Back to work on the allotment

We had a break from allotment work in December and with bad weather at the beginning of January it was a few weeks before we could get back to doing some work. When we eventually had some dry enough weather to be able to get down to the plot we wondered what state it would be in, there had been some very heavy rain and storms. So we were pleasantly surprised to find there was no storm damage and no water running down the paths as there often is after heavy rain.

Richard has a project on now to edge all the beds with wood to stop the soil from spilling out all over the paths. He has managed to do two of the big beds in the last couple of weeks and they are looking much better.

We have five compost bins on the plot, three of them are used in rotation to make compost--one to put all the compostable materials in throughout the year, at the end of the year it is then left to compost down for a year, then the third year it is ready to use as compost.  The other two bins are used for manure when we can get hold of any. Usually one contains fresh manure and the other has manure which is rotted down and can be used to mulch the beds. So we started off a new compost bin with grass cuttings and kitchen peelings brought from home as well as some plant material from the allotment.

We also have a bin for leaves to make leaf mould and one of the first jobs I started on recently was sweeping up leaves from the paths which had fallen from a big sycamore tree at the top of the plot. What a mess they were.  Once I'd cleared the leaves the paths seemed a bit slippy, they get like this in the winter time with mud and moss. I scraped off the mud and swept up then swilled the paths. So I'm hoping they are a bit safer to walk on now.

I was pleased to see that there were some brussels sprouts ready to be picked, there was kale and there were leeks although I would like the leeks to be bigger.

I had cleared most of the beds of dead plants in the autumn but there were still a couple which needed sorting out. I cut back the dead stems in the asparagus bed, weeded and then mulched the bed with manure. I cleared the sweetcorn which didn't ripen in time and dug up the rest of the beetroots and parsnips.

The rhubarb is growing really well and I'm sure it won't be long before we can start pulling some of the stems. One thing I will be doing soon is to give it a mulch with manure.

So the plot is looking quite tidy now and we're ready to get started on the new growing season. Its too early to be planting anything in the ground yet though  but there's lots of planning to do in the meantime and I'll soon be starting to sow seeds undercover.

Winter jobs on the allotment

After a busy December when all work on the allotment stopped, I have been wanting to get back to work on my plot. December is always busy at home and I don't think I ever get to do any allotment work during that time. We have managed to do a couple of visits since the start of the New Year and it's been a case of carrying on where we left off.

cabbages looking messy

When we arrived for our first visit we were greeted by a strong smell of rotten cabbages.  The cabbage bed still had two or three cabbages left in, but they were very slimy and slug eaten. I got rid of them and weeded the bed.  The rest of the bed has kale and purple sprouting broccoli growing and they looked quite healthy, but not ready for harvesting.

the asparagus bed in need of clearing up

Next I tackled the asparagus bed, cutting down the dead foliage stems and weeding. There were some Rudbekias which had kept on flowering well into November, but had finally gone over, so they got pulled up and thrown on the compost heap.  At the other end of the asparagus bed are some rows of leeks.  I weeded and earthed up the soil around them.  The bed looked very clean and tidy after all that work.  All the beds which I had weeded then got a feed with chicken manure pellets.  We normally put a layer of well rotted horse manure on the beds during the winter once they have been cleared, but our manure bins are empty.  We need to find a source of manure so that we can start storing it again.

a tidy seating area overlooking the asparagus bed

Down the lane some bark chippings have been dumped for the allotment holders to help themselves to.  Richard brought a few barrow loads of the chippings and spread them out where our table and chairs are.  It looks much tidier now and will help to keep the weeds down.  There were also some bags of leaves on the car park so we helped ourselves to some of those and put them in the leaf bin to rot down.

After clearing the vegetable beds my next job was to start weeding the fruit beds.  I made a start with the rhubarb and apple tree bed, but there is still the blueberry and blackcurrant beds to weed yet. I was pleased to see the rhubarb showing new growth already.

the rhubarb bed

There are plenty of jobs still on my to do list and the list never seems to get any shorter.  But as the days start to lengthen we can spend more time on the plot.  The weather has turned cold now and we have had snow in the last day, so we can't do any more work at the moment.  We look forward to better days.

Clear up time

The last couple of weeks  has brought some extreme weather to our area--high winds and very heavy rain.

When we got to the allotment last week, we found one of the climbing bean wigwams had toppled over onto the path. For a few weeks now it has been leaning precariously and did fall over once before but Richard managed to hoist it back up into place. But this time I decided it was trying to tell me something--that it has had enough and was time to clear it away. There were very few beans left on it so it was cut back and thrown on the compost heap. The other beans still in the ground are slowing down so I'm sure it won't be long before they join their friend on the heap. The sunflowers which were growing in the same bed as the beans were leaning over too so those have been cut down.

