The last few remaining daffodils bulbs left unsold from the members’ shop were planted around the notice board and in the raised beds at our North Road Site in December. Hopefully they will make a lovely display of colour in the spring!
We planted the daffodils about 4 inches deep, or double the size of the bulb, and about 4 inches apart. Daffodils can stand some crowding, but it’s best to keep them at least 3 inches apart. Planting daffodils too shallow will cause floppy stems that will break in the wind and too deep will cause the bulb to not flower or surface.
Planting daffodils at North Road
We will show you the flowering bulbs in Spring and I’m sure they will brighten the allotment site up.
BALGA decorated and exhibited a Christmas Tree at the annual Christmas Tree Festival in St Mary’s Church, Baldock.
Every year local schools and community organisations fill the church with festive trees and Nativity scenes. We called our Christmas tree ‘The Growing Tree’. It was decorated with fruit and vegetables, some of which had been grown on our allotments in Baldock.
The church committee wrote a card that said “our Christmas tree was inspirational and it was admired by many.” We left some leaflets out for the public to take and were pleased a fair number was taken.
Thank you to the members that donated vegetables and fruit for us to use and to St Mary’s Church for allowing us to exhibit our tree.
There is still time to get your onion sets, shallots and flowering bulbs before the shop closes at the end of the season (24 Nov). Many gardening websites suggest that November is the perfect time to plant garlic and tulip bulbs, so why not come to the members’ shop this Sunday (10am – 12pm) and get some planting done before the weather changes.
It’s always nice to see things growing over the winter and it makes the plot look nice when the weather is so poor and there is little else growing.
As you can see from the table below, we have very limited stock of some varieties. If these are your favourites, then please come to the members’ shop this Sunday before they are sold out. We also have a handful of elephant garlic cloves left.
The members’ shop will now only be open on 17 November and 24 November before closing for the winter at 12pm on 24 Nov.
Summer may be winding down and we may be enjoying bountiful harvests, but now is the time to start thinking of the next growing season and this means the planting of autumn onion and shallot sets and garlic.
The members’ shop took delivery of the autumn sets a couple of weeks ago and this year we have available:
Onion sets (60p per 200g) :
Radar
Shakespeare
Tornado
Shallots (80p per 250g) :
Golden Gourmet
Red Sun
Shallot sets
Garlic (70p per head)
Thermidrome White
Carousel Pink
Garlic
You can also sow broad beans in the autumn and Broad Bean Aquadulce is the ideal variety for growing over the winter months. There are packs of 200g for £1 available in the shop.
This year we are also trialing the sale of assorted narcissus and tulip bulbs. The narcissus are available for 90p per 500g and there are five varieties of tulip available; the price for these being £2 for 10 bulbs.
Tulip bulbs
The members’ shop is open every Sunday until the end of November.
If you fancy serving new potatoes up with your Christmas dinner, now is a good time to plant seed potatoes, and even more so as our remaining seed potato stock is now half price at only 50p per kilo!
There is no need to chit the seed potatoes because they will grow rapidly in the warm soil. They will be ready from September/October but you can leave them in the ground until Christmas Day. Make sure you earth up in October after the first frosts to protect them from any further hard frosts. I tried it last year with great success and I know Mick (Chairman) does it each year. It’s a great way to enjoy fresh potatoes on Christmas day!
Why not try a blight resistant variety such as Setanta. It is blight resistant, high yielding, has good drought tolerance and is ideal for roasting and mashing. The table below shows our available varieties.
Seed potatoes are currently half price at £0.50 per kg. You may have pulled up onions and garlic and this a great way to fill the empty space.
Did you know you can register with a website called Blightwatch and it will send you alerts when weather conditions increase the chance of blight on your crops? You can choose up to ten postcode areas to cover the surrounding areas and registration is free.
BALGA received an email alert this morning advising that a Hutton Period Alert was affecting a nearby postcode. Visit the Blightwatch website for more information.
Yes, it’s that time of year again! The annual judging for the Best Kept Allotment Competition will be taking place towards the end of this month. A small panel of committee members from each site will judge all the plots and select the best 10 plots from each site.
Plots are judged and scored as follows:
Overall condition of plot – 20 points
Good workmanship – 20 points
Quality and variety of crops grown – 30 points
Ingenuity used to improve growing conditions – 15 points
Originality of layout and planting arrangements – 15 points
The shortlisted plots will then be put forward for final judging by an independent judge in mid July and they will determine the best plot on each site.
Each site winner will receive a prize of a £25 voucher to be spent at the members’ shop. Of these two, the plot gaining the most points will be declared the overall winner and the tenant awarded the Basil Bryant Cup.
In addition a separate independently judged competition will select the Best Newcomer for a new tenant in their first year of cultivation. All those tenants taking on their plot after 1 May 2018 are eligible for this competition. The winner will receive the Frank Conway Cup.
Have a look at the winner of Basil Bryant Cup last year and his plot. I’m sure this will give you some inspiration.
The 2018 Best Kept Allotment winner receiving his prize from Chairman, Mick Camp (left)Wonderful display on the Best Kept Allotment 2018
After a successful start to the trading year, we only have a limited amount of seed potatoes left in stock now with many varieties having already sold out. In order to clear the remaining stock we have halved the price of the seed potatoes in the members’ shop down to 50p per Kg.
