Chips... part 2

One day after the potato day went to the allotment and saw a chap who we always refer to as ' the allotment master' partly because we dont know his name but more because his is the best looking plot, everything neat, everything healthy etc.

He was saying that he was getting fed up with all these seed companies selling old varieties of potatoes, his comment was that the old varieties were superceeded for a reason so why go back in time. I didnt mention the Home Guard potatoes ( circa 1942) that I'd bought the day before, bugger - I'll have to write cryptic labels.

Seriously though I guess there is a case for what he says but also a case for the fact that some varieties have gone because they dont suit modern agriculture and distribution. I wouldnt try this point on him though as knowing my luck the potatoes will get blight and I'll have egg on my face!

Second plot coming together well but I just know that once the weather warms up the weeds will return, bring em on!!

And another bag of seed potatoes arrived today, 20 Ulster Sceptre to add to my collection, need to check whether they are an old variety or not as they may need to be incognito as well!!

Chips with everything..

Today we went to the annual potato day in Hampshire, for anyone that doesnt know this is where you can buy potatoes by the tuber from a selection of around 150 different varieties. It is a great event completely misunderstood by a lot of people who think we are barmy going to a potato day, but I love it!

I had already bought a collection of blight resistant potatoes from Thompson & Morgan which consisted of 6 bags of 20 tubers. I therefore knew that I shouldnt buy too many more, but you can guess the rest!
This is what we have so far,

First Earlies
Royal Kidney, 9 Tubers.
Ulster Sceptre, 28 Tubers.
Home Guard, 8 Tubers.

Second Earlies
Markies, 20 Tubers.
Juliette, 10 Tubers.
Madelaines, 8 Tubers.
Marfona, 10 Tubers.

Maincrop
Valour, E. Maincrop 28 Tubers
Lady Balfour, E. maincrop 28 Tubers
Cara, L. Maincrop, 20 Tubers
Sarpo Mira, L Maincrop, 20 Tubers
Sarpo Axona, L. Maincrop, 20 Tubers.
Golden Wonder, Maincrop, 8 Tubers.
Isle of Jura, Maincrop, 8 Tubers.

In total 205 Tubers, which planted 15" apart will give us 13 20' rows of potatoes. I think this will fill one of the beds which is 30' X 20' and the earlies can make way for leeks and squashes later in the season.

The potato day was really well organised, the people working there and the volunteers were all lovely and I saw Wendy Ellicock there who had presented a course at West Dean Gardens which I went to in 2006. It was good to chat to her as she has disarming enthusiasm and enourmous knowledge.

I haven't got any 'Potato Fertiliser' this year but to be honest I have no idea as to its organicness and so may give it a miss, we still have a bit of cow manure so may just use that and some comfrey leaves instead.

Cant wait till we can get stuff in the ground but still loads more ground work first!!

Edges make a difference

I always used to think that having nice straight edges was ok if you'd done everything else but was pretty low down on my priority list. Then Matt started doing the edges in a sort of 'not really interested in gardening but like landscaping' kind of way.

And I have to say it really does make a difference! Suddenly the plot has gone from a rough piece of grass with indeterminate boundaries to a clearly defined area that shows promise. It was also good to straighten up the edges against the paths which over time had become quite wobbly.

Before ( with shadow of me !)

and after.

First seeds of the year

Way too early I know but more for morale than anything I have sown some seeds. I am going to try and grow onions from seed this year as the ones last year from sets were full of disease (white rot and downy mildew). Plus I think its a bit of a con when all you are doing is putting in a small onion (set) making it grow again and pulling it out.
So onions from seed it is, so far this year I have sown Ailsa Craig, Golden Bear (Simpsons seeds) and I am waiting for my Walla Walla seeds to arrive from Pinetree Seeds.
And I have sown some Chilli pepers 'Aji Hot' (Simpson Seeds) as last year many of the plants outside ran out of time and failed to produce so I'm starting them earlier.

The story so far.

We have had an allotment at our current site for about 5 years, and an allotment on various sites for about 10.

The allotment is on a site of about 90 plots, each one measuring about 40 metres X 6 metres. The site is nice with fencing all round, a trading association that sells all sorts of stuff quite cheaply and toilets. The site is in Surrey in the south of the UK.

In January of 2008 the plot to the side of us became available and we were able to take up the tenancy of that one, so now we are the proud (daunted?) tenants of 2 plots. So this seems like a good time to start a blog, even if it is just to remind ourselves what we have done (as entering my forthieth year is already playing havoc with my memory!).

Week one. Making a start.

The new plot hasnt really been cultivated for a few years. A lady had taken it over but hadnt had the time to do very much with it save for rotavating it a couple of times and spraying it with glyphosate weedkiller. So its pretty much a blank canvas, some people find this daunting but I find taking on a new plot exciting, a bit like to moving to a new garden.

We heard that we had the new plot just before Christmas 2007 so we were able to work off some of that Christmas pudding by digging for victory ( of waistlines anyway ) over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The plot is made up of four beds seperated by paths, they are 10m x 6m, 8m x 6m, 10m x 6m and 8m x 6m.

So the first thing we did was to transplant some apple trees that we had elsewhere into the end of the plot, to be honest it was a bit cold to do this but we didnt have much choice. Then it was dig,dig and more digging. By New Year we had dug over the 2 end beds fairly roughly.

We've had a few offers of rotavators but we prefer to do the start bit by hand to get as much out as possible, plus I think its a good way to learn a bit about the soil. I half think that rotavating destroys the soil especially when you see all the worms chopped up.

Havent seen anyone at the allotment site for over a week, it is very cold at the moment and some days the soil is just too frozen to dig.