The View from Here: 2017

Tuesday 18 July 2017

At the Allotment in July 2017

Broad Bean growing problems xxx Margaret Halstead

Broad beans are attacked by rust, chocolate spot and Didymella fabae (syn. Ascochyta fabae). Of these chocolate spot is the most problematical with no chemical control, only advise to create good air-flow about your plants, destroy affected plants because late produced spores carry the disease forward to the next year, keep your site clear of weeds which could act as host plants and avoid other host plants - vetch and sweetpea.

I think our problems began when we planted seeds too closely together, thinking to maximise our crop harvest.

Good air-flow is essential, in the greenhouse and on site and good spacing promotes better crop result.....but oh its so tempting to squeeze in more plants in the mistaken belief this will give you a better harvest.

Last year, I crammed my greenhouse to the hilt and produced more plant failure as a result - less is definitely more.

Happy veggie growing xxx

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GrowGirl.com added 4 new photos.

Oh dear our wonderful broad
Bean plants are going down with nasty chocolate spot which affects leaves, pods and beans, stunting growth and causing little green pimples to appear on the pods outer skin. These pimples eventually become black and look rather horrible. Internal colour blackens too and whole pods also blacken completely. Amazingly some beans are unaffected & may be eaten.
Other beans fail to develop, remaining as dried brown seeds, unfulfilled and dead.

Pods develop a tan/brown mottled colouration . Its a sad sight to be sure

End of season malaise , insufficient water , over-crowding or diseased beans, who knows .... we shall try again next year!

Just love broad beans , don't you ?
Here's a few
Pics ...

Monday 12 June 2017

Rats at the Allotment in May 2017 - Not for gathering but for getting rid of !

Sunday, 7^th May – Week 10 – GrowGirl.com at The Allotment

It’s the end of our 10-week non-stop allotment gardening and the pleasure continues, despite rats, flea beetle and white mould attack, plus that recent week of extremely cold weather, when we couldn’t make any sowings or plantings and activity came to a shuddering halt.

Yet here we are again in the heart of our space hoeing, weeding and net draping over G’s brassicas whilst I’m having to empty my two compost bins, which we think have been first-class rat hotels for the past few weeks.

In the very first flush of gardening excitement, fresh material was keenly added to ongoing composts, with no thought of re-siting or use of enclosed material. Then, planting seed potatoes, we inadvertently left a few remaining specimens lying about the potting-up area which clever, hungry rats discovered and gnawed. Thus, rats made their presence known, this action crystallized when I discovered two busily munching beasties inside a lidded bin. So that’s why I’m now having to empty my two bins and start all over again, in fresh bins and on a more open area, where our rats cannot sneak about unnoticed.

Its heavy work, both emptying-out and refilling our bins, then adding torn newspaper strips, activator and fresh plant-material, setting up my bins on wire covered open ground with open access for compost removal.

Luckily the ripe, previously made compost, was perfect for immediate use and our developing potato crop is benefiting from its addition.

Our allotment gives enormous pleasure plus ongoing growing excitement, experimentation and timely backache but oh the joy of neat green vegetable rows, companion marigold plantings and our wonderful rhubarb plant we’ve been feasting on since early spring.

Margaret Halstead xxx

for GrowGirl.com

Thursday 8 June 2017

GrowGirl.com – Diary – Week – 29^th May to 4^th June

Overnight rain improves planting for Spring Bank holiday. We buy leeks and brassica seedlings plus courgettes, an Allium, a new caddy for my tools and a rain gauge for G to play with.

Tuesday finds me re-arranging plants in a friend’s garden in the hot afternoon sun and thankfully the Monbretia and Soloman’s seal survive and me too, enabling me to do two hours of evening weeding elsewhere. Those pesky weeds and grasses certainly know how to grow and flourish.

We pick a small strawberry crop on Wednesday morning whilst weeding and then take a few softwood cuttings of mint and sage which I know will do well. However, the Lovage and lavender cuttings look unhappy and l’m not sure how they will do. A buying spree at Cotefield, one of our local nurseries, for nepeta, a red geranium, Cineraria and onion sets. I really needed shallots but didn’t realise they are planted up in late autumn so now is too early. I may plant shallot seeds for use in November if there’s growing space.

Planting out my Anemone blanda from late-winter sown seeds which now look very good on the plant table with my Marguerite cuttings and bright red geraniums. I also grew cuttings of Artemisia, lavender, curry plant and marjoram all of which did very well.

