Spring cleaning the allotment

The fine weather we have been having in February has been a great chance to catch up with all our winter jobs on the allotment. It's given us time to get straight before the rush of spring jobs gets under way.  I have had to keep reminding myself that it is still early in the year for planting and sowing outside.The beds are now cleared, manured and covered ready for growing again, the fruit beds have been weeded and manured.

There have been lots of bark chippings delivered to the allotment site and everyone has been  to and fro with their wheelbarrows using the chippings to mulch their paths. We have found these chippings really useful to cover different areas of our plot, hopefully this will help to keep down the weeds.

One important job to do was to clean out the greenhouses. They were still full of the old tomato plants so those needed clearing out first. Then they needed a good sweeping out before I gave them a scrub down with disinfectant to get rid of the moss and algae. Whilst I was doing the inside Richard went round the outside cleaning the windows. I'm always so glad when this job is done, the greenhouses feel really fresh and clean now. The staging is back in and its all ready to start sowing seeds.

The next job was cleaning out the shed. Now this is a job I really hate doing. It involves brushing down cobwebs and chasing massive spiders out of the shed. But once that was done the shed was all tidy and organised again. Once I had the bottle of disinfectant in my hand I was well away, cleaning the cold frames, pots and seed trays too.

It won't be long now before the frogs arrive in the pond. I'm always surprised when we arrive on the plot to find the pond full of frog spawn. So I decided to get the pond ready for them by getting rid of the dead leaves and pond weed and generally tidying up the bog garden around the pond. The bog garden is one area which had a layer of bark chippings spread over it.

Now at the end of February it looks like we are in for a spell of rainy weather, but at least the plot is  looking much better and we are all ready to start sowing and growing again.

Clean up time

A TV weather presenter recently referred to the weather we are having at the moment as 'yo-yo weather'. I think that's a good description, up and down, rain for a few days, then a dry day. If you're a fine weather gardener then I suppose you just sit back with a good book and wait for the spring. But there's lots to be done in our garden and down the allotment, so on fine days I rush outside to get a few jobs done.

We managed to get to the allotment twice last week. The paths were slippy with mud and moss and there was water running out of the gate. The lane outside the plot was really muddy. I was glad that we had finished manuring all the beds so there was no need to disturb them. Richard started work on mending the two of the compost bins which were broken and I set to cleaning out the little greenhouse. I had cleaned out the big greenhouse in the autumn, but the other one still had the dead remains of the chillies, peppers and cucumbers. Once they had been got rid of the greenhouse got a good sweep and scrub down with disinfectant. It's always a good feeling to see the greenhouse spotlessly clean ready for the new growing season.

I am a lists person and my allotment journal always has a current list of jobs which need doing. I was pleased to be able to cross cleaning the greenhouse off the list. The problem with lists though is that you never get to end of them because there are always more jobs to be added. And as we sat having our lunch at the table under the tree I noticed that the cold frames needed cleaning too. Another job to add to my list. A gardener's work is never done!  Also as I sat there I spotted a flash of blue peeping out from the debris under the tree and there was a little iris reticulata in flower. A sign of hope that Spring is not far away.