 I cut the flowers off and those which were looking good are now in a vase at home. The rest of them have been left to dry out and provide a tasty treat for the birds.

Looking around the plot, there is a lot of clearing up to be done now that autumn is here. Although I am still harvesting some vegetables, there are others which have finished and can now be got rid of. Our job on the last couple of visits has been to clear some big weeds from around the plot boundaries. This weeding gets neglected a lot of the time when we are busy with other jobs, but I was determined to get them cleared. As areas were weeded we mulched them with shredded bark. A big pile of bark has been left for the allotment holders to help themselves to. There seems to have been only us using it, but we have found it really useful--and cheap of course! It has been hard work all that weeding and spreading bark, but it looks much better now and should keep the weeds away for a little while.

On the next visit to the plot this weekend I was intending to start weeding the veg beds, but there were lots more vegetables to be harvested and cleared away. The courgettes are slowing down now, I picked a few little ones and pulled up some of the plants. We also picked sweet corn and climbing beans and I found several cucumbers hiding under their leaves in the greenhouse.   I now have a big bag of cucumbers in the fridge. I finally managed to get more of the veg beds weeded. We're starting to see bare soil again.

The apples are looking lovely and will soon be ready for picking which means I need to find boxes to store them in. They will soon be all over the shed.

 There is no end to the jobs at the moment, but we are off on holiday soon and want to get as much as we can done before we go.

End of the year on the allotment

December is the month when there are very few visits to the allotment. We go to pick  a cabbage or some leeks if they are ready and to cut some greenery for my Christmas door wreaths.

Everything is quieter and the pace is slower. There is no rush to get seeds sown and plants in the ground or weeding done. The leaves are now all fallen from the sycamore tree, we have swept them up and put them in the leaf bin. There is a lot of mud and water about because of the heavy rains, so not a good idea to work on the soil. On our few visits to the allotment we always feel it looks really sad, dark and gloomy.

 We have been so busy at home during the last 6 months, making a new garden, doing work on the house so our visits to the allotment haven't been as frequent as usual. It's not looking too bad though. On the last few visits we cleared away all the veg which was finished, weeded and spread a layer of manure on the surface and  planted the garlic. There is still some tidying up and weeding to be done, more compost or manure to put on the beds, the shed and little greenhouse both need cleaning out but I feel we have got most of the important things done for the time being.

I love this time of year on the allotment.  I love the clearing up process and putting the beds to rest for the winter.  There's a sense of slowing down and resting, but at the same time looking ahead to next year and planning. I have a few plans in my head and over the winter I will set them down on paper. I will be thinking about what to grow next year and any jobs which need doing. Mistakes may have been made, but I will try again or do something different.

The seasons come and go and now it's the season to slow down. The allotment will come back to life and will soon look fresh and green again.

Wishing all my followers a peaceful and happy New Year. If you are a gardener I wish you also a productive and bug free New Year.

#mygardenrightnow

This post is linked to Michelle at Veg Plotting who has created the challenge for us gardeners to post a photo of ourselves in our gardens or allotments this weekend which shows how our garden or allotment is looking right now.

So here is my contribution. Here I was in my garden on Saturday morning on my hands and knees clearing the leaves and dead plant material from the beds. I am doing this bit by bit as the weather and time allows. It's hard work on my back, but I always feel good when it's done and I can see some progress.

In the afternoon we went down to the allotment and did more back breaking work. My husband was cutting the hedge back which involved climbing up the ladder so his knees were suffering by the end of the day. I was hoeing the vegetable beds which over the winter have looked good topped up with manure and quite weed free. But in the last week the weeds have been popping up in the form of those wretched spinning jenny seedlings which fall from the sycamore trees. There is one tree across the lane in front of our allotment and another at the top of the plot. The good thing is that the seedlings  are quite easy to get out of the soil with the hoe, but there are so many of them, they are everywhere. So here I am again down at the allotment.

Allotment catch up

We went to the allotment three times in the last week. That's quite a lot for January. But we were making the most of fine weather to get the last of the beds cleared, weeded and mulched. It was good to get down there, the days are very dreary in January and to get out in the fresh air and do some exercise in the form of hoeing, shovelling and barrowing manure and compost made us feel much better.

It's very quiet down the allotments at the moment, not many people about. Some we won't see yet until March when the growing season starts again. This time of year though, is a good time to catch up on maintenance jobs. Like mending fences, making new beds, sorting out a new allotment.

The birds were glad to see us, we hadn't filled up the feeders for a while.  We have probably now refilled them three times in the last week.

