Manuring fruit beds and pulling leeks

With the cold, wet, windy weather we had in the last week, followed by snow I think most people would have been sensible to stay indoors and watch TV or read a book, but not us. We took advantage of a dry afternoon and off we went to the allotment. All we seemed to have been doing recently is manure the beds, but then that's the main job that needs doing. I decided to manure the fruit beds on plot10b, but first I had to clear up all the cat poo which Ziggy the allotment cat had kindly left for me!

We have two manure bins on each of our plots.  I used the manure from the bin on plot 10b which had been rotting down all year. In the meantime Richard went off to get more manure from the communal heap up the lane to fill up our other bin. We were rather tired after all that shovelling and barrowing, but felt pleased with all that we had achieved.

A tidy fruit bed

Ziggy  watched us constantly from her little bed of straw which I have made for her under the shed. She occasionally came out to ask for food (she's a very greedy cat). She thanked me for the food by leaving another pile of poo on my newly manured fruit bed! I think I shall have to get some cat repellent.

During the week I worked on plot 8 clearing  leeks from the big bed where we will be growing peas and beans this year. The leeks were looking messy, so I pulled them all up, cleaned and trimmed them. Some were past their best and needed throwing on the compost heap. It's a big bed and there were a good number of leeks so it took a while to do. I had intending to pull the leeks, weed and manure all in a couple of hours. That will have to wait for another day and as the weather has now turned very cold and snowy it may be sometime before we are down there again. I will be making lots of meals with leeks!

A snow covered plot 8

Snow

Yesterday we woke to see snow on the ground. Just a light covering, but enough to throw the area into chaos as any fall of snow seems to do. There were complaints of roads not being gritted and drivers who didn't know how to drive in snow. We were just glad we didn't have to drive to work any more. All we had to do was walk the grandchildren to school which took longer than usual as we had more clothes to put on.  Then there was the wellies I had to find our granddaughter as she'd grown out of her own. She clomped up the road in a pair two sizes too big for her. And of course there was all the silliness that a fall of snow seems to bring.  I don't find snow that much fun, it's cold, wet and  slippy.  I still have bad memories of falling in the snow two years ago and fracturing my wrist.

I must admit though that snow transforms the landscape in a very beautiful way. We took our usual morning walk after we'd left the children at school.  Some places were quite snowy but there was only a light covering on the fields.

Today everything was completely different, the snow had gone and we just had a cold wind. The fields still looked lovely.

A new year on the allotment

In the last week the weather has been quite mixed. We've had frost, rain and also a mild spell. As there is always much to be done on the allotment we thought we had better take advantage of any fine weather at the weekend. We managed a couple of short sessions and as it was very cold, wrapped ourselves up in several layers of clothes.

Plot 10b was in most need of attention and I cleared the old cut flower beds of dead plants and weeds. Richard then topped both beds with manure.  The two other beds next to them still have parsnips, swede and beetroot in them.  I pulled most of the parsnips and some of the swede then weeded. I intend to make some spicy parsnip soup soon. As these beds get cleared they will have the same treatment of manure.  These four beds will be used to grow peas and beans this year and maybe courgettes too.

On Sunday Helen and I went down to plot 10b for an hour or so. It was a bit frosty although the ground wasn't too frozen. But we decided to prune the autumn raspberries which had died back.  These are sprouting all over the place now in places where we don't want them, so we are trying to control them and keep them in the bed, rather than the paths and the allotment car park.

That work done we ambled over to plot 8 which was looking quite tidy.  We didn't have time to do any more work so we just filled up the bird feeders. Plot 10b looks much better now  for that little bit of clearing up.  You can see here what the beds looked like before.

We need to sit down soon and make our plans for the year, they're all in our heads at the moment and I do like to make a proper list.