Allotment pond

When we took over plot 8 a year ago we were delighted to see that it had a pond. Like the rest of the plot it was very overgrown with plants and weeds. The plot also had a serious drainage problem.

Once the drainage was sorted and we could walk around without getting stuck in the mud, we were able to see the pond better.  The pond is filled from a drain running from the top end of the plot and from the plot above us. When it gets full of water it flows out into a drain down the plot and out onto the lane. We think there is a spring somewhere which is why we have all this  water on the plot.

As we started digging over the plot we noticed a few frogs and toads   They were probably a bit disgruntled at being disturbed and losing their hiding places under stones and raised beds. Later on in the Spring we were delighted to see frog spawn in the pond.  We checked it regularly and looked forward to seeing tadpoles grow into frogs. Then we got a spell of dry weather, the water supply to the pond stopped, the pond dried up and the frog spawn disappeared.  This was when we discovered that the pond liner had a hole in it.

We decided that this year we would have a project to sort the pond out, clear the plant area, put a new liner in and replant. As there seemed to be an abundance of yellow lysimachia and yellow irises, I have been investigating other moisture loving plants which would grow in that area.

the pond is somewhere in the middle of this

Well so far this year we have been busy getting the vegetable beds prepared and haven't got around to thinking about how to tackle the pond.  And with all the rain we have had this year the pond has been quite full of water. So of course the frogs are back.  When I checked a week or so ago, there were four frogs and a good amount of spawn.  Since then the spawn seems to have increased.  I think there is both frog and toad spawn. The worry now of course is that if we get  another dry spell, the pond will dry up and we will lose the tadpoles again.

But now is not the right time to clear the pond.  We will wait until the time is right, when the tadpoles have grown up and we are not too busy with growing our vegetables.  I hope we will be able to work on it this year.

frog spawn in the pond

A new cold frame out of old materials

Our collection of wood and other materials continues to be recycled to make things for our allotment and my husband is enjoying the challenge of building things  for as little cost as possible. After all, allotments are about not spending much money.

Last year he built a temporary cold frame out of  bricks and an old shower screen. It was lovely, but sadly had to be dismantled, we needed the bricks for other projects. We have a cheap plastic Aldi cold frame on plot 10b but it will not be big enough for hardening off all our seedlings. So my latest request has been to build a cold frame for plot 8.

Faced with a pile of wood and the instruction to spend as little as possible, this is what he came up with. It's made using wood from the sheds he demolished when we took the plots on.  The frames on the top opening doors are made from pallet wood.  The hinges came from the doors which he made the shed out of.  The polycarbonate was left over when he built the polytunnel.

That's a cheap cold frame.

Flower love

For as long as I can remember I have had a love of flowers. The village where I grew up, before it got taken over by housing estates was surrounded by fields. I have memories of fields full of buttercups, buzzing with bees. I loved the buttercups but not the bees, I thought they would sting me.

My mother owned a shop--an ironmongers-- we lived at the back of it. It was one of a row of little shops in the village.  We didn't have gardens, just backyards.  I remember one year when we had seeds for sale in the shop and  my two brothers and I sowed flowers seeds in two small beds in the yard.  There were Virginia stock, candytuft and cornflowers.  I loved the flowers. At the back of our house was some land, it was known as 'the spare ground'.  I don't know why it was called this, but I used to play there with my friends. Sometimes I played there on my own and I used to wander around picking the wild flowers which grew there. There were foxgloves, the bees used to hide in the bell shaped flowers, I wasn't keen on that.

I remember my mum taking me to visit someone nearby and it had a beautiful cottage garden. I felt quite overwhelmed by all the lovely flowers. At the back of the  row of shops  where we lived there was another house with a lovely garden.  One day my friend and I were playing nearby and noticed that the garden had a beautiful display of lupins. I can still remember now how colourful they were. My friend and I decided that we would pick some of these lupins for our mums.  We each took our bunches of lupins home thinking how pleased our mums would be, only to be shouted at and made to take them back to the owner.  We were only about 4 or 5 years old I think.  I love lupins and always try to have a few growing in my garden, they still remind me of my childhood and I often think of the time I stole those lupins.

I have my own garden now and my love of flowers has not waned. I have difficulty coming out of a garden centre without buying any plants and I have reached the stage where if I want to plant something new I have to dig another plant up first to make some space.

I particularly like flowers that I can cut to bring in the house. For a year or two now I have been promising myself I will have a cut flower border either in the garden or down at the allotment.  I have decided that this year I really will do it. We have more space at the allotment now that we have two plots, I also have a spare
raised bed in the garden where we used to grow vegetables before we got the allotments.

I have bought a selection of annual seeds from Higgledy Garden and I also have various packets of flower seeds which have come free with gardening magazines. I'm dreaming of a patch filled with colour, butterflies flitting around and the gentle hum of bees. I'm all ready to start sowing as soon as the soil warms up.
Fortunately I've overcome my fear of bees.

