Blogger has done a big overhaul and changed the default font sizes so I can no longer have posts at the font size that I usually do. I can either have 'normal' which is this, or 'large' which is what I used to have, but now looks like this. I don't like either. If you're reading on a computer you can hold ctrl + turn the scroll wheel on the mouse to zoom in or out.
I realised that I hadn’t written my monthly allotment update
blog for May, so here it is. My brain is sad and a bit low on reserves so this
may be utter jibberish or just not read very well, but frankly I don’t give a
shit.
May, I think, was quite sunny and productive. I can’t really
remember that far back so I am piecing things together from Twitter posts that I
wrote. My memory is shot to shit, and the depression makes it worse. Bear with…
I had a mass shed sort out and tidy at the start of the month,
which was much needed and somehow it has managed to stay tidy and organised. It
is so much easier to find things now. I think I have decided to get a new shed
next year – David has repaired the bottoms of the sides but the floor is now
giving way by the door.
May was also the month of lots of peat free compost – I found
a supply in the local M&S food hall, and have subsequently spent a lot of money
at M&S. David also got me a few bags from a local garden centre. I used this
compost to top dress the new raised beds that David built in April, and I also
earthed up the spuds.
I spent quite a lot of time watching the red mason bees
coming and going. I miss them. I usually sit and watch the leaf cutters now,
but I am yet to see any.
I had an almond on the almond tree – the very first – but it
has since gone. I suspect it rotted and fell off, but the tree was only planted
in October so I think it is too soon to expect a harvest.
The pond plants finally arrived and I chucked them in. I had
curly pondweed, common water crowfoot, hornwort, and a dwarf white water lily. This
week (June) I noticed that one of them has flowered!
The alliums put on quite a show this month at the front of
the plot. I want more.
I have been harvesting salad crops regularly since mid-May. Leaves,
spring onions, radishes, and chard.
I have had lots of avian visitors to the bird feeders this month.
I have seen a great spotted woodpecker come down to the fat balls a few times,
and I have also seen a goldcrest coming down too! This has been the highlight
of my life, to be honest. Goldcrests are smaller than a wren, absolutely tiny,
and it didn’t seem to mind me getting quite close when I was walking up and
down the plot.
Turns out that May was quite busy and productive, and I suppose
that’s due to me being furloughed and locked down with nowhere to go.
This month I built some sturdy growing structures for loofah
plants. These frames will stay attached and stay up and I can use them again
next year for other crops like peas and beans.
I planted out loofah, sunflowers, tomatoes, sweetcorn,
courgettes, pumpkins, and sowed seeds of salad crops, radish, spring onion,
parsnip, and carrots. I have harvested salad and radishes, and shifted an awful
lot of compost. I think this might’ve just been the most productive month I’ve
ever had on the allotment in the ten years I’ve had it!
This month I also saw a banded demoiselle damselfly, and a
male broad bodied chaser dragonfly on my plot. I have seen the first blue butterfly
of the year, lots of small tortoiseshells, and some cinnabar moths.
I am so grateful to have this space. It’s always been there
for me to retreat to when I need to silence the world and escape for a bit. Sometimes
I am there for four or five hours but haven’t really done much. I am not much
of a sitter – I much prefer to be doing something – but sometimes, I do just
sit.
