Getting ready for Spring

We've been going to the allotment a couple of times a week recently when the  weather has been fine enough. Some of the beds were cleared and  mulched in the autumn, so I have been sorting out the other beds. As winter vegetables were gradually harvested I have been able to clear any debris away, then hoe the weeds and lightly work the top surface of the soil. I don't dig the soil, just clear any weeds and then mulch with compost or manure. The worms do the rest of the work. Its been a few years since we have been able to get any manure for the allotment, so I have been using home made compost, which is as good. Sometimes we buy bags of manure from the garden centre and mix this with the compost.

Now the beds are looking tidy and are just waiting for the soil to warm up enough to plant or sow.  But there are other jobs which we have been getting on with. This time of waiting in the winter and early Spring is a good time to get on with  maintenance jobs around the allotment. Our allotments have been kept supplied with plenty of bark chippings from a local company. I have been using these to cover the non growing areas of my plot after weeding. They help to keep the weeds down and  make the place look tidy.

The pond has been needing a good tidy up and as soon as the weather improved I got my rubber gloves and a scoop and got rid of some of the mud and silt which was building up. I cut back some of the plants in the little garden around the pond and then covered the ground with some of the chippings. No sign of frog spawn yet, I just hope I didn't frighten the frogs off with all my work.

The greenhouses needed cleaning out and that's another job I leave for warmer weather. Once they were done I put the staging back in and I'm now ready to fill it with all the plants I'll be starting off from seed in the coming weeks. Already in there are sweet peas, broad beans, onions and peas sown in guttering. There are more seedlings at home which I'll gradually bring to the plot for growing on in the greenhouse.

Richard has been making a new fruit cage for the blueberries.  He bought a metal shelving system which he saw on offer and worked out that it would be cheaper than buying a proper fruit cage. He likes a project and this has kept him busy for a week or two. It's finished now and is great, its higher than the old one so I can stand up straight inside it which is much easier on my back.

The days are getting warmer now and work on the allotment will increase as I start to plant and sow in the ground. Its good to know that we are well prepared on the plot as we start the growing season.

Spring has arrived at the allotment

We've not been down to the allotment much recently, partly due to bad weather,  but also because of my ankle injury which meant that when the lane was muddy and the allotment paths slippy it was a bit of an unsafe place for me. But at last Spring arrived and fine weather, so off we went to get some much needed work done.

I was greeted by one of my favourite flowers in bloom, the marsh marigold in the pond. As I took a closer look I noticed that there was no sign of the frog spawn which had been there for a few weeks. I wondered if the rain had washed it away as the pond was pretty full up of water. But no, on closer inspection I could see little tadpoles swimming around happily. Peeping out from under the marsh marigold was a frog, I spotted another one down at the bottom of the pond. The frog was very quiet and still and didn't seem to mind me. 

Another welcome sight was the daffodils bordering the path, the bright lime green euphorbia under the sycamore tree and the tulips flowering in the big tub.

The last time we went to the allotment a few weeks ago, we moved the blueberry bushes from the fruit area where they were a bit overcrowded to another bed where they would have more space. They were looking fine after their move. The mulch you can see in the photo is shredded pine needles. We always shred our Christmas tree branches to keep for the blueberries as they like an acid soil. I have heard that this is a good thing to do.

Looking at the rest of the fruit bed we could see that the fruit frame was falling down, so some work will have to be done on it soon before we need to start netting the fruit against the birds. Richard dismantled the frame and repaired the support for the apple tree.

The rhubarb is growing really well and we should be pulling some of the stalks soon.

I'm a bit late planting the potatoes, I would normally have them done by now. So that was an important job to get done. We started work on preparing the potato containers with compost. I planted the first earlies in six of the potato bags. The variety is Maris Bard. I put compost in the bottom of the bags to about a third of the depth and sprinkled in a bit of bone meal. The bags are quite big so I put four potatoes in each bag. Then topped with more compost. When the potatoes start to grow and the shoots show through the compost I will top up with more compost. The next lot of potatoes to plant will be the second early Charlotte a salad potato.

Another important job was to weed the asparagus bed. I also fed it with some blood, fish and bone. I was pleased to see a few little asparagus spears starting to come through.

The fine weather didn't last long, it started to rain, but at least we got a good number of jobs done.

A fruit cage at last!

 Ever since we've had the allotment I've struggled with finding a secure way of netting the fruit. Last year I thought I'd netted the blueberries well but arrived on the plot one day to find one of the plants completely stripped of its fruit. Throwing a net over might deter the birds for a while but they will soon find a way in if they really want that juicy fruit.

We've been working on the fruit bed for a couple of years and now it's finished and planted up my dream has been  to have a proper fruit cage. It would have to be a home made one as we try not to spend too much money on the allotment.

The last few weeks as I've seen the fruit slowly ripening I knew we'd better get something in place before we lost the fruit again. As usual Richard came to my rescue with his DIY and recycling skills.

The fruit cage was put together in a morning using the old net brassica frames which had been used on the raised beds on Helen's old allotment. These had originally been made using recycled wood, so they were put back into use again. Held together with string and a few screws it may not stay put for very long, but as long as it's in place until the fruit can be picked that's fine.

The blueberry bushes are on the other side of the bed to the rest of the fruit so had to be netted separately, but there were some smaller net frames which could be used. It's always good to be able to reuse and recycle.

We can now watch our fruit ripening and hopefully we won't have to share it with the birds. I'm also looking forward to some jam making sessions.