Allotment Life: July 2022

The depression is well and truly here, which is a shock (not really) as it hasn’t been here and this bad for a very long time. A very long time. So I’m not really in the mood to write this, but I want to because I’ll hate myself later for not doing it. The allotment isn’t curing the blues either as all I see when I go there is JOBS. Lots of JOBS that need doing by someone with a working brain. So not me. Yes it’ll be there waiting for me when I’m feeling better but yes it’ll also be in a worse state than it is now because I haven’t done anything to it. Ho hum.

July has been productive and some big jobs have been ticked off (to be replaced by more!)

 

July to-do list:

·       Dig out and turn the compost. Lots of grass cuttings on the heap means it now requires all the shredded paper that I’ve been storing in the shed to be mixed in to get a good compost mix

·       Start de-weeding and re-cardboarding beds. Some of the beds haven’t even been used this year because all of my pumpkin and squash failed. Might as well get a headstart on winter.

·       Sort out the polytunnel. It is mostly (surprise surprise) mares tail and bindweed. I need to get a new cover for it at some point but the inside is currently not usable, so I need to fix that.

·       Measure up and work out how much timber I need. Hint: lots.

 

I didn’t do the compost (too hot)

I didn’t start de-weeding the beds because WHATS THE POINT they’re full of blinking mares tail.

I have started stockpiling a large amount of cardboard ready for prepping the beds though.

Tunnel is a black mark against my name at the mo, it is on The List.

Timber has been measured and bought!! Now I just need to paint it all. 26 planks of wood all needing two coats of paint. If anyone wants an afternoon at the plot…

 

The calendula are now all going over because I’ve run out places to store the dried flowers, so I am letting them go to seed so I can collect them instead. I have also started collecting foxglove, parsnip, and poppy seeds.

It’s been a good blackberry month – only 2 months early?! When are blackberries supposed to be ripe because I’m fairly sure it shouldn’t be mid-July.

The waterbutts have all been upgraded and replaced. That was a hoot. I thought the old ones were empty and then I tried to move one. Full to the bladdy brim. Took me an hour to empty it via watering cans and buckets to be able to move it to get the new one in place to fill it back up. Managed to empty the three other ones into the new big one, but eff me. What a palaver. Anyhoo, I did it all on my lonesome and I now have four 200L butts instead of four small 100-150L butts that leak. PROGRESS. I also fixed the guttering on the other side of the shed. Three bits of brand new guttering (costing around £15each) and all I needed to do was remove the central bracket to make it all sit properly. Eff me. But it has worked as the front butt (by the doors) is now half full, yippee!

By some MIRACLE I finally have parsnip seedlings. PARSNIP SEEDLINGS!!!! I counted three before, but today I saw a few more so I might (keep everything crossed) MIGHT have seven parsnips to harvest at chrimblebob. SEVEN. A far cry from my hopes of two a week every week for a year. Hopefully my saved seed will come true next year and I’ll have a good harvest with local seed (local as in, 3ft away) and they’ll all germinate lovely and next year will be different.

Next year will be different.

A wee bee has blocked off a hole in my bee hotel, the first ever resident. This hotel is made from offcuts of 75mm fence post with holes drilled in. 8 bits of post within a wooden frame, wedged in so I didn’t need to glue or screw them together. Holes of different sizes for different bees.

I have delicately placed some tarps and slabs to kill the grass and wet the ground where my pond is going to go. I have the liner and membrane, I need to get some sand and decide the final plan and shape. And then dig!

David has been up with the big petrol mower to cut the clover. I measured the gaps between the beds very carefully (sarcasm) but he could get the mower between them so I must’ve measured after all.

So – sort of a productive month, but also not. The grass really needs doing every couple of weeks, the mares tail and bindweed needs pulling weekly, and I just don’t have the patience to do it. I think I need to have one big plot day a month to chip away at the larger jobs and hopefully the smaller things will fall into place. I want to get my plot to the state where I can leave it for longer time periods without feeling overwhelmed when I get back to it, but I think it’s going to take some time to even get to that point.

Broken brain would probably benefit from a day of painting but I just don’t want to be there. I just don’t want to do things, don’t want to be outside, don’t want to run the risk of seeing someone and pretending to be fine. So I don’t.

