Adventures of a Laura: A Hot Day at Plot 31

No matter what is happening I am still in lockdown mode, trying to escape the madness. I am limiting trips outside to shopping and allotmenting. My Twitter muted words list is growing day by day – I just wish I could do the same in the real world. I had a day at the allotment to give David some quiet and space, but also to shift a load of plants from the garden.

Momma P and I (mostly Momma P) have sorted the two dalek compost bins at her house and bagged up the homemade compost to use on the allotment. It was awful. Turns out eggshells, ginger, avocado, potato skins, and the compost caddy bin bags really do not rot down very well in domestic compost. We also found lots of stuff that Poppa has obviously put in – cat food sachets, mostly.

We used this compost to fill the new raised beds on Plot 31 to bulk them out. The plan is to cover this with cardboard and then put down a top later of fresh peat free compost into which I will plant things.

A couple of weeks ago Momma P and I visited our local M&S food hall because there was no queue and it was so successful it has now become my favourite place for grocery shopping. It was on one of these trips that we found New Horizon peat free compost for sale! I have used this a lot on the allotment and I really like it, but it is hard to find it for a decent price and harder to find anywhere that will deliver it. Usually we drive in convoy to a local shop and I put four bags in my car and four in mommas.

SO! On this lovely hot day, I packed the car up and dropped everything off at the allotment before nipping back to M&S for compost. I got five bags and have used it to top dress two of the new beds, and also in the holes that I dug for the tomatoes, courgettes, and loofah. I then put whatever was left in the sweet pea bed just to use it up. I am going to go back next week to get more compost to finish off the other two beds, and these ones will then be ready for planting. Which is quite a good job really, as I now have 10 more bloomin’ courgette plants to find space for!!

I have been quite excited this week to discover that a little bird I saw about a month ago but dismissed, is actually what I thought it was. I have a GOLDCREST visiting my bird feeding station!! An actual goldcrest. Britain’s smallest bird, smaller than a wren. It has taken a fancy to the fat balls, and it doesn’t mind me getting close to watch and take photos. I now recognise the call it makes and spend a lot of time smiling and watching. So cute. So tiny.

The pond has been deweeded. I found a leech which is a good sign, and a territorial hoverfly really doesn’t like it when the honeybees come down to drink. I have seen my first two dragonflies on the allotment – a banded demoiselle, and a broad bodied chaser! No photos as I was too excited. I topped up the pond with around 40L of water as the water level was looking quite low. I do have tadpoles in the pond, as well as snails and plenty of mosquito larvae.

So on the allotment now I have sweetcorn, loofah/luffa, tomatoes, courgette, butternut squash, pumpkin, potatoes, salad crops (radish, spring onion, mizuna, rocket, carrot, corn salad, lettuce), parsnip, peas, sunflowers, and borage. I have also planted gladioli, sweet peas, nasturtium, calendula, and love in a mist. The pond area has had varying wildflower seeds thrown around, so I hope that some of them take. I realised that I haven’t got any beans so I need to get some in soon, and I want more peas as I eat them straight off the plant and they don’t even make it home.

I am very much enjoying having this little space and having the time to just wander around and do bits here and there. It is all coming together and while there is still a lot to do, it is really taking shape and looking like how I visualised it ten years ago when I first got it.