Pig Sty Avenue

I was fretting somewhat back in March about this genus, and worried that its absence meant my allotment mycorrhizae were not thriving. Which was of course baloney, as you can see, I have this fine plant, and several other specimens around the place. It's a weed to be tolerated, given its hyphal nutrient bridging abilities. The fact is with plants, if they're common and have unspectacular flowers, they just don't get noticed per se, beyond a vague notion of "I need to hoe these weeds". But this one's been noticed, now, and I'm going to gather seeds from it and deploy it as a companion plant next year.

There isn't a vast body of literature on my foolishly stamped on but new best friend, T. subviridis. Gray (1922) caught my eye for several reasons. It refers to the finding of the leech in an allotment, in South Shields, of all places. This would appear to be the most northerly example at that time. The allotment exhibits similarities to mine: "As there is no drainage system, the land has been trenched to the depth of one and a half spits, and a well sunk in the clay in one corner, into which an endeavour is made to collect water in winter", though my endeavours at drainage have been more successful with the Council's drain operating as an overflow to my pond, also "sunk in the clay".   A population was studied in a stream in Bristol by Hartley (1962). The stream was subject to sewage contamination, and this chimed with the allotment in Gray, which was treated with "night soil". (I can say that in 1922 most houses in south Tyneside did not have f...

The problem with tweeting about one's allotment adventures in an hour or so after they occur, is that if you've made a proper Charlie of yourself, for example by crushing a blameless leech beneath your Dr Marten's boot, you're revealed to the entire twitter-sphere - in particular your fellow allotment tweeters - as the aforesaid proper Charlie. This afternoon, with a combined sense of contrition and curiosity, I've been researching this whole flatworm and leech business. It's now pretty clear to me that this was a leech, more of which in a moment. But I have learned this about flatworms, there's no evidence that they are causing damage to earthworm populations in the UK. Fear of them appears to be another aspect of the hysteria regarding almost any "invasive" and "non-native" species. Grey squirrels and their persecutors are perhaps the sharpest example of the phenomenon in the UK . A whole host of beasts prey on earthworms in ad...

For the 2nd time in a week or so, (1st time regarding dwarf beans ), I'm following Alys Fowler's advice, this time with regard to Swiss chard .  Long story short, after midsummer plants which often bolt if planted in spring will resist the impulse to do so, probably because of shortening days; (I say shortening, but in Glasgow, in July, we're still getting 18 hours of daylight).   I got a packet of Bright Lights , at a good price, (another reason to wait until July before sowing, lots of bargains, I've noticed). But where to sow them? Most of the 2nd bed is under a tarpaulin, but it wasn't quite big enough to cover the whole bed, so the last 5ft or so went under a sheet of plastic, (in the background of the photo in this post, here .) Transparent plastic was a foolish idea, weeds were growing underneath it, so I covered most of it with sheets of metal from the old shed. I decided to leave the tarp, but use the area beneath the plastic for the chard. Who-ah there...

That's neeps at the back, beans to the left, carrots to the right. Don't know why I've broadcast the seeds in this way, rather than rows. Something to do with making it more creative, but I'm still just mixing the paints and cleaning the canvas. Planted all in rows, like soldiers on parade, might have its place but shouldn't be the norm. Several times as I hoed and raked the ground, getting up the weeds, spreading the oomska around, I thought: if anyone thinks no-dig is a lazy option, forget about it. All of that hoeing, particularly, is bloomin' hard work. This is it, though, I've started no dig. There were some stones and glass, but I got them out fine with the hoe. It was forecast to rain in the later afternoon, and right on cue, about 5pm, it started. Which was absolutely perfect to water-in the seeds.  By then I'd finished the sowing, and was filling the comfrey-liquid barrel with water from the allotment tap, with a 10 gallon container and a...

The 3rd bed, (the bed formerly known as the NW bed), has become a miniature allotment in its own right this year, as I'm so invested in the resurrection of the 5th bed, and don't have time to cultivate the whole plot. There was a heap of oomska, now greatly diminished by usage. The garlic there has now been harvested. The tattie patch is thriving, in the southern third of the bed, and will continue to do so for another month or two, being planted in mid May. This afternoon, apart from working some more on the 5th bed, (which shows progress, albeit very slow), I'm going to hoe the other two thirds of the 3rd bed, incorporating what's left of last winter's oomska, and sow neeps, French beans, and carrots. I should mention (for my own future reference) that this was, theoretically last year's brassica bed, but that actually only involved 2 rows of neeps at the far N end, and so of course I won't be sowing this year's in that part of the bed. And I'm...

Lombardi et al (1997) found very high germination rates of T latifolia at a fluctuating 20-30C, with plenty of light. They suggest each cat-tail contains 1000s of seeds. If the anticipated invasion of the pond doesn't materialize next year, in the October I'll harvest a few and then sow their seeds in the poly tunnel the following spring. A few dozen plants should be enough. Eventually, I want the whole pond to be a solid mass of 8ft tall bulrushes. Lombardi, T., Fochetti, T., Bertacchi, A. and Onnis, A., 1997. Germination requirements in a population of Typha latifolia. Aquatic Botany , 56 (1), pp.1-10.

The area in between the pond and the Eastern boundary - about 6x12ft - has never been cultivated by me, and I don't think it's received much of anyone's attention, ever. Last year, mind, I was away during July, the whole plot was under siege from weeds, and that area in particular went "stark staring mad".  So this year I'm going to work that bit of ground. No corner of the plot should be neglected. I'm collecting plenty of compost material, getting the off-cuts from a florist, a neighbour's guinea pig bedding, our own kitchen waste, and of course waste material from the plot itself, such as the winter field beans. On top of that, there's a lot of comfrey, which I've already cut down and composted twice this year. An area 6x12ft is big enough to heap it all up and then turn it. I'm going to add my old compost heap, (in the far NE corner, where gorse is to be planted), but I'm waiting for some turnip seeds to ripen - they're grow...

The plants must be almost 8ft tall, which means the flowers are at eye level when viewed from the path, as planned. The second part of the plan is that the flowers will produce a lot of seeds, which will germinate in the pond next year. It's now full of weeds: several kinds of grass, docks and clover. Bit of a mess, frankly. But it's doing its job, getting water from out of the beds, so I'm inclined to leave well alone for now. Either the bulrushes really take over the pond, and shade out most of the weeds, or I re-excavate it and puddle the clay, removing and re-planting the bulrushes. But that's a year or two away, I'm still far too busy with the riddling and weeding just now.