I did a lot of faffing in February.
I painted lots of wood, I
built up raised beds to make them deeper, I painted more wood, I helped Momma P
paint on Plot 4, I drew up my allotment on the computer and labelled my beds to
work out what I want to grow where, I read up on No Dig and even ordered a book about it all. I have uncovered one of my
flower beds and pulled up some docks by their 10” long taproots, and I cut a
limb off the little apple tree. Momma P bought me 10 bags of compost which have just about filled one of my new raised beds.
It is still too early to plant most things, though I will admit to sowing some seeds in one of the beds. I have started carrots, radish, parsnip, beetroot, spring onion, chard, and swede. I do get carried away at this time of year and I always like to see if I can get an early crop. I'll be sowing more seeds in five weeks time anyway and I have literally thousands of carrot seeds (thanks, work!) so it's no loss if nothing grows now.
Budgeting money each month for the plot is really helping. So
far this month I have bought red clover plant (great for bumbles), lambs ear (good for carder bumblebees
– they rasp the hairs off the leaves to use to line cells). I get common carder
bumblebees on my allotment; not so sure about wool carder bees though! I also
bought some catmint and a new yellow raspberry cane. The wildflowers have been
put under my plum tree along with some red dead-nettle I dug up from Plot 4. Hopefully
this little patch will become a nice wee habitat under the plum, with a rotting
wood pile nearby for good measure.
Momma P has had a new polytunnel on Plot 4 which I helped to
put up this month. I am also very jealous of it, so Momma P has bought one for Plot 31
too! So one of the jobs in March is to put this up. But to do that I need to
relocate the herb bed. But to do that I need to dig over and weed another patch
of the plot, make a raised bed, fill it with earth, then relocate the herbs
from their current bed. THEN I need to level the ground. Then build the
polytunnel. Then work out what I’m going to grow in it. A small job to keep me
busy this month!
So March will hopefully see me put up a polytunnel, lay some
new paving in front of the shed, and fill up my other huge 6x6ft raised bed
with compost. Best get shopping……..
