May Day, May Day

It might have been over a week past now but I thought you might like to know about my day out away from the allotment. It was probably the finest day so far this year with a fabulous blue sky and warm sunshine. The focus of our day out was Culzean Castle in Ayrshire. It is a massive estate on the edge of the Ayrshire coast and has space for everyone for whatever you want to do. The woodland areas and walks are fabulous, particularly the one that takes you past the castle, where Churchill and Eisenhower met to plan D Day, and along the cliffs as far as the beach at Port Carrick where you head back inland after resting your head on the cliff top heather. You arrive at the Swan Pond where there is another big car park for the small families who came here to picnic and play. The castle and grounds are owned by the National Trust so be sure to bring your membership card when you call by.

On this particular day we were taking my new digital camera for a walk. For many years I have been using a large Olympus Camedia c-4000 which has looked after me well. I never really used it to its best ability and realised as the years went by that it was becoming a bit bulky in comparison with other smaller cameras. Then about 18 months ago I came across reviews for the Olympus mju range of cameras. They were promoted on the strength of being waterproof and shockproof. So when you drop it from a height of three feet, it has no impact. It is small and has a telescopic lens which does not protrude. But apart from Amazon I couldn't find them in the shops. Until this year when they began promoting them on the tv. I found one at our branch of John Lewis and have to say that I'm delighted with it. It can slip into your pocket which is a blessing when you are out and about and don't want to carry a clumpy case over your shoulder. I'm really pleased with the shots and in particular the macro programmes are excellent. I'm sharing three shots of our day, ending with the woods leading down to the cliffs with masses of wild flowers arriving on the spring scene.

We came across a carpet of wild garlic, centre picture, which when fresh has the most beautiful white flower. The garlic smell is aromatic and in the warmth of the day is one of the few times that I enjoy the smell. Once, in the 1970's when I worked and lived in the Kent countryside, I used to walk a footpath close to a small copse that was marked on my ordnance survey map as Ox Onion wood. This was also heavily carpetted with wild garlic and I often wondered if the name was an alternative for the wild garlic. An internet search has not thrown any light on this so I would be interested to know if anyone else has information on this.

I was not carrying my wild flower book with me so could not figure out what the delicate pinky mauve flower in the top picture was. I shall look it up but in the meantime if you immediately recognise it let me know.

So all in all a grand day out and I am sure my new camera will keep me going for some time to come.

Raindrops are falling on my head..................

I spotted this in an article in Amateur Gardening , a magazine that I have become smitten with because it suits my sound bite, limited concentration span type mentality when it comes to magazines and Sunday Newspapers, or even the Guardian come to that with all its sections and bits which I never get round to reading and they just mount up waiting for the recycling carbon footprint which is created by driving four miles to Sainsburys where I then find I have just purchased a million little plastic wrappings which go all round my food.

So I find it a helpful read and get lots of immediate hints and tips. Like their page where they try out new tools and equipment and mark them out of ten for value. Well, you cannot go wrong with this little item. As you have probably recognised, it is a rain guage and it measures rainfall in millimetres. Some limited instructions then tell you how to translate this into litres per square yard but I find that a bit technical and can judge that it will be the equivalent of a minor soaking with a watering can. But I find it a fun gadget to use and discover how much rain has been falling.

So you will not be surprised when I tell you that on May 1st we had 1 mm of rain in Glasgow and on the seond we had 2 mm of rain followed by 3 mm of rain on the 3rd. It does not follow that we had 4 on the 4th. We had none until 10 May when we had 5 mm of rain. So since 1st May we have had 10 mm of rain. Does this matter you ask. Well it was interesting to have a friend visiting Scotland for a holiday in Perthshire and he noted that the rivers were not looking that full. This is worrying because the River Cart which runs at the bottom of my garden is looking very shallow. So for the first time in my experience I am taking an active interest in rainfall. This is also connected to the fact that I have two water butts connected to the greenhouse gutter. Is Scotland drying up we ask.

Back to the purchase. It was given a whole page in aforementioned magazine. It rated top marks for value. It costs £1.50 from a well known supermarket which apparently is taking over the whole world so does not need a mention from me to help it on its way. And the rotten thing is they have a lot of interesting garden bargains in the same aisle. If you are as concerned about rainfall as me at the moment then buy one. I'll try not to bore you with daily rainfall readings.

Seed Update

The peas were gutted. They had been sown in four one metre gutters on 3 April and it did not take long for them to appear. And boy, did they shoot up !

They were ready to harden off for a couple of days and on the evening of 24 April were taken up to the plot where a pea fence has been erected. They slid into position perfectly, they knew what was expected of them. There was a bit of a heat wave the following weekend and they had to be watered agin to prevent any early drying out. However, since then there has been four millimetres of rain which should do them well.

