It’s been a few weeks since my last allotment post – life and weather got in the way as usual! That’s not to say that I haven’t been busy making progress on the plot…
Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of the adventure involved in repairing and upgrading the fencing, and installing a gate, but after finding no further droppings within my plot, I’m happy that it’s rabbit-proof…for now.
I’ve now dug out plots 1-3, and planted some of my seedlings into them.
I’ve had a pretty busy spring so far, aside from the allotment, so I’ve been in a bit of a rush to get everything in. As such, I’ve switched up the plan a bit to what you see on the left…
I’ll put together a new plan that reflects the difference, but for now we’ve got:
Plot 1
- Parsnips
Plot 2
- Carrots
- Onions
- Leeks
Plot 3
- Potatoes
Plot 4 is too overgrown and contains some raspberries, so I’m going to leave that for now. The gate to the plot is on plot 5 so I might turn some of that over and put up a little greenhouse.
I hadn’t been down to the allotment for a week or so, until yesterday. I was surprised to see how well everything was doing, and how few weeds had appeared. With the blossom on the apple and pear trees, the sun breaking through the cloud, and the birds all singing, the allotment feels more like a peaceful retreat. Once I’ve finished getting things straight, I’m sure it’ll be a nice little place to relax (after digging up a few weeds).
I spent some time with the manual lawn mower, which was…fun, cutting paths through some of the more overgrown parts of the plot that I can’t really access and tidying up the path around my plot.
I lugged down about 60 litres of compost in my old rucksack on the back of my bike yesterday, so I was pretty puffed out by the time I arrived. Nevertheless, I completed digging out and preparing the rest of plot 1 (I planted some parsnip seedlings in there a couple of weeks ago), ready for some more seeds.
Unfortunately I discovered that I’d left the seeds at home, so decided that I’d just do a bit more cleaning up before weeding everything. The weeds weren’t really big enough to dig up so I spent most of my time just rubbing them out – I figured that this would keep them back while I’m unable to get down this week.
I’m looking forward to seeing how things progress next weekend, and might even get a little greenhouse up for some courgettes – I guess they’ll do better in there, but worry that I won’t be able to get down and water them as much as they’ll need. Let’s see…