Packing up for the allotment

 As we were packing up the car ready to go to the allotment I thought it must be like setting off on an expedition with the amount of stuff we sometimes take with us.  There are the essentials, flasks, milk, cake, fruit, maybe lunch too.  Then  there's the all important wellies with an extra pair of socks. My husband's tool bag goes in and any garden tools we may need. We have a collection of tools in the allotment sheds, but some tools like my favourite border spade and fork are too good to be left at the allotment where they could be stolen. So they go in the car every time we go.

Those are all the essentials for every allotment visit, but then there are all the extras.  Sometimes there are bags of garden or kitchen waste for the compost heap. This week there have been trays of plants for the woodland garden, trays of strawberry plants for the polytunnel and bags of compost. It's not surprising my husband said we couldn't fit any thing else in.

What do you take to the allotment with you?

Spring Woods and Whalley Abbey

Last weekend our daughter and family travelled up north to us for a visit.  We always try to get out and about when they visit. We decided on a walk. Spring Woods, one of our local beauty spots, is at Whalley near Clitheroe.  It looks its best when the bluebells are out and is often known as bluebell woods. The wild garlic is another flower which grows in abundance from late spring onwards and you can smell it just driving past. There were no bluebells or wild garlic in flower yet of course but we could see them poking their green shoots out of the ground. Not surprising after all the rain we've had recently, it was very muddy. A number of trees down was evidence of the windy weather we've also had.

 We saw some interesting fungi too:

After our walk around the woods we went into Whalley to the abbey.  Whalley Abbey is a former 14th century Cistercian abbey, most of which was demolished after the dissolution of the monasteries. 

A country house was built on the site and today this is used as a conference and retreat house. The ruins of the abbey remain and it is a very beautiful, peaceful place to walk around. 

Making a woodland garden

The first day of the half term holidays, Helen and the grandchildren arrived to whisk me off to the allotment.  I was surprised. Firstly because it was raining and secondly because the children are not usually so enthusiastic about going to the allotment.  Gardening with children is often a bit hit and miss, so when they are keen to go it's best to encourage them. And I had a few jobs for them to do which I thought they would enjoy.

Last year I helped them to make a woodland den at the top of plot 8. It's an area where we can't grow any fruit or vegetables, there's a big sycamore tree, an elder bush and a holly, with a privet hedge along the plot boundary at the top and lots of ivy. The ground slopes down from the privet hedge forming a steep bank. Last year this bank was full of weeds, but I thought we could make a woodland wildlife garden here.  There are a lot of birds about in the trees and shrubs, we have put bird feeders up around the plot and built a bug house.

A couple of weeks ago I tried digging the soil in this area. As I expected, it was full of roots from the trees and shrubs, but after getting rid of some weeds I did find some pockets of soil where I could dig to some depth. So I cleared a few patches where I thought we could grow some woodland plants and made a start by planting some pots of spring bulbs, crocus, snowdrops, tete a tete narcissus and also some bluebells which Richard had dug up last year when he was clearing some of the ground in another part of the plot.

When we arrived at the allotment this week the grandchildren were quite enthusiastic about having a garden area in and around their den.  They set to work defining these planting spots with stones and pebbles and making paths.  Somehow I managed to end up being the labourer, collecting buckets of stones. We also planted up another little border with spring flowers.

By the time they had finished their jobs, it was all looking really good. I'm looking forward to seeing the woodland garden spring into life soon and we will be adding more plants as time goes on.

A bit of digging and a lot of rain

The weather continues to be rainy and windy, so we're not getting as much done on the allotments as we would like. On Friday though, the weather dried up enough for us to go down and do a bit of work in the afternoon.

Last year when we took over plot 8  there were some small raised beds which were a bit rickety.  We managed to grow some beans and salad crops in them, but we decided that we would dismantle them at the end of the summer and start again with the bed.  This has left a huge bed which we will divide up into two or three smaller areas. The picture above shows the plot last summer with the raised beds to the left.

Digging nearly completed

I started digging this bed over, it was full of weeds, but the soil is quite crumbly and easy to dig.  We had dumped some soil improver in that area last year so I think that helped. The weeds came up easily and I managed to get  most of the  bed dug in an afternoon.  We went back on Saturday taking lunch with us.  An hour's work completed the digging of the bed. So that's all ready for planting when the weather is warmer. We will probably be growing, onions, garlic, carrots, parsnips and beetroot there. The bed you can see to the left at the bottom of the picture above is the next one to tackle after we've had a bonfire to get rid of all the wood. We need some dry weather first though!

We had to adjourn to the shed for our soup lunch when it started raining. It's quite cosy in there and the big window gives us a good view of the plot. The rain however continued so we decided to call it a day.

Newly dug bed