Allotment Week - Under lockdown - Day 4 - Fixing Paths

Today the woodchips are disappearing fast.

Peter is still repairing the roadways and is using the woodchips to fill in a lot of the grooves and ruts. But I also need woodchips to re-do the pathways and raise the Deep End. But first I need to get some paper sorted.

I've been collecting Evening Standards and Metros for a while now. I intend to use the paper as a mulch to keep down the weeds. With the woodchips on top it should act as a sufficient barrier to keep them at bay. But first I have to remove all those pesky staples.

I piled up the woodchip because I really don't know when we'll get another delivery. At least this way I can do a bit more tomorrow.

Meanwhile The Wife was clearing one of the other beds. We had onions in it last year, but we don't really have a lot of luck with Onions. So much so that we have decided that we're not going to bother with them in the future. So, what few we had left remaining she pulled out. At least this way we can have some spring onions with our food.

But it does give us another bed ready for planting.

Allotment Week - Under lockdown - Day 3 - Digging in the Deep End

Today I've been digging in the Deep End.

Over the weekend the Committee have repaired the roadway and central parking area by the simple expedient of hiring a dumper truck and mini-digger and using a load of builders rubble (bricks, stones and gravel) to fill in all the pot holes and pack it down. This has essentially raised the level of the roadway and parking area. They have done a good job. (I say "they", but it was one man, Peter, who is the Committee's handyman.)

As such, when it rains in future, the Deep End will bear the brunt of the run-off. So I need to raise it. First off I need to dig out all that damned Couch Grass.

As you can see by the bed on the left, it is quite low. That white "plastic" cover you can see to the right of the bed at the far end is actually a layer of dried algae. The kind you would find in a fish pond. The bed itself is like clay. OK, it is clay. It has set and is hard to dig through. But it is rather gratifying to see a large number of worms in there. The new fork seems to be doing a good job. The last time I tried digging something this tough, my fork broke.

The mound you can see behind the fence at the very back is actually a huge mound of composted manure. So guess what I'm going to be filling the beds with?

Eventually I managed to clear the bed of all the couch grass and break up some of the clods of clay.

I've hacked back the grass at the side. I intend to cover the grass with layers of newspaper followed by loads of wood chips. Only at the moment our wood chip stocks are a little low.

I filled up the bed with three barrowfuls of manure. There were hundreds of little red worms in there. So if they like it, it must be good.

Anyway, it's getting a little late. I started late because I actually managed to go shopping (first time in two weeks) which delayed us getting down the plot. So time to pack up and head home. Tomorrow I'll probably do the second bed, and if possible try and get some of the wood chips down. After that I can raise the actual bed a bit. It's going to take a while to truly raise the whole area, but we have to start somewhere.

Allotment Week - Under lockdown - Day 2 - Hail Cease-r

To today is another day? Yeah, where did all that sunshine go to?

It's just a bit too cold and breezy to do anything productive today. So I'll give it a skip.

However there are plans I can make. At the very back of the plot is a rather neglected corner. One of the projects to be done during this three week period is to get it cleared and install a seating area. Just one problem with that. The seating area needs to be built, and for that I need wood. Except the local B&Q (and most places, to be fair) are closed under government rules. But the B&Q does offer a "click & collect" service. So I can order online and then go to the car park to pick up the necessary bits. Well that takes a weight off my mind. At least I know I can get the right stuff. But first I have to clear the area and get some measurements done... weather permitting.

Allotment Week - Under lockdown - Day 1 - Shed load of stuff to do

I booked some time off work back in December. I set it for the first three weeks of April (ok, last couple of days of March as well) as I thought that the weather would be sufficiently decent for me to spend a good while down the plot. Little did I know that we would be facing an apocalypse in the form of a deadly plague. I am one of the severely vulnerable people. I have asthma, and last year I spent a long time in hospital with a lung infection and pneumonia. So if I contract this virus then I would be in big trouble.

Fortunately the lockdown allows people to exercise, so I choose to use that exercise down the plot. After all, it's not like there are many of us that go down there at once. As one of my work colleagues said of the allotment "that's about as unsociable as you can get". That's not true as we are a pretty sociable bunch, but we can certainly honour the social separation recommended.

The day started pretty sunny. But by the time I got down the plot the clouds and wind had started to gather. But since we cleaned out the greenhouse it's nice and warm in there, so I made a spot of lunch.

Kettle on for coffee and a spot of pasta in the pot.

Meanwhile outside I did the old tissue paper trick on a tin of tuna in oil in the Ghillie Kettle. I put it in the kettle because of the wind. Having it just open wouldn't have worked.

