, I've also seen a lot of ladybugs and larva going about their business.  I let all the bugs get on with it for the most part in both my garden and allotment, and let the resident predators take care of any problems for me, a la permaculture.  My policy is live and let live and the only active role I take is against cabbage caterpillars, but not with insecticide or anything like that;  I pick them off and give them to my ducks.

Speaking of ducks, it's been about three months since we adopted those three nervous Snowflake ducks--how are they getting on?  We officially combined the whole flock in April, about a month after we brought the Snowflakes home.  They are much less quacky now, less scared of everything and used to free ranging in the garden;  we still lock them up overnight and let them out again in the morning.  Boy Duck still chases them once in a while, but they don't freak out about it and he's much less aggressive about it too.  Girl Duck has gotten really slow and trips over her own feet when she tries to run;  I worked out that she's actually about 10 years old now, and Boy Duck is 8.  The Snowflakes, not yet 1 year old, are all laying an egg a day:  big tasty ones with lovely white shells.

Life vs gardening: not enough hours in the day

March is a busy month for me, partly because it's the start of the gardening year for my climate.  But my life is also busy with two birthdays, plus work, school, and extracurricular activities.  Often I feel like there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything done; there's just too much to do.

Only two daffodils this year: not enough! March 2024

I sowed my broad beans individually in pots and toilet paper tubes more than a month ago and finally I've seen a couple start to emerge: about 5 from 160+ (so far).  It's been kind of cold for the past several weeks so I hope they've just been biding their time now that it's warmed up to above 12C.  

I do really need to get some more seeds going, but I've held back because of the cold.  This past weekend was the first nice weather we've had for a while, but it coincided with those unavoidable life events (the son's orchestra concert and the daughter's birthday party).  I did at least manage to drag the husband and daughter up to the allotment for an hour afterward.  And then stopped by after work/school with the daughter yesterday.

Almond still in flower, March 2024

Luckily seeds earmarked for March usually still have enough growing time when started in April instead, and our two week Easter break from school/work is coming up very soon.  However, I better get most of it done in those two weeks, or I'll have missed my chance.

Garden therapy

In some ways I look forward to winter as a break from the hard work out in the garden.  It gives me a chance to pick up some of my indoor pursuits, like knitting and other crafting and making.  However, I do find too much of the indoors isn't so good for my mental wellbeing, and this time of year--not quite spring but warming up, getting lighter--I start to miss my garden.  I suppose gardening in the tropics must be hard work--no season of rest like the temperate regions.  I do some very occasional garden tasks in winter:  maybe for 10-20 minutes one day a week (or every other week);  some things still grow here in winter.  For instance, I potted on some overwintered cauliflowers this past week.  It was nice to be out there doing something, no matter how small.

But it's been windy and not very sunny out there, despite a rise in temperature.  Not good for most garden tasks:  I keep putting off the weeding because of the weather!  Also not good for just hanging out there.  On sunny, calm days I like to just step outside and inspect the grounds.  Maybe sit down on the patio bench for a little while.  It feels good.  I haven't sat on that bench since last year and I miss it.  It's not even a very comfy seat!  But being outside in the calm and feeling the sun makes it much comfier.

Having my garden and this blog has helped me through some hard times.  I don't mention much of my non-garden life here, but we all have our own tragedies anyway, talked about or not.  And the past year has been a hard year for everyone, we can all agree.  I'm thankful for the small peace my garden gives me.