27/3/25 - Strung Up, Poo and Moved Out
A week off work has allowed for some much needed R&R and some bonus allotment time. Spring weather has made a massive difference and we're now at that stage where everything we seem to do on the plot is a bit of a gamble. Have we seen the last frosts of the year? Will the seedlings survive the silly day time temperatures in the polytunnels or will they wither and die? Has the mole who has been rummaging around two of the beds finally left for someone else's plot, or will he be back to gnaw through the seeds that have been sown? Who knows!
Movements
Since the first sowings of 2025, I have been maintaining the Super 7 propagators, the heat mats, grow lights and the grow tent. They have allowed me to get a great start to the season and many things have already germinated, been pricked out and then potted on. From time to time though, I just run out of room in the grow tent and things need to be moved on to make room for the next sowings and seedlings.
Perhaps the biggest gamble of the year so far has been done today. The movement of all the tomato plants and seedlings. In last weekends diary entry, I wrote about moving 3 tomato plants up to the polytunnel, and while it was too soon for them to be planted outside in their originally intended bed, it still felt a bit too soon to be putting them in the polytunnel. One week on though, and I'm pleased to say that they appear to have suffered no ill affects of the move. My plan for the year is to grow around 12 or so tomato plants and to make sure I get that number, I've probably got around 30 or so plants with the intention of giving the spares away when it comes to planting them out. Today, they all went into the tunnel where they'll stay until either ready to go out into the bed, go into their quad grow or get passed onto someone else.
Also involved in the move have been all the aubergine plants. I am a little cautious about these, but they don't seem to be doing too well under lights any more. They are not very hardy at all, but they'll love the daytime temperatures that the polytunnel reaches. Most of all, they'll get all the natural light possible now.
Rounding off the moves, the tray of French Marigolds have been moved up, the cauliflower seedlings in their 1/4 sized seed tray and the Brussels Sprouts plants that I potted on a couple of weeks ago.
Preparing ground
The piece of ground that has taken the most effort to work on has been next to the garden and pond area. This is where the main crop potatoes will go. I try to practice 'Minimal Disturbance' gardening as opposed to full no dig, and this is one of the areas that has needed a little bit of fork work on the top 6 inches. Some of that soil is still quite clumpy, even after breaking it down with a fork and rake, but hopefully, the rain will do the rest in the coming couple of weeks.
Stringing the beans
I'm not sure if that is the right thing to call what I've done, but it kind of makes sense to me! This is the first time I have grown broad beans, though I have seen them being grown on neighbouring plots for the last couple of years. I recall how tall they seem to grow, and given that I only have 1 square meter of them growing, I need to make sure I keep any losses to a minimum. I've read that you can stake individual plants and tie them to canes, but to be honest, that just seems like a lot of effort and canes for such a small area. Instead, I have put a perimeter of canes around the plants, and then used string to make a string grid at two levels along the rows of the plants. The plants can still sway in the breeze, but the string should stop them from falling down completely.
Trip to the stables
Today, we have made two trips to some stables in Ledbury and filled the trailer up with fresh horse manure. This is the 3rd time I've been to these stables, and the owner is more than happy for me to just turn up and help myself to the heap at the stables. The last trip I made was last summer. I filled up one bay and then left it the rest of the year to rot down. When I built the second compost bay, I turned the manure heap over into the second bay and left it for a few more months until I've just started using in the last couple of weeks. But it also meant that I had one empty bay ready for the next load. Two trailer loads later, a bit of graft with the wheelbarrow and a load of help from Ali, and the bay is once again full. I've put the compost thermometer into the muck heap to see how warm it gets. As mentioned, it hasn't rained here much at all which also means the muck heap is very dry at the moment. If I don't see the temperature rise in the coming day or so, I may add some water and greens to the heap to kick start it.
Once I've used all the rotted manure which I expect will be by summer, I'll turn this pile over into the empty bay and leave it rot down further for the rest of the year. It may even be time to pay the stables another visit!
Polytunnel temps
