Growing in Capel St. Mary
Share this article:
E-mail info@capelallotments.co.uk www.capelallotments.co.uk
Half plots are available NOW at £16 per annum plus membership.
So if you live IN or AROUND Capel and fancy a go at ‘Growing Your Own’ please contact Dennis at site.manager@capelallotments.co.uk.
‘GARDENER WANTED’ At this time of year we often get requests for a gardener. So, if you have a few hours spare in your busy schedule, whether professional or keen retiree, please send us your details to info@capelallotments.co.uk
Clear plots and weed infested gardens by applying Weedol (£4.90 for 3 tubes) or Bio Glyphosate (100ml £1). Rotovate cleared areas (Rotovator and Cultivator available on site @ £10 for up to two hours). Hoe beds and borders then mulch with peat (100ltr £9) or chipped bark (80ltr £5.50).Kill weeds on paths, patios and drives (Pathclear £1.20 a sachet). Scatter slug pellets at £2.50. Protect your hands with a range of gloves from £2 a pair.
Water plants thoroughly with an open ended watering can, do not waste time & water by indiscriminate spraying by using a rose once seedlings have emerged. Seed potatoes will not need watering until June at the earliest.
THE VEG PLOT: - Rake 4 oz. sq. yd. Growmore (5 kg £4.50), Blood, Fish & Bone (5 kg £3) or 6x Cock’a’doodledo poo (20kg £9) into soil prior to sowing or planting. Plant seed potatoes, cover emerging shoots with soil if frost is forecast. Plant onion sets. Use fleece (2m wide 30p) as frost protection or to warm the soil. Sow salad crops, leek, peas, winter cabbage, late summer cauliflower, purple-sprouting and spring heading broccoli and broad beans. Plant late summer cabbage. Remove rhubarb flowers and start picking asparagus. Sow fennel, parsley, dill, marjoram & thyme. We carry a limited range of vegetable seed @ £1 & £1.40 a packet to supplement our autumn seed scheme. Thin seeds sown in March. Lift & divide chives, take mint cuttings & dig up old woody clumps.
FRUIT: - Plant strawberries. Spray fruit trees with Bordeaux Mixture or Copper Fungicide and an insecticide if infected with mildew, apple scab, aphids or codling moth (codling moth trap £5.50). Check for caterpillars, black fly and red spider mites and spray with an insecticide (from £3) or dust with Py powder @ £3.20. Protect buds with fleece. Feed Blueberries with an ericaceous feed (500g £4) or Iron Sulphate (1kg £1.50).
GREENHOUSE: - Minimise heating costs by lining with bubble plastic (1.5m wide £2 per meter) Sow French & runner beans, tomatoes, melons, cucumber & sweet corn. Multi-purpose compost 75ltr £5, 25 kg horticultural potting grit £5, 6ltr vermiculite £1.90, John Innes £4) Full size rigid trays @ £1.30 & half size flexi's @ 10p are available. Protect seedlings from damping off & foot rot by treating with Copper Mixture @ £3.30. Prick out half-hardy annuals into module tray liners from 10p or pots (from 3p) when large enough to handle and sow some more. Feed geraniums, fuchsias and established plants every ten days with Maxicrop liquid feed (£2.50 per Ltr), Phostrogen (160 can only £4.60 while stocks last). Support plants with 2' split green canes (60p per 15). Control insect pests with a ready to use Insecticide Gun from £3, Sprayday (30 ml £5.30 or Agralan natural whitefly killer at £4.80).Plant tomatoes in greenhouse border or grow bags (£2.60). Sow peas in a length of old guttering filled with compost and slide into shallow trench when plants are 1 ½” high. Sow broad beans in plugs and stand outside when 1 ½” high for a week or so and then plant out. Peas & Beans just £1.40 a packet. Sow a few seeds in 10 or 12 plug strips of Spring Onions and Beetroot, do not thin out. Sow a few seeds in 10 plug strips of Lettuce, thin to one plant. Repeat fortnightly for the rest of the season. Plant outside when large enough. Sow Dwarf French beans direct into a grow bag – punch 20 holes in the top of the bag using a cane, drop in the seed and water. Also 12 Climbing French bean Hunter - pick beans a whole month ahead of outside plants then discard when the plants go mildewey.
