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April Allotment Tour Video

30/04/201821/09/2018 ~ Katrina ~ 2 Comments

Looking back, April has been one hell of strange month! We had a blanket of snow then just a week ago, around the time when I filmed this video, we had soaring temperatures of 27 degrees! None the less I have achieved so much on the plot and some big changes have taken place.

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April Allotment Tour Video
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‘Tis the season for pruning your apple and pear trees! Whether your tree is a dwarf cutie or an overgrown monster, now is the time to give them some TLC for next years harvest. First off it’s essential to use a clean, sharp tool. Be it secateurs, loppers or a hand saw. I used my new @silkyeurope saws that they very kindly gave me. ❤️ Here are some more tips to remember: . 🍏Remove dead/damage wood 🍎Wash tools immediately after removing any diseased wood (look up canker👀) to prevent it spreading 🍏 Familiarise yourself with the spurs, these are the fruiting buds 🍎 Vertical growth = vegetive. Remove the upright branches to allow more light and air through the tree 🍏 Try to create an open structure 🍎 Remove/cut back any crossing branches that may rub and could open up the tree to disease 🍏Step back and see how it’s looking 🍎Disinfect your tools before putting them away or moving on to another tree ❗️Remember to leave any stoned fruit like cherries and plums well alone until summer. If you prune them now they may become susceptible to disease such as silver leaf. With regular maintenance pruning you will continue to harvest a bounty of healthy apples year on year! #silkysaw #gifted #allotment #appletree #gardentips #growyourown #apples #garden #vegepatch #gardenersofinstagram #allotmentlife #growwhatyoueat #homegrown

🥔 Potato Day is one of the busiest and most look forward to events in the Nottingham Organic Gardeners calendar and this year I swear it was bigger and better than ever! There’s such a buzz amongst the bustling crowds of people rushing to get their favourite varieties before they sell out. Pink Fir Apple and Charlotte were some of the most popular varieties. I had a blast of a day with @roguehousewife and the Nottingham Organic Gardeners, topping up the spuds, offering tips and advice and chatting with some of you! As always, I’ve come away with possibly far too many potatoes but they will all find a home to grow. Do check to see if there’s a Potato Day event near you because they’re so much fun! Big love to my local-ish friends who I got to see today @gardening_myself_sane, @maddygrows, @grass_roots_veg, @plot.81, @runridesleepoutside, @thedowntoearthproject and to those who recognised me 😘🤎 . #growyourown #potatoday #nottinghamorganicgardeners #growwhatyoueat #allotment #organicgardening #gardenersofinstagram #allotmentlife #potatoes #volunteering #nottingham

Shhh 🤫 Don’t tell the squirrels but so far my rodent-proof bed seems to be working! If you were following me last spring you may remember I was eagerly anticipating lots of tulip blooms after seeing the leaves appear but overnight all 200+ bulbs were devoured by some cheeky rodents. 😤🐿🐀 I was fuming and so upset. 🌷😢 I couldn’t face another year without my tulips so I’ve put in all the defences this time around. I filled the new raised bed next to my shed half way with compost and bulbs before adding a bit more compost to cover them. I cut a long piece of chicken wire and sandwiched it into the raised bed, topping it with compost before finishing it with some winter flowers! If that wasn’t enough, the bed also has a finer mesh (about a 1cm square) that I stapled to the base to stop any determined critters from digging under to get to the bulbs. Fingers crossed the tulips will grow through the chicken wire that will stop the rodents from digging them up for dinner. 🛑 ✋ How are your spring bulbs holding out? 🌷🌼

One of the unexpected, yet common problems of growing your own food and flowers is never having a big enough seed storage solution. Over the years I have gone from using cardboard boxes, cute gift-type boxes, a metal bread bin, a wooden tea bag box and now I’ve come to this colourful solution to my problem. I either had too little space or it was just too big and unorganised. I would forget to sow seeds because I couldn’t even see them! 👀 I’m going into 2020 feeling optimistically organised now that I have this craft storage box from @hobbycrafthq (they’re also called ‘photo storage boxes’) with each seed type labelled using my new Dymo label maker (I’m so obsessed with it, honestly I’m labelling everything!). I can clearly see where all of my seeds are and I can carry it from my home to my plot! 🌈 I cannot credit this as my own idea but I’m not sure where I originally saw it! So if it was you, thank you. 😙 . ☝🏻By the way, you really shouldn’t use a cardboard or soft shelled container for seeds if you plan on storing them in the shed because the mice WILL find a way to eat them! 🐭 . #growyourown #organisation #seeds #seedstorage #dymolabelmaker @dymolabels @hobbycrafthq #allotment #gardenblogger #vegetablegarden #homegrown #gardenersofinstagram #greenfingers #seedhoarder #seedlover #grownfromseed #seeds #gardening

