Notes and plans for next season

1) Don’t give precious growing space to caulis. You’ve never been able to grow them successfully. In fact, you’re shit!
2) Build wooden retaining walls for the parsnip and long carrot drums and do away with the old metal frames.
3) Grow Pinnacle parsnip and sweet Candle stump…..definitely…..no if’s, but’s or maybe’s!
4) Buy new peat for the spud bags…..but start soon so you can be sieving over winter.
5) Get some cow muck dug in this autumn to the brassica and onion beds.
6) Put netting over cabbages. Only thing that stops cabbage whites.
7) Dig up some shrubs and trees up the garden for extra space for growing dahlias in.
8) Erect a proper f*cking bean fence…..preferably one that doesn’t go ‘ I can’t stand it any longer’ and falls over at the first breath of wind!
9) Growing broad beans for August and September shows…..it can’t be done! Stop it!
10) Aubergines…..waste of effort. Stop it!
11) Grow ‘Vento’ small onions if you can find some seed. Saw some at Littleover and they looked very good for the under 8oz class.
12) Pluck up courage to have a go at the NVS Midland Championships at Malvern in September 2009….probably in tomatoes & parsnips only for now….don’t go mad at first!
13) Get the polytunnel sorted once and for all so that you can grow better quality onions and leeks.
14) Sell the kids….they’re expensive.

Still mild

Such mild weather we're having........here in Leicestershire we still haven't had a proper frost and my dahlias are still flowering. However, I think I'll dig them up this weekend come what may and start the storage process. I'll take some pics and post them over the weekend.



I've sourced a good supply of well-rotted cow muck and need to get that collected in the next few weeks. I'd like to get it spread on the plot by the end of the month so the worms can start to do their stuff. I'll also put a sackful to one side to soak in a barrel of water in the spring for a liquid feed for the celery, beans and peas.



All the seed catalogues have come and I've more or less decided what varieties I want to grow next year. As I said before I'm drastically reducing the selection so I don't get too bogged down growing what I term 'non-essentials' in the show world...........radish/chard/okra/turnips etc. I only grew them last year to make up a different take on the trug and basket classes.



Between now and Christmas I need to have a damned good tidy in my garage and greenhouse. I have pots/compost/tools/old seed packets etc all over the place and need to get things back to a level of normality and good organisation ready for the next season. What tends to happen as I'm running around at show time preparing different veg and loading the car is that things get thrown down where I last used them, despite my best intentions. I have a load of old Beano and Dandy books that could go on Ebay......the proceeds can go towards my seed purchases!

Steaming!

I need to find some of this and get it on my garden this autumn......and it needs to be well rotted. I haven't put any cow shit on my plot now for a few years and I think it's starting to show. The soil looks tired and lacking in substance.

It's basically clay and whilst I've improved it over the years my intensive growing regime means I expect a lot of my soil. It can get very wet and cold in the spring meaning I can't sow or plant too early and it bakes hard in the summer. Things like cabbages especially have been disappointing this season simply because I think the soil runs out of steam. I plant quite close together and don't believe in watering unless I really have to. You can apply fertilisers to the soil but unless the soil is meaty and full of humus I don't think it does an awful lot of good.

So........