'Tis the season to be collecting molehills!

Following my general disgust with the state of peat-free compost available from garden centres, Jon and I have determined to make our own seedling compost this year.

The key to seedling compost is a fine texture that allows seedlings to push down their roots, good water holding capacity so they don't dry out, and a good amount of potassium (i.e. potash - i.e. ash) to give the roots the oomph they need to get going. Seedlings really don't need much else.

So we are attempting something new: combining coir, worm compost, ash and molehills.

Molehills? I hear you say.

Well yes. A friend recommended this to me as molehills are composed of lovingly excavated soil from a depth at which the soil is pretty clean - i.e. free of weed seeds. The result is crumbly soil containing lots of lovely bacteria and nutrients which will bulk out your seedling mix.

The worm compost was from the first batch of 'black gold' from the bottom level of our wormery. Man those little guys have been hard at work. It's beautiful stuff.

The coir we get from Oxfam - it comes in a solid package about the size of a standard brick, costing £2.50. You soak it in water and the result is a builder's bucket of lovely coir compost whose transport has required a whole lot less fossil fuels than a hydrated sack from the garden centre. I imagine this would be a brilliant job for kids to do - it's like those expanding travel flannels on a massive scale.

As for the ash? Well, that comes from me burning our old bank statements, car insurance documents etc. Waste not, want not.

So far, no unexpected fungi. DO try this at home!

Allotment - annual review

In the 4 months since we moved allotment we have spread cardboard and 4 tonnes of compost, moved as many of our perennial plants between allotments as we could handle and attempted a new plan with regard what to grow and how to grow it this year.

I have also been laid in to by a grumpy old man about fly tipping (when the allotment was covered in cardboard and tyres), had our nice new cloches stolen and lost a whole lot of chard to some sort of critter (my money's on deer). Not to mention that I've had more than a few arguments with Jon about how to do things on the allotment - he just won't do things my way, tch!

Having an allotment is truly a labour of love. There is no way I could put up with all the heartbreak and ill feeling otherwise. When slugs eat your entire onion crop, or rubbish compost lays waste to whole trays of seedlings it can be hard to get back to the patch and just keep going.

But keep going we have. It's been an interesting year and I've learned a few new things, which will be incorporated into our growing plans for this year...

1. We are not going to bother trying to grow tomatoes, peppers or aubergines from seed again. We just don't have the knack. We generally only need a couple of each, and for the time and money (and stress!) that goes into producing sufficient plants it's actually cheaper and less stressful to buy them.

2. Onions grow well from seed, but not when you crank the central heating up. This was our my own stupid fault, as our nice cool plant nursery got turned into a nice warm office while I did my PhD transfer report. The consequence was that they didn't grow too well (unsurprisingly). I will repeat the experiment this year but this time keep them in the poly house outside rather than inside on a window ledge. Ah, the luxury of having a yard now!

3. Beans and peas are where it's at. As far as I'm concerned, after salads this was where we saved the most money, and improved the diversity of our diet the most. This year we will be growing plenty more. Sub-lessons include learning that our yellow mange tout gets enormous and needs as much support as the runner beans; and remembering to harvest pea seeds before they split and sproing everywhere!

4. Garlic and broad beans are best sown in the winter. We tried both winter and spring plantings, and the difference was huge - having the extra growing time in November and December really gave them a head start, and we were picking broad beans by May. The spring planted garlic wasn't anywhere near ready and got left for the subsequent year.

5. Conversely, and perhaps unsurprisingly, onions sets do not thrive if planted before winter.

6. Don't make your beds too big. You just can't get into them to weed, and you lose loads of plants as a result. It's much better to have more, smaller beds which are easier to access.

7. When you are allocated an allotment and they offer to rotavate it - DON'T DO IT!! It looks lovely at first, but considering that the previous occupant will probably have let it run a bit wild before it got taken off them, the seed 'bank' (i.e. the store of seeds in the soil) will be enormous. All you will do is allow a large number of weed seeds the necessary light to germinate which will give you a massive problem later on.

With this in mind, it is onward to a new growing season!

Down in the allotment doldrums

This year has been rubbish for the allotment. Lots of rain has meant our potato patch turned into a paddy field, the slugs have set up a regional HQ in our brassica patch, the alliums have all got a bad case of rust, and the corn is sitting there complaining about the general cold, as it's originally from Central America, doncha know.

Added to this, the rain has meant we have been rather less inclined to venture across town to our mud bath, so the weeds have come back with a vengeance, and I have become increasingly grumpy at the lack of sunshine (I blame my Mediterranean genetics - I'm not meant to be this far north!).

Operation grow-all-our-own-lettuce has been going quite well, but morale is definitely low. On such occasions Jon usually suggests a trip to the garden centre, and I generally resist, citing peat-based compost and excessive use of insecticides as a reason not to buy garden centre plants. However, we went, and I am OH so glad we did!

It would seem that as we're nearing the end of the main growing season, all the unwanted veggie plants are headed to the great compost heap in the sky, unless frugal chaps (and chapesses) like us snap them up.

I love trips like that because a) I love a good bargain and b) I love plants. Most of what we bought were (perennial) herbs and winter veg (though Jon currently has a bit of a pepper obsession, maybe it's a man thing). I will have to do a separate post on winter veg as it's currently my favourite thing, but I will mention that amongst our purchases were beets, kale, endives and chard. If anything it's a little early for some of these guys, but they'll do us well when we move to our new allotment. I also discovered once we'd bought it, that Italian radiccio lettuce also goes under the guise of chicory - an excellent winter veg.

The herbs are definitely my main success though. Next year I plan on having a lot more of them on the allotment, hopefully to deter some pesky pests, but also as we never seem to be able to grow enough herbs for the amount we get through! Fifty pence for 3 pots of thyme = a bargain in my books.

Hooray for the 'dead and dying' section of the garden centre!