FLOWERS: - Remove dead flower heads of daffodils and feed with Growmore. Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials. Prune and feed established rose bushes with rose food (2 kg £2) Sow hardy annuals. Plant sweet peas to grow up a frame of 6' canes (30p each). Plant heather's. Cut back all heather's that have finished flowering and mulch with peat.
LAWNS: - Re-seed worn areas (grass seed £3.80 per kg.) For ease and to fill in larger holes premix grass seed with John Innis seed or number 1 and then spread. Aerate with a wire rake. On a fine, dry, day cut grass with the blades set high. Apply a lawn feed, (5kg £5.50) and liquid feeds from £2.50, a selective weed killer (500ml £9) and lawn sand, 5kg treats 70sq mtrs (£2.50) to control moss or spray with an Iron Sulphate solution of 30g per litre of water per 5sqm of lawn. Or we have Weed, Feed & Moss Killer at the bargain price of only £25 to treat 300sq m. for your single application solution. Contact Steve Blake for repairs & service on 07813814623 or TGC Garden Machinery Services Tattingstone for repairs & service & new equipment at very competitive prices on01473 327737.
All horticultural products are available to our members from a range of quality commodities provided to meet basic gardening needs. Please note; you need to be a member to purchase items from The Hut.
TWO DAY OPENING THE HUT is open 10-12 noon Saturdays & Sundays ( starting 1st April) throughout April, May & June.
JOIN’N’SAVE - Membership is just £5 a year and is open to both plot holders and non-plot holders alike, where ever you live. A visit to ‘THE HUT’ should easily recoup this investment when you take advantage of our special bulk buy prices.
‘THE BONFIRE’ - Plot holders please compost as much material as possible including annual weeds, soil, grass cuttings, brassica tops, rhubarb leaves and waste crops. Other material including brassica roots, perennial weeds, pruning’s, diseased crops, sweetcorn stems and roots and other woody material may go on the bonfire. Metals and plastics can go in the blue wheelie bin, stones from your plot on the planings heap. Please help by putting your waste material ON TOP of the bonfire NOT BESIDE IT. Thank you for helping to keep the site tidy. Once again the bonfire site will be closed from mid June to the end of July.
SITE MOWERS - Plot holders are reminded that they will need to have training to use the mowers. Please DO NOT use the Harrier 48 (With the roller) when the grass is wet or too long, the other mower will cope with these conditions much better. Please DO clear out the exit port periodically when using and when you have finished using the machine.
ROTOVATOR HIRE - A rotovator and a cultivator are available for hire for on-site use only. The fee is £10 for up to 2 hours. To hire this equipment please give Dennis advance notification or for any matters relating to the site please contact Dennis.
PLOT HOLDER’S MEETING & AGM - Sunday April 15th at 12 noon at the Allotments Site. The meeting will be as informal as possible presided over by our President Steve Baker. Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided. Plot holders and Garden members will be invited to discuss any matters they wish to bring up with the committee.
SPRING WORK IN - The first work-in of the year is on Sunday 15th April from 8.30am to mid-day. Please bring Forks, Spades, Rakes, Loppers, Gloves, Waders & Snorkels to help with the jobs.
All photographs to be colour, minimum size 150x100mm/6" x 4" and maximum size 190 x 130mm/7.5" x 5" and mounted and taken within the last eighteen months.
SITE VISITS - If any groups would like to visit the site and the wild life area May & June are particularly good months. Please contact Philippa Brandon on info@capelallotments.co.uk to discuss what is available to you.