Once I warmed up with lunch, I then had a look around the plot to see what needed doing. The first thing that jumped out at me was the good old shed. I didn't manage to get round to painting it last year (for obvious reasons) so it's looking a little tired and worn. The last time I painted it was two years ago.

So I dug out the old pot of wood paint to give it a touch up.

Afterwards I gave the seeds in the greenhouse a good watering. The Turnips, and Pak Choi have already begun to sprout.

And then went wading into the deep end (which was now dry) but had a large number of dock plants in it. So I dug down into the soft soil to try and dig them out. As you probably know, dock have a very long tap root so I had to dig pretty deep to get the damn things out. Once those things were removed, I contemplated digging over the bed, but thought better of it and headed home. After all, tomorrow is another day.

Seed planting

What's this? Two sunny days in a row? Well they can't be wasted.

Today we started sowing the seeds of our success. (Or something like that). First off were our regular courgettes. Along with Peas, Pumpkins (Crown Prince), Cape Gooseberries, Chillies (Apache), Tomatoes (Tumbling Toms), Pak Choi and various flowers for the wife.

Meanwhile, out side we planted up a bed of New Zealand Spinach.

Hopefully, this year will be better than last year, which was kind of a wash out.

So the weather report suggests that we may get a couple more days of nice sunshine. Which probably means that I'll have to pop down there on a couple of evenings to make sure the new plantings are well watered. Can't have sunny days going to waste.

Sunny day for Spring Cleaning

Today is a nice sunny day. Too bad that it's as windy as a hurricane. It's still too wet to do anything outside, so today we're spring cleaning the greenhouse. When we previously did a clean we washed the whole thing. And that's what gave me last year's Lung Infection that laid me out the rest of the year. So this time, no inside washing. Just sweeping and tidy-up.

We cleared out on side of the greenhouse, and swept it all up. The wooden slat on the bottom shelf are supposed to have spacers, but although they look smart, they don't stick very well. So instead we decided to remove them altogether and fit all the wooden slats together. It makes for a stronger shelf, but obviously when you remove the gaps, you need more wood. So I sawed up some spare planks to the same length and fitted them. But I still need a few more.

Once one side was done, we moved all the stuff to the other side. We thought we'd try shuffling things around a bit. The Palette Table which I made many moons ago sticks out into the doorway a bit, so we thought we'd move it to the very back of the greenhouse.

So we played a bit of 3D Tetris to shuffle everything around... and then realised that it wouldn't work. There is a shelf at the very back where we put some of the seedlings and smaller plants. When we water anything on that shelf then the water occasionally runs to the side and drips down. In this case it would drip onside the desk. and cooking area. So we shuffled everything back again. We may as well stick with the layout.

We had intended to also do some seed sowing, but I think that's going to have to wait. Maybe tomorrow.

Still too wet for real work

We're still flooded. Not as bad as is has been, but still bad enough that you need to give a good tug on your wellies or risk leaving them behind in the quagmire.

But the damp conditions do make it easy to pull up the weeds in the pathways. So today was a simple clear the paths day. Not that we did a great deal because it threatened rain. Still as the saying goes, every little helps.

We're dumping the weeds into the pathways on the lowest portion of the plot. Later on I'll be covering all these paths with a good thick layer of newspaper and piling a whole load of wood chips on top. Hopefully this will raise the levels and with the compost from our overflowing bins we can raise the levels of the beds too. Anything to get a little higher ground underfoot.

Squelching time again

So the storms have passed, but we're still getting a lot of rain. So much so that once again the plot is underwater. Which kind of puts our plans on hold. We can't dig any of the beds. Movement on the plot is restricted. And we certainly can't get the greenhouses clean because the tap water is still switched off.

So in the meantime, there is very little to do. I did slaughter the other two George's that were at the allotment and I left the seeds drying on a high shelf in the greenhouse, out of the reach of any pesky rodents.

So the only thing I can do is leave you with a picture of the daffs which appear to be enjoying themselves in the weak spring sunshine.

Time for Slaughtering the George again

We have a regular ritual. The "Slaughtering of the George". We've always called the biggest marrows "George". It's our carry over of the best courgettes and provides the seeds for the next year.

• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014

We've usually done it down the allotment. But this year it's too cold and wet. The plot is flooded again with all this rain from various sources (aka Storms Ciara, Denis, Jorge and a few days inbetween.) So this time it's in the kitchen.

Choose your George. (We have two more at the allotment)

Slice it open.

Collect seeds.

It really couldn't be easier. Now we just let the seeds dry and they'll be ready to plant at the end of the month. Ready for the next tsunami of courgettes.