Howick Hall Galanthus Trail

Composting Weeds

Warning = if you are into "No Dig" you won't like this. It is next year's cucurbits and legumes patch in my 5 way rotation. As the season progresses all my allotment weeds get stuffed into black lined bags previously used for manure or proprietary compost mixes. The bags are piled up and left to languish in the sun wherever is out of the way, until now. Yard by square yard I dig a pit, tip in a couple of foul smelling bags and then fill it in from the next square yard. This last year I collected twenty bags of weedy material. I call this fertility recycling. The runner beans, courgettes, squashes and peas seem to like it. Even the pernicious weed remnants underneath seem to get the message that they are the providers of nutrition, no longer the beneficiaries.

I do "high fibre" composting in a plastic dalek at home with the help of brandling worms. Here kitchen waste is generated and so are supplies of paper and cardboard so that the lasagne layering required to keep the greens and browns in balance are to hand. As the allotment is several miles across town the "stuff it in a light excluding bag" method seems to be more practicable. Weeds are excluded from my home compost which I use for mixing my own seed mixes and mulches. I find this a happy arrangement.

Overwinter?

 It is every allotmenteer's dream to be harvesting all the year around. With stored harvests like garlic, onions, and potatoes this can be a viable claim. But the fresh harvesting activity in winter is restricted to digging up parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks and carrots.  What we crave by this time of the year is a bit of freshly picked greenery.  The reality is that the best we can hope for is for leafy crops to withstand the onslaught of the winter chill and then spring back into new growth at the earliest opportunity. Here are a couple of candidates:

Miner's Lettuce/Winter Purslane

Seakale Beet/Swiss Chard

Last of the leeks and first of the onions

Spring Hero Cabbage

Just out of the (unheated) greenhouse are these winter survivors. They will be deployed in the open soon, probably with a bit of protection.  The pigeons are keen on fresh greens too!

August sown
All the Year Round Cauliflower
Red Drumhead Cabbage
Little Gem Lettuce