We recently decided to keep a diary for our second allotment plot. We already have half a plot which is quite small (which many of you have been really interested in) but at the end of last year we got another half plot giving us much more room to grow.
If you've not read it, you can find out what we managed over the Christmas break on the new plot by reading our first Allotment Diary or keep reading below to see what we did throughout January.
Click on images to enlarge.Clearing Greenhouse Space
With the main growing area now dug just before the new year, we needed to clear the area in the corner where we hope to put a greenhouse and a raised bed for some herbs.
We’d piled up a lot of bind weed to burn when it’s dried out but we needed to move it further to the edge of the plot to give us more room. Vicky started moving it, and I made a start moving the rocks and stones we’d piled up so we could then pull up the plastic sheeting that was pegged down underneath everything.
Once that was all done I could dig out the last lot of deep rooted weeds and pile up the wood we’d saved more tidily so I could cover it to give it a chance dry out over the next couple of months… I then tried to pull up as much bind weed that was under the plastic sheeting as I could and give the area a good hoe to remove some of the smaller weeds.
With that all done, we now have room for a fire in the incinerator and a space for a greenhouse…
Spreading Some Manure
As we were about to leave to get ready for our Thursday evening class a truck load of manure turned up! It goes quite quick when it comes in so I decided to stay and get some onto the new plot. I managed to get sixteen wheelbarrow fulls lined up roughly where our rows will be going on the plot.
We finished putting the manure on the plot the next morning and then spread it out where the rows will be going. While I did this Vicky cleared some netting and plastic on our first plot where we grow our sweetcorn. That was it for the day.
Bonfire
We needed to clear the weeds and rotten wood that we’d piled up in the corner of the plot where we hope to put a greenhouse. It’s been covered since Christmas and had dried out a little bit. Ideally it would have been nice to have everything drier but with limited time for bonfires at the allotment we thought we’d put up with the extra smoke. We managed to burn almost everything over the course of one Saturday.
Potatoes & Planning
Whilst we don’t really eat white potatoes that often, we wanted to grow some this year on the new plot as we’ve got plenty of space now. We bought first and second early’s (Arran and Charlotte) and also some main crop (King Edwards) - more just to see how they do. We’ll “chit” them indoors and plant them all out as early as we can around March.
It’s surprising how much space there is on a full allotment (especially with the size of our second half plot) especially when you try to work out what, where and how much you want to grow.
We started roughly working out what is going to go where this month. The rows on our new plot are 9.5 metres long and 1.2 metres (4ft) wide, and we’ll divide those into three sections with space for two to four rows of vegetables in each depending on the spacing suggested by the seed packets. We’ll also try to keep plants that need netting to protect them grouped together.
We’ll be growing a wide selection of vegetables - hopefully we won’t spread ourselves too thin but as time goes by we’ll find out what works best across both plots, and what’s a manageable amount of variety for us. Ideally our plan is to grow enough of what we eat to severely reduce what we have to buy, and increase as much as possible the vitamins and minerals from freshly picked vegetables. We love raw red cabbage for example and can be eating it from garden to plate in less than an hour.
Once we’ve fully decided what we’re growing we’ll start planning for germinating some seeds indoors which will soon be upon us!
Sorting Compost
We finally got around to making use of two years worth of collected compost from the couple of bins on our first plot. It was a bit of a pain getting to the good stuff at the bottom so we ended up rocking them and tipping them on their sides - we could then fork out the new soil (full of bright red juicy worms). We put it all in a wheelbarrow and sifted out bits and pieces that hadn’t rotted down for whatever reason with a sieve.
You don’t get much from a compost bin really but we decided to put one half where we will grow sweetcorn each year, and the rest where we’ll be putting this years courgettes. We should rotate the corn but it casts such a shadow on everything else and it’s just best against the allotment fence where it’s quite well protected from wind too. Hopefully the rich soil from the compost bin will make up for it. We’ll see what happens this year…
Planting Garlic
They say it's good to get your garlic in on the shortest day of the year, and whilst we did plant some elephant garlic seeds on the 21st December we didn't have any normal garlic to put in yet. We were given these by someone on the allotment, and they're in a small bed that's a bit shaded and doesn't drain the great, so we're hoping the seeds haven't rotted.
We picked up three varieties of Isle of Wight garlic (Mersley, Rose White & Picardy White) and put them in the bed where we had our courgettes last year. We needed about 132 cloves as we thought we’d try using double rows to get as much in the bed as possible. There’s something about planting garlic, and we’re really looking forward to seeing how it all does…
Baby Sitting ANOTHER Plot!!!
Believe it or not, we have been asked to babysit a plot for a year (at least) which is right next to our original half plot (not the new one, our original plot)!
A friend of Vicky’s dad has recently been given the plot but realises he won’t be able to take it on yet so has asked us to look after it for him as he doesn’t want to give it up. It will be a bit much to run like we do our own plots, so we intend to direct sow just maybe five or six types of hardy, easy to grow vegetables into it that won’t need covering and see what happens, maybe main crop potatoes, sweetcorn, butternut squashes, courgettes, broad beans and beetroot.
One of the best things about this plot is it had a big pile of really well rotted manure on it that we’d been watching for about two years!!! It’s a big half plot in good condition as it’s only just been given up by a really experienced chap.
Random Stuff
We had lots of little jobs to do in-between, like nailing some loose panels back in on the shed, tidying out the old shed and transferring some of the tools into the new one to make some space. A few of our tools needed rust removing, sharpening and oiling with a bit of linseed oil (we’ll keep the WD-40 for the joints in class!).
Vicky has been doing quite a bit of pruning of the fruit bushes, and we need to do our pear and apple trees but we might leave them this year…
We also got some manure on our first plot, and started work on the “baby sitting” plot. We’ll put some photos up of that next month, amongst other things.
We’ve also bought one of those cheap plastic greenhouses as we feel it’s going to be a rush to find the right cheap greenhouse in time for spring, hopefully we’ll tie it down well, and it will serve us for a year or two without blowing away or getting ripped to shreds!!! We just don’t have the space to germinate the seeds in our flat so we need something.
Overall it’s been a really busy month getting things ready and we can feel the pressure of Spring breathing down or necks especially with the new plot, and now one to baby sit! February will be another busy month as we try and put finishing touches to the beds (which we've already started) to get the soil nice and fine and give it time to settle before planting. There's a chance the potatoes will go in in February depending on the weather, and what everyone else does on the allotment.
We really hope you like these each month (work has already started on February’s post), and that it might encourage some of you to try a few things in the garden or get down the allotment a bit more if you’ve got one.
Keeping active is important but nothing is as important to your health and maintaining health as the food that you eat. Give your body what it needs, stop the stuff it doesn't and it will take care of itself...
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