Brassicas

As I have built some large brassica cages this year I wanted to make sure that I didn't have to move them too often once the brassicas were planted. It is always a pain to get inside netting to keep the weeds under control, so I had to come up with another solution.

This year I am experimenting with weed control fabric. I prepared the soil by digging in plenty of well rotted farmyard manure then I covered it weed control fabric. Where a brassica is planted I just made a small slit in the fabric and planted through the slit. This (hopefully) has two advantages:

1) The weeds between the plants should be kept to a minimum
2) Rain water will naturally go through the slits so that the plants get the most benefit

Time will tell whether it works, but last Saturday I planted out brussels sprouts, kale, two types of cabbages and romanesco cauliflowers.

Brassica cages now planted

Time to plant some potatoes

Learning from previous years when I planted everything very early and got caught out by a late frost, I have decided to hold on a bit this year as I figure that things planted a little late will always catch up pretty quickly. The things that I can't wait any longer for though are my early potatoes - International Kidney and Arran Pilot this year.

The seed potatoes have been chitting away in the garage for a couple of months now, and they are now definitely ready to continue their germination in the soil. Now that I'm on an allotment I don't have the luxury of an MF Tractor with a plough on the back as I have done in the past:

Richard Dixon preparing for potatoes at the old plot

This year it is going to be all done by hand! My process was slightly different to normal as some of the potatoes had fairly long chits on them and I was concerned that they would break when covered in soil, so this is what I did:

1. Put out the line and dig a trench 8-10 inches deep
2. Sprinkle a good helping of slug pellets in the bottom of the trench
3. Place the seed potatoes in the bottom of the trench, with chits facing upwards
4. Cover the seed potatoes with general purpose compost
5. Sprinkle pelletised chicken manure on top of the compost
6. cover the trench over and ridge slightly

It isn't really necessary to put a full ridge over the potatoes yet as I can do that later in the year when they start to appear above the ground. All there is to do now is wait until late June to harvest them!

Trench dug and slug pellets sprinkled

Seed potatoes in place

Covering of compost

Chicken manure applied

All planted