Reweed Allotment Blog

It’s drilled into your brain from a young age that “they make you see in the dark”. However if they were that good for you they wouldn’t be such a pain in the arse to grow.

Soil Preparation

Carrots need deep, stone free soil which is fertile yet well drained.

When preparing my carrot patch I dug the soil to depth of about a foot and about 2 feet wide. I then sieved the soil back into the trench. Thus removing all stones… It took ages.

If a carrot hits a stone when growing it will fork and deform, the only upside of this is sometimes a carrot looks like it has a penis.

Sowing Seeds

Sow seeds directly in the soil as the weather starts to warm up.

I like to make small trenchs with my finger or a generic garden tool about half an inch deep, sprinkle the fine carrot seeds along the length of the trench about half an inch deep.

Plant Care

As the seedlings grow, thin them out so they are 2 inches apart for large carrots, or don’t thin them out for smaller baby carrots. Try your hardest not to bruise or disturb the carrot leaves as that attracts the nightmare carrot fly. bbbzzzzz.

Keep the bed weed free.

Harvesting

Lift the carrots gently with a fork either as small sweet baby carrots, or leave to mature to larger carrots.

Soil Preparation

Leeks require a rich well drained area of soil. You can dig in plenty of well rotted compost with plenty of moisture content.

They can be placed in full sun or partial shade, but hate to be water logged.

Note: I found when I had my leeks in a gloomy dark corner of the allotment they bolted to seed and were inedible.

Sowing Seeds

You can start seeds either in trays or directly in the ground (once the danger of frost has passed).

Sow seeds about half an inch deep, with an inch between seeds. Seedlings should emerge in about 2 weeks if you planted directly in the ground, maybe sooner if you sowed them in trays and kept them warm/indoors.

Thin seedlings out to roughly 4 inch apart.

Transplanting

When leeks are about 6 inches tall, make holes 4 or 5 inches deep and about 8 inches apart, you can use a fancy garden tool or your fingers. Place one leek seedling into each hole.

Do not fill the hole with soil, instead fill the hole with water. This will give the roots space to spread out and will backfill the hole a little for you, gradually filling completely over the course of a few weeks.

Plant Care

Leeks are very hardy plants, once in the ground you could leave them alone and they would very likely survive and continue to grow for many months before going to seed.

You can however blanch your leeks.

Increase the white portion of each leek by carefully earthing up soil around the bottom of the stem gradually over summer.

Some people use old toilet rolls or brown packing paper, this both blanches the stem and stops gritty soil getting into inside the leeks.

Harvesting

You can harvest the leeks when young or leave them to mature. Simple use a fork to gently lift leeks leaving the rest to carry on growing.

There are many types of chillies available, why not grow several varieties.

Sowing Seeds

Start seeds 2 or 4 to a 4 inch pot, or use a seed tray if you prefer. Place this somewhere warm, you could use a heated propagator, or a sunny windowsill.

Depending on the type of pepper it could be anywhere from 2 days to 4 weeks before the seeds germinate. The warmer they are kept the more chance they will germinate.

Transplanting

When the seedlings are large enough to handle, carefully repot them 1 plant per 4 inch pot and place them back in a sunny spot. Feed them if required, but with good potting compost this isn’t essential.

Pot the plants into grow bags or 10 inch pots just before they become rootbound.

Plant Care

Water only when the soils starts to dry out. You can apply a general or tomato feed, you could also try using chilli focus.

Note: Some people say only feeding when the soil is bone dry and the leaves have started to wilt slightly will stress the plant and make it form hotter chillies. If anyone has any information about this, let me know.

Harvesting

Harvest the fruit when unripe or when fully ripened, different types offer different heats/flavours at different stages

Tomatoes are best grown in either a greenhouse or a warm conservatory. That said, they can be grow outdoors and there are varieties more suited to outdoor growing.

Sowing Seeds

I tend to sow multiple seeds per 4 inch pot of seed compost and place on a warm windowsill or in a heated propagator.

Keep the compost moist but not wet and once the seeds have several sets of leaves you can transplant them into their own 4 inch pots.

Transplanting

I like to wait until the plants are almost root bound to a 4 inch pot before transplanting either outside or into larger 10 inch pots.

If planting outside you must wait until after the last frost.

Plant Care

As the plant grows, tie the main stem to a sturdy cane, or provide a cage to offer support. Water and feed the plants regularly, you must keep the soil moist to avoid problems like splitting fruit.

As the plants grow some people like to restrict the fruit per plant, some experimenting might be needed to find what works for each variety to get a good crop.

Harvesting

Harvest the fruit when ripe and fully coloured, harvest with a sharp knife to avoid plant damage.

When growing onions, it is often advantageous to use onion sets rather than grow from seeds. Onion sets are immature bulbs specially grown to be planted, they tend to be easier to grow, less prone to bolting and more resistant to diseases and pests.

Soil Preparation

Dig in some manure or good quality compost the winter before you plan to grow onions, this gives it time to break down and improve the soil.

Planting Onion Sets

I always plant my onions in early April, but you may get away with doing it earlier depending on your location. Plant the bulbs 4 or 5 inches apart with rows spaced 8 to 9 inches apart. Push each bulb firmly into the soil with the tip still showing.

Birds will sometime pull your newly planted bulbs up, if this happens just push them back into the soil. You could also cover them with some garden netting for a few weeks until they start to develop leaves.

Weeding

Keep your onion patch weed free. No one enjoys weeding but keeping on top of the weeds will allow your onions to grow bigger.

Harvesting

Harvest onions once the stems/leaves have turned brown and fallen over. You should leave the harvested bulbs outdoors to dry out which should take a just over a week, weather depending of course.

Store dried onions in onion nets or on stackable trays in a cool dark place. Use larger onions first and discard any soft onions. Onions that are properly dried and stored will keep for up to 9 months.