Count Down To The 21st

We are now into December and whilst we look forward to Christmas like anyone else we also countdown to the shortest day of the year on the 21^st. After the 21^st it’s official that the days start to get longer and we can look forward to sowing a few bits in January and for things to start slowly taking off.

The weather is changing and what better than a cold fresh bright day to do some work on the plot. There is something very attractive and compelling seeing our allotment site at it’s quietest when the ground is white with frost and everything grinds to a halt. Frost is good for gardening (well we think so anyway).  The reason for autumn digging and leaving the ground rough is to enable  the frost to breakdown the clods of soil making for an easily workable and friable end result when it comes to planting time.

We like first frost because it gives parsnips their sweetness and enhances their flavour. Our parsnips aren’t pretty but they do taste good. Sprouts taste far better after being frosted than before which is why we don’t grow early varieties . Cold weather is also beneficial to fruit production with most fruit trees requiring a fair number of weeks below a certain temperature to set a decent amount of fruit the following year. We find that in mild winters  we see less fruit on apples, plums, apricots and gages as a result.

Frost and cold weather also help in the constant fight against bugs and disease when growing your own. Without the very cold spells we find that disease and bugs proliferate very quickly once the weather starts to warm up a bit whereas in a good cold winter we see less. However even despite some cold days of late the white fly on the brassicas are still very active and aphids are still a nuisance on stuff in the greenhouse.

Here's what our allotment site looked like this morning:

 

So whats happened  this weekend then?  We  have  checked on the stuff growing in the greenhouse. Day length is at its shortest in December and January so nothing grows particularly rapidly but things do need some water and attention from time to time. Our winter lettuces are doing really well in a cold greenhouse but unfortunately grey mould is showing itself on some of the older leaves. We remove these regularly and hope that grey mould won’t consume the plants before they are big enough for us to eat them. We potted up our broccoli plants into larger pots and these have done really well, filling those larger pots now with roots. We really do need these plants to slow down now as we won’t be planting them out until early March at the earliest.

We managed to get 90% of our sweet peas germinated in the greenhouse in November. Took a good 4 weeks but they are up now. In addition we have some osteospernum cuttings looking very unhappy at the moment but we hope to see some roots on them in spring if mould doesn’t kill them first.  So far so good on that front.

Even though the ground has had frost it is still diggable with only the top layer being hard and unyielding but easy enough to get a fork into. So some digging and clearing up done this weekend along with digging more spuds out. We have left his job a bit on the late side this year and have some slug damage as a result but our good intentions to get them out sooner just didn’t materialise. At the moment we have a variety of cabbages, broccoli, kale, sprouts, carrots, parsnips, turnips, spring onions and swede still in the ground which will feed us overwinter so the digging is done patchwork style around these areas.

Useful also at this time of year is to identify where your runner and French beans are going to grow. Dig out a deep trench and fill it with stuff thats hard to compost – brassica stalks, weeds without seeds, compost from the kitchen etc. When filled up replace the soil on top and it will settle over spring providing food for your beans when you plant them in early summer.

We have been in the process of building a large shed for the last 2 years now. Again good intentions but little action! However this year things have really moved forward and we have a solid structure built now and are working to get the inside of it finished before Christmas for the inaugural opening (this is the reason the spuds are still in the ground) . We have small sheds on the plots which are full of gardening paraphernalia so we wanted somewhere to sit down and warm up in the winter over a cup of tea. Photo below shows our pride and joy as is it now.

Time to get on  now and have a look through some of the seed catalogues to dream of what might be.