More and more jobs

The heavy rain and blustery winds which we had last week changed to really cold, frosty days with snow in some places at the weekend--no snow here thankfully, it was dry and sunny so it was thermals on and down to the allotment to get more jobs done.

When we arrived at the allotment site there was a little bonfire on the car park, one of the plot holders had been burning some rubbish. We took advantage of this and added some rotting wood which we had been meaning to get rid of. I love an allotment bonfire especially in the autumn.

Richard then dug up and split the rhubarb plants on Plot 10b.  They have the most massive thick roots so I now need to find some really big pots to plant them up in.  There are far too many to plant on my allotment, but I hate to throw them away. I  did manage to give three of them to some new allotment neighbours.

This was the last big job to do on Plot 10b before we hand over to new tenants at the end of the year. The rest is just a bit of tidying up. The new tenants are lucky to be getting a good plot with beds already in place, and some fruit beds too.

Rudbekia coming to an end

On Plot 8 I  finally decided the annual flowers had to go.  I cut back the rudbekia, sweet peas, calendula, sunflowers and some wonderful scabiosa called 'Back in black'. I will definitely be growing the scabiosa again next year, it's a lovely deep, dark  red/burgundy which  looks good in a vase as a contrast to yellow, pink or blue. Most of my flower seeds were from Higgledy garden, they are really good value. Have a look at his web site if you like to grow flowers for cutting. Once I'd cleared all the flowers away, I weeded and we then spread some well rotted manure on the beds. Next year we will be growing peas and beans on this bed. The  flowers get slotted in where there is space, but they don't seem to mind.

Last of the rudbekia and scabious

You never get to the end of a jobs list at the allotment, there's always more to be done. As I was looking around feeling pleased with all the work I had done, I spotted the brassica bed, full of dead, yellow leaves lying on the soil surface. I knew I had to get rid of those before they spread any disease. Not only that, the bed needed weeding, the purple sprouting broccoli needed staking and there was a mulch of manure to be added to the areas where the cabbages had been. That done, it was getting colder and beginning to get dark.

Still more jobs to be done another time-- clear the pond of leaves,  weed and manure the asparagus bed, tidy up the strawberry bed of runners, empty the growhouse of dead tomato plants and dismantle because it's seen better days, put up the new greenhouse. More of all that on another blog.

Plot 8 looking better

Easter weekend at the allotment

rubbish on plot 8

We had some good weather over the Easter weekend, although it was cold and the mornings were frosty the sun shone most of the time. So we made the most of the fine weather, wrapped up warm and went to the allotment.

Our first jobs were on plot 10b, where the fruit bushes needed attention. We have gooseberries, blackcurrants, autumn raspberries and rhubarb. The gooseberries needed pruning and all the fruit needed some rotted manure spreading around them.  Helen did a good job of digging out the manure from the bottom of the bin.  I could only stand and watch as I still have limited movement in my wrist.

On Easter Monday we spent a full day on plot 8. It was a lovely day and there were plenty of people down there working on their plots and having bonfires. We got a fire going too because there was a lot of rubbish to be cleared. Every time I go to plot 8 I get quite despondent about the state of it. Everyone keeps reminding me about how bad plot 10b was when we took it on last June and how much progress we've made on there. I must remember that.  I think it's because I can't get stuck in to the work because of the injury to my wrist and it will take some time yet before it gets back to normal.

the fire

Helen started pulling up all the many layers of membrane, carpet and anything else which the previous tenants had used to make paths or suppress weeds. This revealed some decent looking areas of soil and some old flagged paths.  Richard carried on cutting back the conifer hedge which has been very neglected over the years and been allowed to grow too much, so cutting into the branches means it won't grow back, and it does look quite decimated.  It has given us more space along the side of the plot though, and this at the moment is going to be used to store stuff we need to keep.  Meanwhile I floated around doing what I was able to do, which was tidying up under the hedge and moving wood, pots and bricks (only one at a time unfortunately).

storage area under conifers

There are a few very flimsy raised beds on the plot which I weeded.  We will use these this year as overflow beds for any plants we don't have room for on plot 10b.  Next year I hope we will have something better in place.

The incinerator burned away as we chucked in all the conifer cuttings, old wood and dried plant material. We ended the day with a big pile of rubbish for taking to the tip and a feeling that we had made a little bit of progress.