Third Steps In The Allotment #8

 Raking The Soil Level

I headed to the allotment a third time to continue my weeding and managed to do a fair amount. I used my rake to further crumble the soil into a fine tilth.

You can see in these photos the difference on the left and right side of the plot. The darker area on the right has been raked well and the lighter area on the left was not yet done.

Here's the same plot from a different angle.

This is the sunnier side of my plot. It was covered with a ground sheet that I partially peeled back. It did a fantastic job at keeping the weeds down which made my life easier. 

Finally these two photos show you how it looks like after I cleaned this part up. I used these wooden frames that are actually part of my compost bin to use as some raised beds for some of my crops this year.

This should be a very interesting year. Stay tuned with my gardening content on Youtube!

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Second Steps In The Allotment 2022 #7

 Storm Eunice Hits The Greenhouse

We had a pretty strong storm hit us here in the UK recently which caused a lot of damage to my greenhouse. Shattered panes of glass were everywhere as well as the door to the greenhouse being completely ripped off.

Thankfully we had already removed a good amount of the glass panes the last time we had come in January with a relative of mine. The ones that remained as well as the ones we left outside were hammered by the storm.

Large and small pieces of glass had covered the ground sheet and some pieces actually sliced right through it and pierced the soil. I had to carefully remove them bit by bit.

The greenhouse has a sliding door and that was completely ripped out. Thankfully nobody was hurt in the process. I'm also proud to say this happened at a time of year where I had not yet planted any crops. 

Later to make things easier I grabbed a wheelbarrow and began collecting all the bigger pieces to throw away in the bin.

Besides the clean up I did manage to start weeding around the part of my plot that was no covered by the ground sheets. It was a lovely day and so I took my time to do it well and ended up with good results.

Here you can see all the weeds I had managed to dig out of the ground, they weren't too tricky to deal with but I have had some that were a pain in the past. Compared to then, this was a breeze.

I threw all of the weeds into my compost bin (none of the weeds had gone to seed so it was okay) that way I can eventually get them to turn in to compost. The bottom layer has already done so, it's just a matter of time until the rest does too.

This is the final area that needed to be weeded but I will leave it for a later date due to having other matters to sort out. I will be posting more updates as time goes on. Don't forget to check out my channel on Gardening! 

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How To Grow Pansies From Seed #6

 Getting What You Need

I sowed my Pansies in early February this year and I've got a few seedlings that have popped out. All I used was a set of old yogurt pots I had washed and filled them with multi purpose compost and popped two seeds in each pot.      

The process is very simple and you can easily get a result as you can see in this photo. After having germinated some, I decided to sow some more in a different container to start off a fresh batch.

Here I grabbed myself a tupperware container to use. Make sure any container you use to start off your seeds is clean.

In this photo you can see the little Pansy seeds inside the packet. They are small but still manageable using your fingers. I would not fuss about spacing though, just lightly sprinkle them over the surface of the soil leaving a little space between each seed.

 

You can just about see them in this photo, I've sprinkled about twenty-five seeds on the surface and left adequate space between each seed. This will make thinning them out easier as they grow. 

After having done that, I put a thin layer of compost over the seeds and gently patted down. I gave them a good soaking of water when I was done.

Once that was  done, I sealed the top of the container with it's lid and named as well as dated the day I sowed them. I kept my container on a windowsill but this is not absolutely necessary. Within a few weeks, you should be able to see some seedlings just like in the first photo!

I have a Youtube Channel about Gardening, don't forget to check that out for more content! My Youtube Channel