Allotment Life: March 2022. Happy Birthday, Plot 16!

Yep, I’ve been on Plot 16 for a whole year!! Sometimes I feel like we’ve done loads of work and sometimes I feel like we haven’t done much.

You can read about March 2021 here. 

March 2021

Feb 2022

I have been working on getting the plot to the stage where it can be left for a few weeks with minimal damage and weed growth. I am trying to not have to weed so much, so have been doing lots of no dig beds to suppress any weed growth (mixed success) and recently did the path to make it significantly less weedy.

March has been quite quiet – Momma P and I did the paths in February and they’re still looking good and I’m very pleased with them. The water butt path makes such a difference now, I can actually get to the butts!

So this month I have mostly been seed sowing, getting the first things in the ground. My polytunnel isn’t a growing tunnel, I use it as shelter for seedlings until they go out. I don’t have a greenhouse, shed, potting shed, or windowsills at home, so I have to start it all at the plot. I tend not to grow hot things like peppers and tomatoes - Davids dad grows a lot and we get bags of fruit from him over summer, and Momma P also grows loads too, so I just don't need to.

In mid-March I sowed a few trays of toilet roll pots with:

·            Cosmos

·            Sea holly

·            Lobelia

·            Echinacea

·            Verbena bon

·            Purple sprouting broc

·            Courgette (too early but I got excited)

·            Leek

·            Sprout

·            Borage

 

In some of the raised beds I direct sowed:

·            Carrot

·            Spinach

·            Corn salad

·            Lettuce

·            Rocket

·            Mizuna

·            Radish

·            Spring onion

 

At the end of March (today in fact), I have started more seeds inside:

·            French bean

 

And more outside:

·            Radish

·            Spring onion

·            Carrot

·            Chard

·            Calendula

·            Cornflower

·            Nasturtium

 

Beans, 2 per pot

This bed has chard, carrot, radish, cornflower, calendula, nasturtium, and radish. The flowers are all edible.

This year I have decided that sowing in rows is Not The One, so I am just wildly broadcasting seed over the surface of the bed, squishing them down, watering them in, and then leaving them. I am too lazy to sow in rows and I am looking forward to chaos ensuing.

The first seedlings are up from the mid-March sowing! I have some cosmos, some purple broc, and most of the outdoor seeds are up too, lots of radish and spinach coming, think I may have wildly broadcast too enthusiastically. Oh well.

Radish

Self seeded nasturtium

New growth on the raspberry canes

Still picking chard! This was direct sown last summer and I have been harvesting it all winter.

All of the quince bushes are in flower, the almond is COVERED in blossom, and the daffs are gorgeous. I forgot how many daffs we transplanted from P31 last year.

 

This was my March to do list:

·            Make up toilet roll pots & take to polytunnel – done

·            Tidy and sort out pile of crap by compost

·            Tidy and try to organise shed a bit

·            Weed out strawberry & blueberry beds and tidy

·            Start seed sowing! I want more root crops this year, so LOTS of carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede, and radish. Also more salad. And more edible flowers. – done

 

So my April to do list is thus:

·            Tidy and try to organise shed a bit, put more shelving units up

·            Weed out strawberry & blueberry beds

·            Sow more seed – more flower seed in the beds, and more carrots etc.

·            Put up two more arches somewhere and brace

·            Hack back bramble behind the shed

Harvested the last of the parsnips! I will sow fresh seed in mid-April for the next lot.

Marjoram. Great for bees!

Allotment Life: February 2022

February was wet. Incredibly wet. Our garden flooded for the first time since we moved in September – apparently in a normal winter it should’ve flooded three times by now – and we went canoeing in the garden, but that’s a different blog post.

The allotment was also v wet in Feb, but because I had done a lot of prep work before the new year, there hasn’t actually been very much that has needed doing. I know by now (after 12yrs!) that the winters on this site are soggy so work needs to be done before winter and then left alone until spring. And that’s just wot I is doing.

However, saying that, I have done some BIG JOBS at the plot and helped Momma with a couple of things on her plot too. So it has been productive and the plot is now ready for seed sowing from the end of March. I never sow before the middle of March. There’s just no point. This year, I also have no indoor space at home to start seeds so I haven’t done anything and ya know, I’m not panicking or worrying. It’ll all be well.

I have started making toilet roll tube pots and will get them up to the polytunnel soon and then I can do some seed sowing at the allotment. Haven’t actually decided what yet, but I’m thinking a mix of flower seeds and veggits.

So, allotment life in February! Not much happened but the stuff that did happen was BIG. We were due a plot inspection so I rushed to get things done, but as far as I know, the inspection didn’t happen.

Momma P and I moved the polytunnel in January and so I have now done the path at the side to allow better access to the waterbutts. At some point I am going to upgrade the butts for bigger ones, so this path defo needed doing.

We have also done the main path up the middle of the plot. The plan was to have herbs growing between the slabs but the couch grass/mares tail/bindweed/dock/creeping cinquefoil was too powerful, so instead I have lifted the slabs, put down membrane, put slabs on top, then grit in between to make it look BANGTIDY. And it does look well good. Some of the slabs need lifting and levelling a bit, but I’m well pleased with it.

The herbs will be replanted elsewhere. I am going to get mini daffs and crocus to plant alongside the path next winter so it’ll be lined with flowers and make corridors of pollen for the wee beasties and bumbles.

I have also done the guttering on the shed! Wahoo! The piece I had was second hand and slightly warped so the rain just ran down the side of the shed, so that came off before christmas and I have been gutterless ever since. A bit of a bodge job and one joiner piece later, and I have nice guttering! And a new bespoke butt base for the water butt too. Next little job is to fashion a lid with chicken wire to stop squirrels or birds going in for a drink and drowning.

The crocus under the almond tree are glorious. I forgot how many bulbs we transplanted when we moved plots last March, and now they’re all coming up and it’s going to be so colourful in a couple of weeks. We planted bulbs all along the plot boundary to mark MINE.

The bed at the end of the shed has now been planted up with raspberry canes, foxglove, herbs, and a sea holly. I will also plant more things in, direct seed sowing at the start of April. I’m thinking calendula, tagetes, sweet pea, sunflower, and maybe some lobelia to hang over the front.

The chard is still cropping. This was sown last April or May and has survived snow and heavy frosts. I picked a bunch to use in stir fry, and it’s still sat in a cup of water in the kitchen. Keep your leaves in water (doesn’t have to be in the fridge) and it’ll keep them crisp until you’re ready to use them (within a week or so!).

I have also decided that I am definitely getting rid of the polytunnel cover and am going to replace it with enviromesh instead. The cover I have is disintegrating and falling apart, and I don’t use it for hot plants so there isn’t really much need for it, but the enviromesh will allow light, air & water in, but keep bugs out. Haven’t figured out how I’m going to do the door yet though.

My February to do list was this:

·       Redo slab path – done

·       Put up second arch from polytunnel

·       Buy another arch to make a tunnel

·       Put guttering up on shed – done

·       Put butt back into place – done

 

I haven’t put the polytunnel arch back up as I haven’t decided where it is going yet, and I also haven’t bought more because I spent my money on bulbs and screenwash instead.

 

March to do list:

·       Make up toilet roll pots & take to polytunnel

·       Tidy and sort out pile of crap by compost

·       Tidy and try to organise shed a bit

·       Weed out strawberry & blueberry beds and tidy

·       Start seed sowing! I want more root crops this year, so LOTS of carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede, and radish. Also more salad. And more edible flowers.