Geoff Hamilton cloche

Set myself the task this afternoon of making the cloche referred to in the previous posting. And wasn't it going sooooo well until I realised I'd got two metre wide plastic sheeting (£3.99 from Wilkinson's) but needed another half metre of width if I was going to cover the cloche with a single sheet. It was only when I'd sawed sixty centimetres off two of the tube ends that I began to see the folly of my ways. The tubes were pretty sure they wanted to arch gracefully the way they'd always done, and certainly not at the much sharper angle now required. No way back by then.

So I've got a cloche that works (click image to enlarge) and is merrily warming up the ground ready for the next fortnightly sowing of salad crops, but has the usual requirement of bricks to hold constituent parts down that I was determined to avoid. I'll cut some more tubes tomorrow, to the original two and a half metre lengths to fit the width of my raised beds, to get it back to the graceful artistic arch I originally had (wished I'd taken a photo of it then) and cover with two lengths of plastic. But it was very easy to make, stable and attractive up to the point of the plastic installation and comes highly recommended from me.

Still not put my entry in for the St Ives In Bloom competition for best allotment. Not sure if I want to go down the wobbly path of competing when the plots are my little oasis of peace and calm. But subconsciously I must be preparing for it. How else can I explain the urge to convert the front diamond raised bed, the first that faces you as you enter the plot, into a flower bed. True, the plants I've put in there (wish I could remember the names of them... I'll list them when they're in full bloom) attract bees and hoverflies and will be quite tall and attractive. Wonder what the latest date is for entry? The judging is in July.

Seedlings popping their heads up from the first sowing in early March... spinach, lettuce and radish (no pride there... you have to beat radish seedlings off with a stick). See the pictures at the foot of this posting. Beside the tomatoes I've also had the first appearance of a summer bedding seedling from the greenhouse sowings I made a week ago... the Livingston daisies have started to pop their heads up. Got loads more to come yet.

Managed to repot all my strawberry plants that were such a disaster last year. Although I only managed to get a single strawberry out of the lot of them before they were nibbled by unknown pests the wonderful taste of that single orb has encouraged me to go for an early crop by putting them in the greenhouse. Bit worried about the other 'eatables' I've put in there, everything from broad beans to ginger. No sign of growth after a number of weeks. Maybe the high temperatures in the greenhouse put them off initially... at least it looks like I've got that under control thanks to the scaffold netting I draped over last week.

Many thanks to Selwyn Richardson for allowing me to publish his notes from the last meeting of the Hill Rise Allotment Association on allotment crop nutrition... click the link under the Welcome! section to access. And yet another thanks to Richard Weightman for helping me to get more really useful information.

	The newly assigned flower bed
	First Livingston daisy popping its head up
	Another tomato seedling awakens
	First radishes of the year
	Lettuce seedlings
	Spinach seedlings spring up

Plastic cloches

Been pondering about making some cloches to accelerate the growth of my seedlings and to protect plants against the hordes of bugs wanting to gorge themselves. Saw a video by Geoff Hamilton on the Allotments 4 All forum on how to make one easily... to view click here. Cue Chris, my son in law carpenter, to work some magic and I'm now the proud owner of plastic piping as shown here (click to enlarge). The groundsmen on the building site where Chris was working were about to throw the offcuts away, so now I just need plastic sheeting or fleece for cover.

Went and bought the Gardman digital max/min thermometer after checking up it did record maximum and minimum temperatures both inside and outside. But I've spent the week puzzling over the results. It's recorded as high as 20 degrees celsius outside, which is probably down to me not giving the probe enough protection from the sun. It's also recorded a whopping 48 celsius inside the greenhouse... that's 118 degrees Farenheit! Much activity this afternoon to put netting over the greenhouse to give it some shade. See the photo at the foot of this posting. Even stranger... I'm getting lower overnight recordings inside the greenhouse than out! Think I'll bring the traditional max/min thermometer into the greenhouse and check it against the new technology.

Good news is I'm really getting the hang of the rain gauge I bought... we've not had a single drop of rain all week! It's been so warm and sunny I've broken out the shorts, much to the disgust of my wife and daughters. So if anyone thinks they've seen strange lights over Hill Rise it's not alien spaceships but the sun reflecting off my kneecaps.

At long last the tomato seedlings have started pushing their heads above soil level in the greenhouse. The radish and lettuce are popping up from an outside sowing a couple of weeks ago. It's spring tomorrow, hurrah! But the chickens are teasing me with a full house of four eggs on some days, as few as one on others and any variation in between. I'll give it a bit more time but may have to consider introducing a couple of new characters to keep the egg production up to requirements.

Started writing a childrens' book this week called 'My grampy says he's got a spider up his nose', based on one of the tales I tell my grandchildren to amuse them. Drawing the cartoons is proving an interesting exercise... here's an image of the main character. A couple of weeks ago I realised I probably need to be careful about the tales I tell... in the middle of a story to Paige, Connor (aged 6) popped up with 'Oh, just ignore him Paige'!

I'm not going to mention the squash score, being 3-0 down in months and without a single match win in March. Son David also walked off with the pub games cup on Monday, having beaten me in a tie breaker. At least I again hold the tennis cup... Barry could hardly haul himself around the court yesterday following a tea of roast pork and six vegetables with cheesecake for afters made by Becky. I've had a couple of bits of the cheescake today and won't be going anywhere in a hurry. Nice though!

Many thanks to Richard from the Hill Rise Allotment Association for getting the average temperatures and rainfall since 1978. I'm still playing around with the information to judge how best to display it... watch this space.