The future is square

So what do you do when you excavate a ton of brick, stone, setts and assortments of concrete, bone and ceramics ? In the last year I have driven down to the council dump on average every fortnight, usually to take bags of pernicious weeds (my pet ground elder for example) which cannot be composted, to put in the skip. On odd occasions I have taken a rubble bucket full of stone and brick gubbins as well.

When, during February, we excavated a massive pile of brick and setts and assorted stones from one particular area of the plot, Gnome shook his head and said enough was enough. A small news article in Amateur Gardening Magazine mentioned that Metpost were manufacturing their own brand of domestic gabion.

This will have you puzzled unless you are connected with the building trade or the landscape architecture profession. A gabion is a wire cage which is normally very big and filled with stone boulders and placed like bricks to hold up and reinforce embankments. Commonly seen on motorways they are also used to canalise rivers and secure their banks, protecting them from erosion.

So it was off to the local DIY warehouse to find these domestic versions. "I'm looking for a gabion," I ventured timidly. "Never heard of it mate". So feeling like a wally, but not looking like one, I returned to the computer. The penny dropped. The gabion being manufactured by Metpost is being sold under the name of Qube. Gnome hotfooted back to the DIY warehouse and began the search again. And there they were. Sitting flat on a shelf in the gardening section.

The Qube comes in four sizes and I chose the 45cm square which I decided was the right size for the job. The job being to maintain the brick and stone on site, filling two gabions (whoops, Qubes) and placing them against the wall. Covered in planks they will makethe perfect bench for sitting on and using as a table for trays of plants. They come flat packed and you make the six sides up with curly wire bars that you screw along the side. It is very easy. There are two support bars that you clip half way down in the middle to stop it billowing when you fill it with whatever you are going to fill it with. As you can see its good looking too. I placed flat sides of bricks and setts at the fron and the packed the rest at the back with rubble.

I am convinced that these are going to become very popular in gardens as well. Already I am sizing up the smaller versions of 30cms to make a feature in my garden. They could look quite decorative with slates or also with cut wood from tree loppings. This would become an eco gabion for wildlife in the garden.

The future is definitely square.

So, How Many Hits Have You Had ?

Site meters are notoriously uneliable and probably give false comfort to many bloggers who think that they have a loyal audience who study every posting and visit every week for the joy of what is being written. I mention this if only because today sees Diamond Geezer getting his one millionth hit - yup - thats 1,000,000 hits in five years. This does seem to put my own 11,401 into a poor comparison. I'll need another 10,000 times that readership to match Diamond. But then I can reassure myself that I have a quality readership as opposed to an endless number of folk just passing by because they chose the wrong page from Google or some such thing. Can't I ?

Seed and Propagation Update

January 27

Broad Beans, Cabbage (Excel) and Anagallis seed all sown this day.

The broad beans all, bar 4 , sprouted. There were approximately 50 pots and they remained in the greenhouse right up until the end of March when they were put out to harden off for ten days. Outside they have survived a frost, a hail storm and snow plus some wind. So on April 5 they were not too fussed at being taken up to the plot and planted out. They were checked again on Sunday after a snow fall and were as vibrant as the day before.

The cabbage (excel) has been no problem at all and as readers already know, there are 75 of them. They have reached a size where they will be coming out of the greenhouse probably in two weeks time to harden off before being planted at the end of the month. I shall have to remember to cover them with some netting to protect them from the birds. There are hoops made out of water pipe to make a netting tunnel for them when they go up to the plot. And sufficient to offer some to a new plot neighbour who has just arrived.

The anagallis has been very slow to develop, but there is progress albeit slow. I am getting the impression that I was a bit premature in sowing them but the jury is out and a further report in a months time will let us know what is happening and whether it is worth sowing as early next year.

March 15

Dahlia, impatiens,sweet pea (astronaut), rudbeckia prairie sun), cabbage (caramba)

The dhalia is a dwarf variety with clusters about twelve inches high. The seed was interesting, a bit like marigold seed, and therefore easy to sow in individual cells. The good news is that nearly every one of the 30 plus seeds has propagated and have reached the two leaf stage.

Impatiens - no show.

Rudbeckia - a few tiny, tiny little sprouts have popped up in the last two days.

Sweet pea - everyone a winner ! All sprouting and working their way upwards.

Oh dear ! Not another 75 cabbages ! Caramba ! This years lesson is that cabbage is the easiest seed to propagate and also very reliable and consistent.

March 30

Nasturtium (St Clements), tagetes (lucinda) nicotiana (deep purple), cosmos (psyche white) tomatos - golden sunrise, ailsa craig, brandywine, tigerella.

The nasturtiums are not showing yet but it is anticipated that they will be sprouting soon.

The tagetes are just beginning to sprout and are minute.

There is no show at all on the nicotiana the seed of which is so minute that it might have got washed away. When the packet was carefully cut open with scissors, at the bottom of the silver foil square was some specks of tiny little brown dust. All this for 99p.

