Adventures of a Laura: 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