April 2015 update
Discover the progress made on the First World War allotment during April 2015
Sandra Eder, Southlands Road Allotment and Gardens Association
April 2015
What a busy month this has been.
On April 20th we held a horticulture volunteer session when we invited people to come along and help / learn about our project and the way we grow our vegetables.
Chitting potatoes
There was an interesting article in a Bromley newspaper of 1917 which said:
“Seed potatoes should never be stored in great bulk or in a warm dark place or they will start into premature growth. The aim should be to plant the potatoes with their first shoots undamaged. Secondary shoots are never so strong….. A light an airy loft having a boarded ceiling is an ideal place for storage.”
This method is still used today.
Horticultural volunteers
Our volunteers prepared the seed beds and sowed parsnips, leeks and beetroot along with onion seedlings and a variety of cabbages and broccoli. Tomatoes, cucumber and marrows, were sown in clay pots and put in the greenhouse.
Watering has been essential this month as it has been very dry, although we haven’t watered the potatoes and already they have started to pop out of the ground.
We will be holding another horticulture session on Saturday 23 May from 2—4pm when we will be transplanting some of the seedlings growing in the greenhouse and hopefully all signs of frost will be gone.
Mowing the grass
This time of year the grass grows quicker than plants and it takes quite a while to keep the edges of the plot trimmed with hand shears and a push lawn mower. The mowing is very therapeutic because you don’t have the noise of a petrol lawn mower and the exercise is very good for you.
Did you know?
British Summer Time (BST) was instituted in May 1916 to maximise working hours in the day particularly in agriculture.
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