There's always something to do on the allotment, but at this time of year there isn't the rush to get seeds sown or plants in the ground or the feeling that there is so much to do we'll never get through all the jobs. So we can take our time, make the most of leisurely visits to the plot and think about this year's growing plan.  

Garden calling

The garden has been calling me for a week or two now. But I have been neglecting it and giving all the attention to the allotment. Not that this time of year and the current weather conditions are really gardening weather. But a gardener will always find something that needs to be done. Having spent most of January doing jobs around the allotment I decided that I needed to give some time to the garden. The garden does tend to take second place to the allotment, but it's good to see that it can look after itself for a lot of the time.

In the autumn I cut back some of the very messy looking dead plants and left the rest--the grasses and seed heads, to give some interest through the winter and provide homes for insects and food for the birds  I decided that now was the time to finally cut back these plants and get ready for spring. I was glad to cut the grasses down, there were bits of dried grass blowing about all over the garden. Not sure if that was the result of the winter storms or Holly the cat who likes to roll about in them. Holly supervised as I worked and was probably a bit miffed that I had destroyed her playground. The birds might feel a bit more secure now that she can't hide behind clumps of plants as she likes to do, ready to pounce.

The garden looks a bit flat now, but soon new shoots will be appearing and the empty areas of the borders will fill up. As I cut back I discovered some treasures-- snowdrops, narcissi, crocus. I also found a lovely pink hellebore flowering for the first time since I bought it from a charity plant stall two years ago. The  hamamelis, otherwise known as witch hazel is now flowering. It's yellow spidery flowers are a welcome bit of colour at this time of year.  I  potted up some tete a tete narcissi into small pots to display on the garden table.  These can  be seen from the house and look brighter every day as a few more flowers open up.

As I worked on the borders, Richard dug out some compost from the compost bins.  He managed to fill an old dustbin. My next job after I have finished clearing all the borders of debris will be to mulch the borders with compost or leaf mould, but I will need more than a dustbin full of compost for that.

Resting and waiting

The bad weather continues, I wonder how long it will last, there has been so much rain. There's not much work we can do down at the allotment or in the garden when it's so wet.  The soil is too wet and soggy to do anything. It's really dirty weather.  But I'm not too worried, the garden doesn't look too bad, there's still autumn colour about. I don't cut back the dead plants until late winter.  The seed heads  provide homes for insects and food for the birds and some of them provide winter interest in the garden especially when touched by a bit of frost.

At the allotment we've cleared and manured most of the beds except for the leeks and brassicas, which we will be picking through the winter. The pond has been overflowing with all the rain--I hope the frogs haven't left home! We've had some storm damage, the old plastic growhouse got blown down in the gales, but we were going to pull it down anyway this winter to make way for a new greenhouse. And in the garden we have a fence needs replacing after it got blown down by the wind. All jobs for the new year when hopefully the weather will be better


I love getting the allotment beds all clear of dead plants and weeds and covered in manure or compost.  I think of it as tucking up the beds for the winter, clearing out the old and preparing for the new.   As the plot rests over the winter and waits for the spring we think about what we want to grow next year and we plan  projects. We think about what mistakes we may have made or what improvements we can make.

 So  there is now a sense of resting and waiting on the plot. Resting time for us before all the hard work starts again and  resting time for the soil while the nutrients from the compost and manure do their work. And as we wait  for the weather to improve, we also watch for  new growth to appear, we make plans and we look forward to starting work again.

 

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

Tackling the garden

 I've been so busy on the allotment recently that I've neglected the garden a bit.  The late spring flowers have all gone over now and it was all starting to look a bit wild and out of control, weeds were popping up all over the place.  In the last couple of weeks the work on the allotment has started to ease off a bit, so I've been able to start to give some attention to the garden.

When there's a lot to do in the garden I try not to let it overwhelm me by tackling too much all at once, so I work through the jobs at my own pace. I find it best to set myself a task of working on one small area at a time  depending on how much time there is. I try not to get distracted by the other jobs I can see need doing otherwise I end up up flitting about here and there like a butterfly.

So in the last couple of weeks I have had a few little gardening sessions, just working my way along the borders, cutting back the late spring flowers which have gone over, deadheading, weeding path edges, sweeping up, weeding borders. This is the time of year when I realise I cram too many plants into the borders, but at least they suppress a lot of the weeds.

As I've worked my way along the borders, I 've also made mental notes of bigger jobs which can be done in the Autumn. There are shrubs and trees which need a good cutting back and problem beds where I need to think about starting again and doing something different.

