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A bit of a squash!

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The biodynamic calendar (https://uk.rhythmofnature.net/biodynamic-calendar) said it was a good day last Saturday for anything to do with crops that produce fruit, so time to sow the squashes!                                                                                       These are a really easy and productive vegetable to grow, as they can be stored to give you delicious stews, soups and sweet pies throughout the winter. We have a second allotment to fill, so we're   going big on these! I always aim to grow and plant two plants of the same variety per pot, as it helps with pollination, and so 50 modules works out at well over 100 plants of 11 different varieties! This has the potential to cause a great deal of confusion, as they all look very similar when they come up. Careful labelling is crucial, as you can see we have a plan, with numbers and labels all ready to go. We loosely filled the modules, levelled them off and watered lightly. &
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Bean there, done that!

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Getting very short of small pots and modules (if anyone around Tunbridge Wells has any spare, that would be awesome!), so now we can get our hands on toilet roll here’s an excellent use for the tubes. If you squash them flat, and then put the two creases together and flatten again, you get a square tube instead of a round one. (Well, I was excited!) Then tear or cut a little way up the creases at the bottom, bend back the flaps and then fold them as you would a cardboard box. This gives you nice little containers to sit in a seed tray (hopefully 5 deep and 8 wide), and fill with compost to sow your runners or climbing French beans.       As they will start to breakdown once they get wet, and they are only big enough for the beans for to be in for a couple of weeks, I won’t sow until mid May. The garden centres start putting runner beans out from Easter onwards, but in these harsh east winds we are getting I’ve
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Those pesky pests!

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As I am writing this blog to catch up with a month’s worth of progress, I should be looking back for inspiration, but first I need to cover a serious and imminent threat to our wellbeing. Slugs and snails!  (here’s one from Ian’s conservatory) It’s been dry for weeks, and they’ve all been holed up under plant pots and sheds getting hungrier and hungrier and meaner and meaner. So now it’s dull and wet they will be heading out to investigate whatever tender seedlings you have put out to grow and do their worse. And they are doing it in broad daylight, so get out there, collect them up (wear a rubber glove), and dispose of them according to your conscience! The ducks on the local pond will welcome a change from all the sliced bread getting chucked at them at the moment, and chickens will gobble them up too. A bucket of salt water works, then dump them on the compost heap, or if you are feeling kinder take them for a walk a mile or so down the road and release them
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I Dig Tunbridge wells

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I Dig Tunbridge Wells Back in March during the early stages of the current crisis one of our colleagues, Nick Robinson, decided to use his time on lockdown at home and 25 years’ experience as an organic gardener to start a vegetable growing project. It was the height of panic buying at the supermarkets, and suddenly doing anything to ensure a local food supply through the summer looked like a good use of time, as we could no longer carry on with our regular volunteer programme. Windswept allotment March 2020               Seed stash! He was already in the process of taking on an allotment locally in Hawkenbury, and asked if there were any other spare plots, so has ended up with 2! Combined with a quick dash to a local garden centre for seed potatoes and seeds, the project started off in a 3 bedroom house in mid March, soon filling all the windowsills. windowsill growing  Interest in food growing and gardening has mushroomed during the lockdown
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