Allotment Life: March 2021

I haven’t really done a specific allotment update blog since April last year because my weekly furlough blogs took over, and then the daily lockdown posts took over from them. I want to start my monthly allotment blogs again because they’re super useful for me to look back on and that makes it worth it to me. Also as I have now taken on a new plot, I want to document it all.

I think anyone who reads this blog (all 23 of you) is now well versed in how March went – I decided to move from the bottom road to the top after 11.5yrs, so I waved goodbye to P31 and am now on P16. With ten days off work and a lot of help, pretty much everything got dismantled, moved, and rebuilt in a week.

So I have now had a full month of P16. The list is HUGE. I have copied and pasted this from the previous blogs:

·       David and I moved 25 super massive super heavy slabs from varying parts of S Birmingham because they were free and new ones would cost about £280

·       Momma P emptied my old shed and put everything in her polytunnel/on her plot

·       Water butts emptied and moved

·       Hired a man wot can to dig over my new plot and get rid of the tussocks etc

·       Taken down the polytunnel from P31 and carried it up as a whole frame to P16

·       Rebuilt and reinforced and braced the tunnel and used an excessive amount of staples to fix the cover to any available timber

·       David started making a slab base, decided it wasn't going to work, so we came up with four more options, and in the end he and Sam have made a raised solid timber deck, so it is well above the mud, but more importantly it is level, solid, secure, and my shed should last for a good decade or so

·       I have moved the 25 slabs into varying places on the allotment, some in the polytunnel, some to make a path at the side of the shed for waterbutts, some piled for now, and the rest as a path up the middle of the plot

·       Momma P has been rotavating a bit where I am placing the new beds. She has planted two beds with bulbs. I have planted the almond tree and maybe half of the garlic.

·       Momma P and I have shovelled, shifted, and bagged up half of the manure & compost, and moved it to P16 and heaped it.

·       Between us we have carried maybe 8 or 9 raised bed frames up from P31 to P16

·       Moved the solitary bee houses and bird feeders and put them back up on P16

·       Planted 3 quince bushes and placed the rest where I want them

·       Made very good use of Momma P’s car. Very good use

·       Moved about 10-11 barrow loads of bricks

·       Planted the hazel tree and some mixed whips in the plum tree dead hedge behind the bamboo

·       Dismantled, moved, and rebuilt the compost bins. Painted them

·       Started the heap (with a manky sacrificial banana)

·       Planted bulbs & quince bushes along the one side and the back of the compost

·       Planted lemon balm by the three front legs of the compost bins

·       Arranged, staked, tilled, lined (with card) and filled four raised beds

·       Covered three with timber to stop the fox digging out all the dirt

·       Planted garlic in one so all the garlic is now planted

·       Stuck some red dogwood cuttings in the woodlandy bit behind the bamboo in the hope that they will take root

·       Put the bird feeder back up and topped up the feeders

·       Planted an apple tree

·       Made a fence thing with shelf frame, canes & mesh

·       Planted raspberries to grow up it

·       Planted tagetes (French marigolds) in a very feng shui manner

·       Planted bulbs around the apple tree

·       Planted bulbs down the side of the plot behind the polytunnel

·       Made an L-shape bed at the other end of the compost bin

·       Filled it with herbs, strawberries, raspberries to climb up the compost bin, a sea holly, daffs & crocus bulbs, and then topped it off with gravel

·       Scattered some flower seed around and about

·       Made another bed double height, just need to fill it up now

 

We have also since last weekend:

·       Built 3 more beds, staked, lined & filled them

·       Built 4 more raised beds but they remain empty as I’ve run out of compost

·       Nearly finished planting all the bulbs!

·       Filled the double height bed

·       Painted the shed base twice

·       Repaired a bird table that was dumped at the Lickeys so it is now destined for the allotment

·       Ordered the shed (wahoooo!)

·       Planted potatoes, parsnip, carrot, spring onions, & salad crops

·       I have painted a load of wooden plant labels from Wilkos in the hope that they won’t go mouldy quite so fast

 

Tomorrow I will be finishing off the new beds as I didn’t screw the corner posts in. I am also going to put the canes in for the pea towers. I need more compost to fill the new beds but I can’t afford any yet so they shall remain empty for a while.

We have done LOADS (we have also spent loads) but the plot has been completely overhauled and looks totally different to a month ago. But it is now ready for growing for the new season so I’m happy!