Organic Allotment

Snug as a Bug in a Rug

We have a wormery in our garden which is a brilliant way of using kitchen waste to create super rich compost and liquid plant food. Normally there is very little that you need to do to keep the worms ticking over. Just make sure they've got a good supply of food that they like (ours don't like too much onion, orange peel or anything too strongly flavoured) and keep them in a sheltered position in the garden that doesn't get too hot, cold or wet. Dead easy you see?... Though of course we've had exceptionally cold weather over the last couple of nights that could prove a really threat to the health and well-being of our worms so we've had to carry out some evasive action to make sure that they're able to keep warm.

Firstly we moved the wormery up as close to the house as we could so that it benefits from any residual heat from the fabric of the building. This also means that it is now in the corner of the garden that gets the most winter sun so the worms will have the help of the sun to keep them warm and frost free for at least a couple of hours each day. We have also made sure that the worms have plenty of insulation within the wormery so we've added lots of nice fresh food and cardboard to make sure there are no opportunities for cold, icy spaces to form. Finally we have wrapped the whole wormery in a couple of old towels and plastic bags and topped it of with a waterproof cap to keep the whole thing as snug and dry as possible.

This may seem a slightly excessive endeavor on a freezing cold day but we love our wormery and want to do as much as we can to make sure that its residents make it through the winter. Here's hoping they'll be warm enough in their newly improved home.

 

Going Potty

One of the mysterious truths of veg growing is that you can never have too many plant pots.No matter how excessive your pot collection seems when they're all stacked together in the greenhouse at this time of year, you can be sure that by the time you're in the throes of growing in Spring you'll run out and need to buy some more. Even accounting for natural wastage and broken pots this doesn't make any sense by the laws of reason but by the laws of the allotment it's a reality that I have to deal with every year. Maybe part of the problem is that every year I insist on trying to grow more and more plants and refuse to throw away any seedlings, instead trying to nurture everything that has even the slightest chance of survival.

So, now that all the pots are neatly sorted and ready to go I need to start thinking about what I'm going to plant in them and when. All my seed orders are in now and my first batch arrived yesterday from Real Seeds in Pembrokeshire. This is the first year that I've had seeds from them but I can heartily recommend them for the wonderful selection of horticultural rarities that they source and stock and the super quick turn over from order to delivery. I'll keep you posted how I get on with my choices which include Giant Limousin Turnips, Purple Ukraine Tomatoes and Iranian Round Chillis.

Winter Pond

It's getting to the time of year when the lilies start dying back and I think about cleaning the pond however, against my better judgement, I have to resist the temptation and leave it to its own devices. The main reason for this is that I've got it on the plot as a haven for wildlife especially slug eaters like toads, newts and frogs.An ornamental pond would be a different story but mine has no fish in there and apart from the lilies it couldn't be described in any way, shape or form as being ornamental - although I do think it looks beautiful for most of the year! With the possible exception of scooping out any fallen leaves if they start to take over the biggest favour I can do is to leave the pond to its own devices and let nature take its course.