My allotment this morning

[The gardener]

Click on ;

http://www.picturetrail.com/gid4348228

[The gardener]

[allotment_chick]

Beautfully cared for TG and I envy you that strawberry bed - I started with the best of intentions but never managed to get the time.....the thistles are enjoying it, though so out came the woven polyproylene fabric to help see them off, until I can dig it (again!)

[sunflower]

Wow  :o all coming along great, flowers will look fab in another month or so.Just one ? what width are your potatoe beds, i was gonna do mine 5ft wide by 15ft long but didn`t think it would be wide enough but yours don`t look far off that & are lookin fan daby dozey ;).

[The gardener]

From memory I think they are between five and six foot wide.

The reason I do them across the bed is it releases ground sooner for 'catch' and late crops.

I can dig a row and put something like Radish or lettuce in as a catch crop.

[carrot-cruncher]

Fantastic pics

Your plot puts mine to shame.  Mine's so full of twitch, thistles & couchgrass.   How long has it taken you to get to this level

[tim]

What's the chessboad idea? Anti slug or something? = Tim

[The gardener]

Basically yes! Tim

It is lime, apart from slightly adjusting the pH to siuit the brassicas, I find the slugs/snails don't tend to cross it as much as they would have, had I raked it in.

The rain eventually washes it down to root level, and by that time my plants are generally big enough to cope with the odd slug or two.

[tim]

Good ploy! Nice pattern. = Tim

[legless]

oh its lovely, so well cared for and neat. you should be very proud.

[busy_lizzie]

Congratulation on a great looking lottie, Gardner.  It is so orderly - you must put such a lot of work in to get it looking so good.  Very clever ideas there too.  :D busy_lizzie

[Debs]

Gardener,

What is the reason for using soil in the brassica bed? Is it only to deter the snails/slugs, or does it serve another purpose??

I have broccoli and cauli's and a bag of lime in the shed so wondered if I need to do the same  ???

Please advise a veggie novice  :-\

Debs  :-*

[Debs]

meant to add ...

My soil is heavy clay with glass, slate, bricks etc :-[

Debs

[The gardener]

Ah! this could be an easy one to answer or a difficult one.

Basically I know my soil and rotation programme so 'liming' is on the same rotatation......I don't know your rotation or pH so I can't be specific.....hence my opening statement

Brassicas tend to like a slightly more alkaline soil than some other veggies, so I always do the beds where I plan planting brassicas.

As someone else said do not lime and muck at the same time.

To over come this I dig my muck in around Oct/Nov and leave it until Spring.

In my case I top dress the brassica beds with lime around March and leave it to weather in.

When I plant out I use the said pattern around the plants to deter the slugs/snails and all seems to work OK

[Debs]

Thanks TG,

AS I am new on the lottie, I have not tested the soil but perhaps I should  :-\

My plot has some awful soil - really heavy clay, but today I dug an area for my strawberries and was pleasantly surprised at how loose the soil was!

I shall just grow things and learn from experience and hopefully be better prepared and organised for next year.

I don't want to go to work tomorrow- I just want to be at the lottie!!

" Waaaaaaaaagghhh!!" :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(