Anyone with an allotment?

Sweetcorn aficionados, I know you have to plant in a block - I did a modest 4x4 last year - would 3x10 be enough of a block or is that a bit thin? I could probably get the row 4 plants wide but I know how my kids would try and squeeze past and break stuff.

I’m thinking as square as possible

I think I went with 5x5, stuck a few beans around the edge, they might climb up the outer ones or they might not. Will see.
Also got a little 3x2 block on a neighbouring bed. Hopefully close enough to the main block to pollinate.

5x5 seems good. It’s really annoying because all my stuff is in neat rows. This corn is going to ruin the feng shui

Today’s effort

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I was going to stake them with canes but I think something more robust might be in order, any ideas?

Coppiced Hazel? Regular canes should be fine though?

Definitely hazel. Dug out a bit of one of the compost heaps. Lots of lovely mulch.

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No idea where to find coppiced hazel

Hedgerows. But, yes, tricky in the London :(

I’m near Peterborough so should be able to find something.

It would be good if I could find something that would grow but really slowly

Ah! Hedgerows round here (Oxfordshire) have plenty of hazel mixed with beech and as they’ve been cut for beanpoles forever there’s always lots of sneaky coppicing with a billhook:)

Are my artichokes ripe?

I can’t tell

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^ yes, get 'em before they open up.

All of them or just the biggest ones

Now what?

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Deep fried.

I watched a video on how to dismantle them. They don’t look how I remember them. I thought artichokes were a lot smaller. But we shall see, hopefully home made pizza with artichokes for dinner tomorrow

(even) More net bodging

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Done boring things like clearing the no mans land between our boundary and neighbouring houses of bramble and dug over a load of soil at the back, prob 3 bin bags of plastic dug out. Looks barely any different so no pics of that.

Time to contemplate the next move..

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Manure acquisition
Comfrey production

I can confirm I’m rubbish at preparing artichokes. Especially small ones where there was virtually nothing left

Very much this. I need to keep digging over the back boundary til I reach the corner cos I want to move my compost heaps there.
Got a ton of scalpings, grass and all sorts I need to layer up and get going properly in the right place.

Re: Comfrey. Any way to tell what is bocking 14 by looking at it? Seen various bits growing wild I could snag.