Stormy weather

We got a few jobs done at the allotment last week before storm Ciara arrived. I finished cleaning out the two greenhouses and then started on the shed.  This is a job which I hate doing and had been putting it off for weeks, but it needed doing. I decided to put everything from the shed into the
greenhouse. This was a good idea as it took me two days to clean it out completely. There were lots of cobwebs and massive spiders. I managed to evict about four of them, but I know they will return, I think they sneak back in when I'm not looking. Now its all clean, tidy and smelling fresh and I feel much better for having done that big job.

Another job I have been doing is digging up clumps of poached egg plant ( Limnanthes douglasii) which have been taking over the fruit beds.   This is a very pretty yellow and white annual flower which the bees and hoverflies love. I sowed the seeds several years ago, it self seeds and then takes over. Every year I try to get rid of it but it just keeps coming back.

We went back to the plot yesterday to see if there was any storm damage and were pleased to see that the greenhouses and shed were still standing upright with no broken windows.

There's a conifer hedge down one side of our allotment which was planted by a previous tenant many years ago. We cut a lot of it back when we took the plot on, this reduced the width, but not the height. The height takes a lot of light off the beds so Richard has decided to try to reduce it. Its  difficult as the branches are quite thick, so it will be a long job.

You can just see the conifer hedge at the top left of this photo and right and left below

My next job is to clean out the pond.  Some of the plants are getting too big and there is a lot of mud to get rid of. I want to get this done before the frogs start spawning.  They always arrive earlier than I expect, usually on a nice sunny day in March. But with Storm Dennis expected this weekend and a lot of rain predicted for next week I don't think it will get done for a while yet.  It's going to be a race between me and the frogs.

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.

Draining plot 8

We made a start on plot 8 our new allotment last weekend. We didn't really know where to start, there is so much rubbish and it has been very neglected. We sorted through broken plant pots and seed trays, managing to salvage some big pots which would do for growing potatoes in. We started to make a pile of bricks, there seem to be hundreds of them all over the plot, but they will be useful. There are lots of other stones and rubble lying around which again will be useful, especially as we are needing rubble to lay the foundations of the paths on plot 10b. The very flimsy raised beds still had the  remains of dead plants in them, which we cleared.  They seem to be not very deep, lined with membrane and filled with compost, but we can use them this summer as overflow beds for plants from plot 10b. We noticed that there were two small beds with strawberries in so we will leave those, give them some TLC and see if they produce any fruit. The whole plot seems to have had membrane, bits of carpet and wood thrown down in an attempt to suppress the weeds.  I don't think it has been dug over in years.

Down one side of the plot, part of the boundary fence has a conifer hedge, which we could tell had not been cut in a long time and our neighbours confirmed this.  They keep their side well maintained. Richard made a start on cutting it back. Although he has cut into the wood which means it will not grow again on our side, we have probably gained a few feet of extra space.

 

As  we worked with our clearing up Helen's husband David got a fire going on our other plot to burn the debris and hedge cuttings. We still finished up with a big pile of rubbish which couldn't be burnt.

All the work  was made more difficult because of the water running down the plot. Some areas are very muddy, making it very slippy. So Richard has also been tackling the drainage problem. He has dug out a drain from the top of the plot where the water source starts. This is channelled down to the pond and then out to the bottom of the plot onto the lane.  He intends to put some drain pipes into the dug out areas to make proper drains.  This is the most important job at the moment on the plot. We can see some improvement already as the path and steps into the plot has now dried out and we can enter without worry of falling over in the mud.

As we spend more time clearing up our new plot we are forming a plan in our mind of how to lay it out.
We've a lot of work ahead of us though.