There’s still time (just) to get your seed potatoes, onions and shallots planted out so why not come to the members’ shop this Sunday (10am-12pm) to take advantage of the half price seed potatoes?
We’ve also reduced the price of the remaining onion sets by 50%, down to 20p per 200g.
If you’ve just taken on an allotment, now is a good time to prepare an area and plant some seed potatoes. It’s a good way to break up the soil AND enjoy a harvest this summer.
The members’ shop is open every Sunday 10am-12pm. Click here [Link removed] to see a full list of potatoes as well as more information about each variety.
Spring is here with warmer days, lighter evenings and daffodils and tulips blooming. April can be a busy month with seeds to sow and jobs to do around the plot. The lighter evenings also help as there is more time to work in our gardens or plots! April is also a good time to cut the grass and weed regularly and plant perennials for the summer months.
If your daffodils or tulips have finished flowering, now is the perfect time to deadhead the old flowers. This is important so all the energy can go in to the bulb to produce good flowers next year. You should also allow for the stems and leaves to die back naturally. Once the foliage has died back naturally, you can lift it and store it dry and plant it again in the autumn. Of course, if you would prefer, you can leave them in the ground. I plan to lift mine to make more space to grow other crops.
Now is a good time to plant out second earlies, salad and main crop potatoes. Some seed companies suggested waiting to plant main crop as there is no rush to plant them out. You can dig a trench 6 inches deep and place the seed potatoes inside the trench about 12 inches apart and 3 ft between the rows. Main crop potatoes should be spaced at least 18 inches apart to ensure larger potatoes. Or why not try the no dig method? To do this use a dibber to make a 6 inch hole and drop the seed potato into the hole. Click here to find out more information about no dig potatoes. Potatoes are hungry plants and it’s best to plant in well-rotted manure or compost. It might be a good idea to add fish blood and bone, which can be found at our members’ shop for £0.70 a kg. Click here for more information on the fertilisers we sell in the members’ shop and how to use them.
Potatoes
Sweet peas can be planted out in the middle of April. Sweet peas like rich soil, so it’s a good idea to plant in rotted manure or compost and provide them with support to get them off to a good start and you will be rewarded with many flowers.
Sweet peas about to be planted out.
Now is a great time to harvest the first of asparagus. We’ve had some cold nights, especially at North Road allotment site and its important to protect the asparaus spears by covering it with a fleece. If you want to plant asparagus, April is the last month you can do this. Dig a V shape trench about 8 inches deep and 30cm wide. Create a mound of compost about 7 inches high along the bottom of the trench for the crowns to rest upon. Cover the roots with soil and press firmly and water well. April is the time to harvest spring cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, kale and any remaining leeks you have.
Grass paths or lawns will need to be mowed this month. Resist the temptation to cut quite low, like you would in the summer. It’s much better to mow the lawn quite high to even the grass and when the weather warms up next month, you can cut lower. This will result in a greener and healthier lawn.
Now is a good time to prune cherry and plum trees as they’re growing. You should do this once the leaf buds have opened. Click here to find out how to prune plum trees. Click here to find out how to prune cherry trees.
You should also harden off young plants before planting them outside. Bring the plants outside in the day when it’s warm outside and bring it back in again at night. This will allow young plants to slowly accustom to lower temperatures. Alternatively, cold frames and cloches can be used by opening them in the day and closing them at night.
Seedlings
Now is a good time to plant flowers such as lilies, gladioli and dahlias. Make sure you have good drainage, especially if you’re putting the bulbs in pots or containers because they may rot. Bulbs are usually planted down three times their height and one bulb apart, but it’s best to check the instructions your bulbs came with. Make sure you plant in compost or well-rotted manure. Why not stagger your planting to enjoy blooms all summer?
April is a good time to get ahead and start your seeds. I’ve already sown courgettes and pumpkins indoors and chard and spinach outdoors. See a list of seeds you can sow this month. Click here to have a look at the sowing and harvest chart.
Sow indoors
Cucumbers
Courgettes
French beans
Marrows
Melons
Runner beans
Squash
Pumpkins
Tomatoes
Sow outdoors:
Beetroot
Chard
Carrots
Lettuce
Leeks
Radish
Peas
Turnip
Spinach
Click here to see a full list of seeds you can sow this month.
On Saturday 6 April, we had a working party at our North Road allotment site. It was great to see such a good turnout of members giving up their spare time. Some of the volunteers were responsible for clearing up the site by strimming the grass paths and removing weeds to make the site look tidier. We also cleared up the front of the allotment site by removing rotted wood and weeds from the raised beds.
A ramshackle old shed was taken down and another team of volunteers cleared the resulting area of bramble and other rubbish. A well-rotted-down compost area in one corner was then taken apart and spread over the ground to create a new fertile area for the tenant to grow on. The tenant was very pleased and grateful to the working party for giving her extra growing space.
Another old shed was taken down and removed from another part of the site. A lot of rubbish was removed and the contents either burnt, recycled or disposed of.
A third team worked on a plot where there was a large elder tree trunk that needed removing. It took the whole team to carry it to the bonfire! It was a job well done though and will make this plot more attractive to potential new tenants.
A big thank you to everyone that helped with the working party. These working parties are essential to keep maintenance costs for our sites as low as possible. The more work we can do ourselves, the better!