However, the cosmos seems to be following in the cabbage footsteps for consistent and vibrant performance. They are all sprouting and because they were scattered on top of strips of compost they will each have to be potted on.

No show on the tomatos as yet.

April 3

Peas.

The peas are an early variety and they have been planted in four one metre lengths of gutter with drainage holes bored along the bottom. This will enable the contents to be slipped into the ground when they are ready and then the gutters can be replanted with another crop of something to ensure a constant supply of crops throughout the season, and indeed the year.

This has all been achieved so far without any artificial heating. The only challenge at present is that there is no more storage space for trays. Getting crops out to harden off on a more regular basis should begin to happen once we get some warmer weather.

The Mustard and Cress File

Gnome took the key from the kitchen drawer and turned the lock in the ageing back door to the Edwardian red sandstone house. It was no ordinary house, more usually accommodating members of RHS/6 ( the government biological secret service accountable directly to the Cabinet). Dawlish had sent Gnome to Glasgow because of concerns about counterfeit cabbages that were appearing in the London markets over the Easter weekend.

"You see Gnome," Dawlish was tapping his pipe out in the ash tray on the leather surfaced desk, "……..this cabbage thing is destabilising the whole economy in the home counties. Rumour has it that they are coming down the M1 like marching ants in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest." They were talking in Dawlish’s office discreetly hidden on the top floor of the old naval building in Seething Lane. Gnome took out a packet of Gaulloise and lit from the match Dawlish was holding out to him.

Cabbages. Little green blighters that were commonly grown on allotments. Someone had found a way of shredding them for other purposes. Cocaine was fast going out of fashion now that someone had discovered the soporific effects of coleslaw. And now I was expected to find the source of cabbages that were invading the home counties. Having just survived the brain washing episode and a long haul in the Algarve on an underwater expedition for non existent dollar notes which in fact turned out to be someones blog, I was now going North to stop the flow of the different green stuff.

Alice had just left for the day. The coffee had gone cold. Not that it mattered. It was not ground coffee. "Good luck Gnome, and watch out for the PLOT(holders) – Interpol are taking a keen interest in this."Dawlish was re packing his pipe with something that was definitely not cabbage.
I returned to my Brick Lane flat. It was cold, wet and as unglamorous a tourist site as you can get when there is a wind chill designed to freeze the scalp of your head. I found one of those trendy internet coffee shops that was trying to be organic, with urban rustic furniture and retro 1960’s fittings. I asked for a double expresso – with just a little extra hot water – and lit a Gaulloise. "You can’t do that in here. It’s not 1968 now." She was five feet eight in her dungarees and Crocs, with one of those Michael Palin travelers bags.

She was holding a carry out Cappucino. "Follow me, chiefman Gnome." I swallowed the coffee and meekly followed.

Spitalfields is not the most glamorous part of London. But people obviously wanted to stay there, as they have done for hundreds of years. It’s a different breed that have colonised the area now.
Her name was Jean and Dawlish had sent her to take me up North. It was a Ford Capri and we ate up the miles up the A1 like it was a one inch map we were driving across instead of the busiest road to the Borders.

"This is the best way to approach Glasgow, Gnome, without bumping into the cabbage couriers." I was not convinced. In this car every head was turning. They hadn’t seen the like of this since Starsky and Hutch was on the television. We stopped at the E.G.P. (Edinburgh Government car Pound) and exchanged this retro baby for a VW camper van. We were now merging into the tourist background.

Glasgow was rushing at us along the M8. The wind was force 10 and the rain coming at us from a horizontal position.

Gnome lit a Gauloise and tried to sum up the plot so far. Dawlish had sent him on a cabbage chase. He had met Jean along the way. They had driven the length of Britain. After embarrassing themselves in a fast retro car they had arrived in a Glasgow suburb in a VW camper van. Here they were in a government safe house searching for a cabbage leak that had not been seen since

Dig for Victory was top of the charts in 1940.

And he was choking on a packet of Gaulloise.

Gnome unlocked the ageing backdoor and peered into the backyard. Facing him was a greenhouse. "Don’t go throwing stones in glass houses Gnome." Dawlish was stoking his pipe. He was potting broad beans and counting them out. There were 50 of them. Vibrant, broad green leaves on strong stems. Searching for sunlight, waiting to race away once planted in their plot of destiny.

"Sorry Gnome, you were just a decoy. We needed to send you on the cabbage chase to take them off the broad bean scent. We needed the beans before they became the next best thing since cabbages. We know that the M.O.N.T.Y.(dons) were behind this and you were the right person for the job to throw them off. Apparently they are still trying to get out of the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. Now lets get these babies moving before………"

Dawlish was too late. The beans had gone. Jean was racing to the car with broad beans hanging out of every pocket. The chase was back on.

(To be continued)

(With great respect to Len Deighton)