Back to work on the allotment

At last some better weather meant we were able to get back to work on the allotment. It's been a while since we last did any proper work on the plot. Back in November we had started clearing the beds, manuring and covering them with weed membrane. Most of them were done, just the ones with veg still growing are yet to be done. 

So there are some cabbages, kale and leeks still remaining in the ground. This week I dug up some of the leeks which were rotten, I'm not sure if the rest of them will be any good , but I will be digging them up over the next few weeks. 

We had a visitor on the plot waiting for us when we arrived on Saturday afternoon, a chicken. It had escaped from the plot behind us and was looking quite lost. Unfortunately its owner was not on his plot and we didn't have his phone number, but we knew someone who could get in touch with him. So all ended well, we were able to reunite them and I could get back to my jobs.

One of those jobs was cutting down the dead asparagus stalks. I cleared the bed of all the debris, hoed lightly to get rid of surface weeds and then spread manure over the bed. Next to the asparagus bed is the bed where I grow most of my annual flowers for cutting. I treated this in the same way.

The next few weeks are the time when I try to get on top of all the winter jobs and get the allotment tidy ready for when I start sowing and growing. The beds are mostly  done now, but there are plenty of other jobs like cleaning out the shed and one of the greenhouses, and some repair work. It all depends on the weather of course but we are hoping we can get lots done.

Chippings, mulching and clearing beds

 We've had  a spell of dry weather recently with the occasional frosty morning.  I always get quite restless when the weather is fine but can't get out. There's not always much can be done in the garden at this time of year, but down on the allotment  there are winter jobs which we can be getting on with, so we did a few visits there in the last week or two. When the weather has been fine we have managed to get down there about twice a week.

We get a lot of leaves falling from the big tree at the top of the plot so clearing these from the paths was one job to get on with.  Then a good sweeping and swilling with Jeyes Fluid to stop them getting slippery.

I cut down the asparagus stems, a job I hadn't managed to do in the autumn. In the bed next to the asparagus had been annual flowers which I grow for cutting. I cleared all the dead stems from there too. On the asparagus bed I spread a mixture of manure bought from the garden centre and home made compost. Another bed which needed clearing was the sweetcorn and beetroot bed. The sweetcorn stems were quite hefty and needed a big tug to get them out. A mulch of compost finished the bed off nicely.

There was a delivery of bark chippings at the dump so Richard did some barrowing and started topping up the paths and non growing areas with the chippings. It always looks so clean and tidy after we have done this.

I made a start on pruning the fruit bushes by doing the gooseberries. I gave them a mulch of  a mixture of home made compost and manure. The rhubarb is starting to grow again so that got a mulch too. Then we spread a layer of bark chippings over.

The seating area is well used, for rests and cups of tea and to sit and admire our work or decide which jobs to do next.

There seem to have been a few new tenants on the site recently. A lot of people don't realise how much time and hard work is needed to keep an allotment going and soon give up. 

We're hoping they will stick at it.