Back to the allotment on Thursday to water, weed and plant out new salad items after pulling out a few bolted micro greens; must remember, avoid the dreaded plant-glut by not planting out everything all at once in future!

On Friday, my hotbox and herb bed get weeded and my sorrel plant too, for its threatening to fail if I don’t harvest some of its leaves. Salad growing is an intensive job, keeping track of new growth, harvesting leaves before the flea beetle feeds and catching crops before they begin to set seed. Harvesting in smaller quantities too is better for the kitchen routine, otherwise there’s a great deal of leaf preparation and handling to be done, before making supper at the end of a busy spell in the garden. A tarragon in the hotbox has succumbed to my flourishing flat leaf parsley, which I prune, and the golden marjoram plant has done so well that its time to remove it to another bed, leaving space for tumbling tomatoes to be planted. I plant courgette plants and Tagetes with the marjoram and think they will all do very well together. In the next bed my horseradish leaves are already showing through which is very exciting. My earlier planted courgettes are growing madly.

My herbaceous border is filling up nicely and the welcome rain makes everything look so much better. I dig a new trench for the nepeta to grow in and wait until the cool of the evening to plant them. I wanted to add either pansies or more French Marigolds but ran out of daylight. My new flower allotment is fairly hard work right now and there’s still more grass to remove before I can make other sowings and plantings. I’m not a fan of digging so the work continues slowly.

On Sunday, I’m garden visiting at Katharine House Hospice, for their Open Garden Day, and showing visitors our WI Grow Wild wild flower area which is now bright with pink Campion, Corn chamomile and one beautiful Corncockle flower. A bright Sunday morning gives way to a warm but grey afternoon and then rain finally ends our event, driving visitors and gardeners to their cars as the heavens open. I wonder what reading our allotment rain gauge will display tomorrow morning?

Margaret Halstead xxx

Wednesday 31 May 2017

My garden diary - 22nd - 28th May 2017

GrowGirl.com – Diary – Week May 22^nd – 28^th

Playing hooky from my allotment at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens with family from Australia, taking a break from the watering and weeding at the vegetable allotment and heavy digging up of my new flower-bee allotment, in Oxfordshire.

We catch-up over coffee and lunch at Kew’s Victoria Gate eatery and glorious shop then saunter over to view the grounds from the exciting Treetop Walk. After lunch, we visit the Woodland Garden where on a huge clump of Nepeta by the Peony collection, a mass of feverishly pollen-collecting bees, attract my photo-snapping friend’s attention. Apparently, there are no honeybees to be seen in Australia and, determined to have a photo to take home, my friend zooms in on the busy bees, whose attention they keenly ignore.

Then to revisit The Hive, the prize-winning British design by Nottingham-based Wolfgang Buttress for the 2015 Milan International Expo, installed at Kew for its summer installation on Saturday, 18th June, and the highlight of our 2016 Kew get-together. The giant aluminium construction is linked to a real bee hive in the Gardens, where a sensor picks-up and translates every bee activity into a sound and light show within The Hive. Light bulbs flash and waves of changing sound fill the structure, fascinating and delightful to all visitors. A beautiful wild flower meadow, including Campion, Dianthus and Ribwort plantain surrounds The Hive, which departs Kew Gardens later this year, making us grateful we could view it again. Helpful staff were on hand to highlight the bees struggle to survive.

We complete our day with a glass of wine and a little must-do holiday shopping as another glorious Kew day ends, tearing ourselves away and heading home-bound. Compelling amongst an impressive list of highlights, the Nepeta bush is a must-have plant for my flower-bee allotment, which I will look for at one of my local plant-garden centres this weekend. Also, a few Alliums for my herbaceous border, simply because of their height and stunning flower-head.

Margaret Halstead

Monday 29 May 2017

Holidays

The trouble with a holiday is that it takes you out of your normal run of activities, opening up your world to the wider view, free from everyday restraints and concerns. Thus freed from your regular self, new horizons and opportunities open up before your dazzled gaze and life takes on a new enthusiasm . You encounter different places, streets, towns, scenery and countries anew and the experience makes you giddy and light-headed.

Worse still when you return home, trying to re-acclimatize yourself to your own world, somehow finding this favourite world lacklustre and dull,

It isn't, of course, but jaded eyes make it seem so and long-travel hours almost deprive you of the will to live. Just wait a while, re-gather your energies, organise photos and travel memories and engage with future activities and plans and eventually all will be well.

And then, well, you can start looking forward to y our next holiday venture.

The excitement continues... I'm looking forward to revisiting Melbourne some day xxx