 A few weeks ago the predominant colour in the beds was blue. Now it's all changing and there seems to be a lot of yellow coming from alchemilla mollis, lysimachia and golden grasses. The hot colours of late summer are starting to appear. I can see red crocosmia lucifer, deep pinky red astilbe and knautia macedonica, a yellowy orange day lily and orange Kniphofia.

Although I haven't finished my clearing up of the garden it's looking much better and I'm able to spend time when we get a bit of sunshine, sitting and enjoying it, looking at all the lovely colours . That's what summer is about.

Woodland planting

 The woodland area in our garden tends to get a bit neglected. That's because it's hidden away at the top of the garden through a little gate. I clear it up about two or three times a year. But as it's a bit of a wildlife area it doesn't look too bad for being left to look after itself. Spring is the time when It gets its first tidy up. There are lots of crocuses which start to emerge about now so I like to clear up all the leaves and tree branches which have fallen during the autumn and winter and reveal some colour from these flowers. There's ivy, vinca and honeysuckle scrambling along the fence too which always need cutting back. I noticed this week that the vinca is flowering, I love those little blue flowers at this time of year. There's also a clump of hellebores which is looking lovely.

I started the clear up last week. Once I'd cleared away all the debris and done the cutting back I was able to see what else is coming through and soon to flower. There was a small clump of mini daffodils amongst the crocus. I thought some snowdrops were needed, every woodland garden should have snowdrops. I planted three little pots, but they looked lost--you don't get many snowdrops in a little pot. I shall have to get more. I also bought some trays of tete a tete daffodils for some more instant colour. Holly the cat joined me as I planted and must have thought it was some sort of game as she kept digging up the bulbs--naughty cat!

Planting  so early in the year I had to be careful of not disturbing any other plants which had not started to show through.  The soil is  a bit compacted with roots which can make planting difficult.   Plant labels always seem to disappear through the winter and I often struggle to remember what is in there. What are those tiny leaves just poking through the soil? Ah yes I know--Brunnera!
It's looking much better now, more colourful and very spring like.

New neighbours

There's been a lot of activity behind plot 8 recently. It's always been a bit of a jungle up there beyond our back hedge. We had often peered through the hedge unable to make out how far it extended and whether anyone was using it. We decided that no one was as it looked so overgrown. But before Christmas the council had some trees cut down on our plot and the surrounding ones. Read more about that here.

The tree cutting work revealed a massive plot behind us and to help get the allotment waiting list down the council had decided to divide it into four smaller ones. We have been observing the work with great interest for a few weeks now as workmen cleared away rubbish and put up the boundary fences.  Whoever takes on these plots will have to be determined  and hard working, because they won't be easy plots to start off with. That's true of most allotments on our site, none of them are flat pieces of land which just need to be dug over and weeded. They all seem to have big bumps in them, tons of rubbish and maybe drainage problems. Which is probably why a lot of people give up with their allotments after the first year.

As we've watched the progress of these plots we've wondered who would want to take on a piece of land in such a bad state.  The trees have been cut down but the tree stumps are still there and probably lots of underground roots too. But having taken on and transformed two very difficult plots ourselves in the last three years we know that it is possible with a lot of hard work.

The workmen have gone now and the allotments are ready for new tenants. We've already seen people on the top plot working hard, we wish them well and we're looking forward to seeing more new neighbours soon.

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.

Clearing up the plots

As the days get shorter, we are now spending less time at the allotments. There are still plenty of jobs to be done though, but we tend to go down just for a couple of hours with a specific job to do without having our usual lunch or cups of tea.  Beds are gradually being cleared and then weeded and manured. It's a busy time trying to get them ready for winter.

The peas and courgettes have all been cleared and the climbing french beans will soon be finished with. The cabbage beds are quite full of produce still.  Kale, Brussels sprouts, sprouting broccoli, red cabbage and Calabrese will keep us going through the winter.

The summer cabbage and cauliflowers are now all done with and we have planted some garlic where they were in one of the beds on plot 8. In the roots beds there are still plenty of beetroot and some tiny celeriac. They will probably be left there for a while.

As they start to look messy, we pull up the flowers in the cut flower beds. From a distance they look good but close to we can see that most of them are not good enough to cut now. The dahlias however are still going strong and we are cutting as many as we can before the frosts finish them off and that may not be long off now.

At the weekend we cleared all the tomatoes out of the polytunnel. I was glad to get them out and the place cleaned up because I think there are mice in there. We have found holes in the soil and teeth marks in the tomatoes which had dropped off the plants onto the soil.  It looks very empty now and we are thinking about what we can grow over the winter.  At home I now have tomatoes all over the place, so I need to make something with them.