Anyone with an allotment?

I planted only the cloves but it was last year. Possibly should have harvested sooner.

I really need to note when to I plant things and when to harvest

144 perennials arrived, not one loss, happy days.

Does anyone have any experience with fruit cages. I've lost all my few cherries, half my apples and pears and a few other bits to birds/squirrels already this year, so I'm going to have to built a big ol' fruit cage round the fruit beds. Does anyone know if any (woven maybe?) netting will keep out squirrels, crows, pigeons etc or does it have to be welded galvanised wire fencing due to the squirrels. Needs to be at least 2m 50cm high to cover the apple trees as well.

Polish carpenter next to me who made some heavy duty cages recommended scaffolding netting - cheaper than the gardening-specific stuff.

Some questionable agricultural practices have been taking place near the village where I live. It’s culminated in the dumping of approximately 100 felt 20l pots filled with compost, which I have taken the liberty to remove from in front of the farmers gate and relocate to my plot.

How is a tomato nursery a questionable agricultural practice ?

Yeah…. Tomatoes, definitely.

On a completely unrelated note I’ve been offered all the used soil from an indoor farming operation, will definitely be taking them up on that offer.

I think I would be worried about the use of illegal fertilisers etc in that situation

This sort of thing

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30292153/#:~:text=A%20major%20concern%20has%20been,online%20or%20in%20hydroponic%20stores.

I know the farmer very well and well aware of his practices. Perfectly happy his soil is safe.

Fly tipped grow-op soil would suggest proper lowlifes so I probably wouldn’t use their soil.

Can’t go wrong with the felt pots though!

They left all the bottles of fertiliser too. Nothing I would t use myself

I had a 6 x 3 ft bed which was about 50/50 plot soil and used 'grow' compost and then had folks asking how I managed to grow 10 foot sweetcorn plants ...

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With black garlic, I understand (now) it’s a process not a specific species of garlic. But my question is will any old garlic become black garlic?

First lunch of the year :)

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Helped the committee clear the disused plot today. Found a tiny container pond on it with four toads in so I stole them and put them in the pond on my plot. Bonza!

'A four-toed what?' enquired Ronnie Barker.

Loganberries are kicking off

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Off to the plot today to start the long process of sieving the soil from the pots. Then planting;

Carrots
Purple sprouting broccoli
Purple spring onions
Butternut Squash

Also ordered some everbearer strewberries Molling Opal.

Sadly seems a few of my raspberry bushes are dead. Now need to work out if the soil is bad or what's happened. No sign of anything untoward and the bushes next to it are thriving.
Shame.

The picture really doesn’t translate the scale. It’s like a sea

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Amazing! Well done for hauling it all.

Chillis are coming along.

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The only issue is the soil is dry and I’ve been emptying the pots into a bigger bag and doing a sort of grape press by stepping in repeatedly

20 down fuck knows how many to go.

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That’s one way to try to grow a few inches!
Looks like a solid days graft moving all that lot - good work.

I noticed a few of my onions are bolting early, should I just cut the flower head or lift the affected bulbs? I read something about them storing badly if they’ve done this and don’t want a manky onion spoiling the others…?

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I’m feeling it today. In my delirium I totally forgot I’d put my first earlies (finally) in a row. Then I added carrot and purple spring onion seeds to the top.

Tempted to scrape the top layer of compost off and transfer to another pot.