	Scaffold netting over greenhouse to provide shading (click image to enlarge)
	The digital thermometer in situ with outside probe going to the plant pot stuck on the side of the greenhouse
	Barry trimmed the vines this week, cuttings potted up to expand the vineyard.
	Got so fed up of accidentally tripping over my raspberry canes I've put sticks in to show where all the fruit plants are. Hopefully have it tidier and in a fruit cage this year.
	Indoor radishes are doing well.

Maximum minimum temperatures

Here's the first couple of weeks or so of the measurements I've been taking on my plot at the Hill Rise allotments (click to enlarge). Done it more as a test for how easy the graph is to read, since I've got some doubts about the early readings. I've now got the thermometer protected from the early morning sunshine so recent readings seem much more reliable.

Getting really carried away with things now... bought a rain gauge yesterday and that's now in position, though no rain to record yet. Seems sensible to recalibrate the temperature graph from when I've started the rain measures (today).

Although I'm using a traditional but trusty max/min thermometer, spotted an interesting Gardman digital thermometer while buying the rain gauge. Didn't buy it because it wasn't clear if it records both inside and outside max/min temperatures... but on further investigation it appears it does. Tempted to buy it so I can record temperatures inside the greenhouse as well as outside.

Got loads of seeds planted this week, desperately trying to keep up with the schedule I've set on my planting calendar (click link under 'Welcome' to view). There's a picture below of one of the beds. Looks like I'm way ahead of where I've been in past years. Even got around to mapping out a plan of my allotment plots, which I'll be providing a link to when I've tidied it up. Having tried a number of software programmes I finally realised doing it in Excel, with its natural grid pattern, was best. What it's told me is I'm not going to be short of onions this year (got more than three beds full of them!).

Went to the second meeting of the Hill Rise Allotment Association this evening. Had a very interesting and entertaining talk from Selwyn Richardson, an experienced soil scientist. He placed great emphasis on getting nitrogen into the soil to have healthier crops. Fortunately for my chickens their droppings are just about the best things for this... the chooks have been a bit sparse in the egg laying department recently and I'm having difficulty keeping up with the voracious appetite of my youngest granddaughter, Izzy, who must have her egg for breakfast every day. So only having two eggs from the four of them since Wednesday is a bit of a problem. Having another reason for their existence will save their bacon (or more appropriately chicken chasseur). Actually no chance of them being given the chop since they all have names now.

Interestingly Selwyn said there was no problem in putting chicken droppings straight into the soil. This got much more nitrogen in and wouldn't burn crops so long as it was dug into the top six to eight inches. Comparative values for various fertilisers and manures was given as a handout which I'll reproduce if I can get permission, along with the soil analysis data supplied by Richard (who again did a great job in organising the event).

Great excitement at home. We've had a pair of robins hanging around the garden for a few weeks, they even popped into the nest box I put up at the beginning of the year a few times. This morning the female (I presume it's the female, you can't tell with robins) started carrying nesting materials into the box. Here's a picture of progress so far. Hoping to have a clutch of eggs soon!

	One of raised beds full of newly planted seeds
	Greenhouse filling up with plants etc
	How the plots look this month

Walk from Somersham to Colne

Managed to do a new Somersham walk on Tuesday morning, being on holiday this week and Linda in playschool that morning. The route (walk 2) is shown here, click to enlarge, and goes from the car park in the centre of Somersham to the village of Colne. The walk is four miles of easy walking.

Good points of this walk are that in spring and autumn there’ll be fruit blossom or fruit in the orchards along the route, the footpath will go amongst golden wheat in late summer and The Green Man pub is half way. Not so good is that the route is not circular so you have to retrace some of the walk, and Colne village is a big disappointment, being mostly 20^thc housing. Another Somersham walk of 2.5 miles is shown below.

It’s been a week of walks with the weather much sunnier. Managed to fit in the walk along The Thicket to Houghton, across to Hemingford Abbots and a coffee at The Axe and Compass, and finally back across the water meadow at St Ives. Today walked across the fields from St Ives to Woodhurst. The map for this walk is also shown below, length being 4.6 miles. For more details about great walks in Cambridgeshire click the link to my other blog site 'Cambridgeshire Walks'.

Made some headway on the allotment this week. Laid my potatoes out in the greenhouse for chitting, planted the onion sets and seedlings and managed to get a whole load of seeds planted… lettuce, chard, spinach, carrots and spring onions that I can remember. Put in amongst garlic and onions to see if this will keep bugs and slugs away.

Proud owner of a single cup this week, having beaten Barry 6-4 at tennis. Reminded Becky where her loyalties lay and she loaded my opponent up with chilli con carne just before the match.

Now 2-0 down for the March squash struggle against son David, though I console myself that it couldn’t be closer having lost both 2-3 in games. And David won the pool/darts McKinnie cup competition. Here he is pointing at the fantastic 180 he scored against me.

The maximum minimum temperature recording is proving harder than I anticipated. Popped up one crisp sunny morning (rather than my typical afternoon visits) to find the maximum temperature already recorded at 60 Fahrenheit (15.5 centigrade) but the mercury now dropped some way below that level. Decided the early morning sun must be shining on the thermometer and affecting the reading so I’ve put a plastic shade nearby. Think I’ll have to find a box of some kind to protect the instrument. So the first couple of weeks maximum readings are now suspect.

	2.5 miles of easy walking across farmland and allotments. Good for spring and autumn orchards, and summer crops. Two pubs in Somersham but don't look great. Click image to enlarge.
	4.5 miles of easy walking across farmland. Walk around, as well as approach and retreat from, Woodhurst, really attractive. No pub in Woodhurst, but attractive village pond with nesting moorhens. Click image to enlarge.