I finally cracked it! I’m still revelling in the fact that this year I have defeated the evil carrot fly once and for all! 🥕🙌🏻 What’s the trick? I used a biological control called nematodes to kill any over wintering larvae in the soil and covered my raised bed with a fine mesh to stop the flies from accessing my carrots. My final harvest may not be as heavy as last year but they’re tastier and pest-free! I’m now trying out an old method of storing them by layering them in layers of damp sand. Have you ever stored your roots in this way? . 🥕 Mesh was previously gifted by @lovewilko . #growyourown #eatfresh #homegrown #carrots #allotment #gardenersofinstagram #homegrowntastesbetter #ediblegarden #vegetablegarden #growwhatyoueat #greenfingers

There’s NEW fruit on the plot! I’ve welcomed two blueberry bushes into my allotment garden ‘Pink Saphire’ and ‘Aurora’ for a long season of pink and blue fruits! 💕💙This barrel is only a temporary home for them both until I prepare their spot where the blackcurrant once lived. 💀 Blueberries like acidic soil and are best planted in ericaceous compost. 🎄 You can also save the pine needles from your Christmas tree and use them as a mulch over the surface to give it a little boost of the acidity that these plants love. Are you growing any new fruits this year? 🍇🍓🍏🥝 . #growyourownfood #allotment #gardening #growwhatyoueat #allotmentgarden #gardener #gardenblogger #gardentips #gardenersofinstagram #homegrown #fruit #blueberry #organicgardening #ediblegarden

This afternoon I’ve been getting to know my new garden gadget! I received a soil blocker for Christmas and I’m planning on using it for a lot of my sowings this year. It’s a way of creating blocks of soil to start your seeds and transplant baby plants into without using containers such as plastic pots that aren’t good for the planet and can break the plant’s roots, slowing down growth. Once I got the blocking technique right I sowed some sweet pea seeds in them. 🌱This going to be a bit of a trial run, especially since sweet peas grow very long roots and prefer to be in deep containers! 🥴 Maybe I can stack them onto another soil block?! 🤷🏻‍♀️ 😅 This is going to be interesting. . #soilblocker #soilblocks #soilblocking #growyourown #polytunnel #allotment #gardening #allotmentlife #gardenblogger #gardenersofinstagram #seedsowing

This was my final December harvest of hot chillies and sweet peppers of 2019 and you know what? It’s almost time to start sowing seeds for a new season of hot fruits! 👏🏻 I’ll be completely honest with you, I have chillies in the freezer, chilli jams, pickled jalapeños, dried chillies in jars and I’m yet to make a bunch of hot sauces. It doesn’t seem to matter how overrun with them I get, I’m ALWAYS excited to grow new chilli plants each year. Don’t panic if you don’t have your seeds yet because if you don’t have a heated propagator or grow lights you can wait another month or so. I like to start mine before the end of January because chillies are one of the slowest crops from sowing to harvesting. I’ve already purchased some seeds and I’m keen to try some different varieties for 2020 including Biquinho, Fish Pepper, Rocoto and whatever else falls into my online basket this evening 😉I think everyone has a crop they just go a bit nuts with, right? What’s yours?! 🤪🔥🌶

Happy New Year ✨As we say hello to 2020 I can’t quite believe that you are one of 50,000 people around the world now following my gardening adventures here on Instagram. 🤯 Thank you so much for your comments, messages of thanks, your support and for sharing love & kindness in our positive gardening community. I’m so very grateful. 💗2020 is going to be another bumper year of growing food, flowers, caring for wildlife, and no doubt there will be plenty of garden failures too. I haven’t set any resolutions but I hope to make better use of my growing space, film more videos, meet more of you in person, visit other people’s allotments, learn some DIY skills and I really want to do more vermicomposting. 🐛♻️🤎 I hope that you’ll continue to join me on the whirlwind adventures that 2020 has in store for us! 👩🏻‍🌾💚☀️🥕🌽 . #allotment #gardening #2020 #growyourown #growwhatyoueat #ediblegarden #dowhatyoulove #gardenblogger #gardenersofinstagram #homegrowngarden #allotmentlife #organicgardening

2019 was over in a flash and these are my highlights (which annoyingly includes two throwbacks). I made use of my neighbour’s plot to grow beans and chillies, plaited my first successful harvest of shallots, improved my compost bin design and who can forget when I bathed in dahlia blooms for my 30th birthday 🙊🌸 Here’s to a great 2020 and may it be filled with more DIY projects, flowers and homegrown goodness! 🥕🧄🌶🍏

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© Katrina Harrison aka Homegrown.Garden, 2014. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without written permission is strictly prohibited. Excepts and links may be used, provided that full an clear credit is given to Katrina Harrison, aka Homegrown.Garden with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.