 

August to do list:

·       Dig the pond

·       Paint half of the wood (13 planks)

·       Add shredded paper and turn the compost

·       Take off the old polytunnel cover and cut it up to throw away

 

Allotment Life: June 2022

I seem to be having a calendula and cornflower year this year! Nothing else is doing well at all. No parsnips, one turnip, radishes all bolted and I only harvested a literal handful. Brassicas not putting on much growth, leeks, onions and garlic all bolting…

However if it’s mares tail, bindweed, dock, couch grass, or creeping buttercup, I’m doing REALLY well!

I’ve done quite well for strawberries too, and the apples are growing nicely.

June to do list:

·       Weed small beds (heh)

·       Sow more seed – spring onion, carrot, parsnip probably, beans, peas, flowers

·       Cut back bramble by shed

·       I think I might pull the onions and garlic because that’s another huge failure for this year, so I might just cut my losses and clear the bed. I need to make this bed deeper over winter and try harder/more techniques to rid it of mares tail, creeping buttercup, and bindweed. No dig isn’t going well. 

I did weed the small beds and they look a lot better. They are also on the list to be revamped over winter. Seed sowing – can’t really remember. I don’t think I did much seed sowing as there is too much weeding to do first! Bramble by shed… nah. I cut the main offenders but that’s it. Although saying that there are lots of flowers coming so will be a good blackberry harvest soon. Garlic and onions etc are being left for flowers.

I have started stockpiling cardboard ready for a winter of revamping. I am going to do a super thick layer of card (like a couple of inches thick) before putting as much new, shop bought, peat free compost on as I can get. The beds are going to be made deeper too. I need to buy the timber asap as it isn’t going to get any cheaper. I did put a lot of manure on my plot last year but I left it for six months before planting into it, but I think that’s been the issue. The ground is too rich so weeds have just taken over and things I’m planting are struggling. Too much of a good thing.

ANYWAY. June. What happened in June.

I put little organza bags over the amazing almond crop (3 fruits) to protect them from nibblers. Every time I go I remove any leaves showing signs of peach leaf curl.

I picked more herbs and calendula to dry, and some cornflowers to store for winter salads. I did cut a lot of feverfew to dry but having read about a bit, I’ve decided it’s not worth trying to dry and use, so I am going to just grow it as an ornamental instead.

Harvested mares tail (yes I willingly harvested mares tail!!!) to make a hair tea. I still have some actually as I used it fresh but the recipe said to use dried, so I left some to dry in the trug in the kitchen. I mixed it with nettle, purple sage, and rosemary to make hair tea and I’m not sure what it does but it certainly makes my hair feel cleaner, lighter, less weighed down, and less frizzy. So I like it.

Weeded the small beds. Weeded the path. Chopped the seed heads off the docks (one dock plant can have 3,000 seeds). Cleared bolted salad crops. Cleared bolted radish. Harvested some salad. Harvested some radish. Harvested my first (and probably only) turnip.

Picked strawberries! Ate strawberries. Stole currants from the abandoned plot next door. A good job really since I went yesterday and saw that the new holders have hacked the bushes down – such a waste.

Sowed more seed which was probably a waste of time. I’ve not even managed any spring onion this year. I’m having a really bad year!!!

The end-of-the-shed-bed is looking very lush and full. I planted some raspberry canes along the back and they are growing, underneath everything else, so I’m still holding out for a good raspberry crop.

It’s been very mixed weather-wise. Some days it felt like autumn and required multiple jumpers, and other days it was so hot I didn’t want to do anything.

July to-do list:

·       Dig out and turn the compost. Lots of grass cuttings on the heap means it now requires all the shredded paper that I’ve been storing in the shed to be mixed in to get a good compost mix

·       Start de-weeding and re-cardboarding beds. Some of the beds haven’t even been used this year because all of my pumpkin and squash failed. Might as well get a headstart on winter.

·       Sort out the polytunnel. It is mostly (surprise surprise) mares tail and bindweed. I need to get a new cover for it at some point but the inside is currently not usable, so I need to fix that.

·       Measure up and work out how much timber I need. Hint: lots.

I think I’ve mentally given up on having any decent harvests this year except for raspberries and flowers. So not great and I’m not feeling too good about it, but then – this plot is only one year old so it’s a baby, and it takes time to build up to huge harvests. The ground needs to settle, the weeds need to be weakened and outcompeted, the compost needs to be built up, and on the whole it still needs a lot of work to get it to a good productive space. Ho hum.