The New Allotment: Late Winter

A chopped-back hedge and a view.

I’m quite happy to garden in winter, don’t mind getting cold, don’t mind getting wet up to a point, but cold wet short winter days can be a bit limiting, especially on Nottingham clay. So I found that simply finding a day with a few hours to spare and half-reasonable weather was a challenge. I popped in to collect blue trays for Potato Day on a frosty day too cold for any cultivation: it was interesting to see which areas were still hard with ice, and which were melting in the thin sun. Sheltered areas were still solid – areas where one might put tender plants thinking they would be safer here. On the other hand continued thawing and freezing could be worse than just freezing.

Potato Day

This year part of my plan is to plant lots of potatoes – they will cover the ground and help keep weeds down, and will help break up the soil. And I like eating them. Fortunately I knew just the place to get some choice organic tubers – Nottingham Organic Gardeners Potato Day. As I was helping out at the event I bought a few Pink Fir Apples before the it began, as I really would like to grow these, and I knew they would be very popular and run out. They are a late main, cropping later in the summer, and so they are at risk of blight. But they are so good they are worth the risk.

Ready to go...

I was on the door in front of this queue!

Happy customers

After the event closed I chose some more from those left over at the end – just six of each of varieties described as tasty and with good disease resistance. Premiere and Maris Bard are my first earlies, with second early Wilja and Nicola and early mains Robinta and Highland Burgundy Red.

I’ve grown potatoes in bags for a few years, and though it’s fun, it involves a lot of watering and feeding for not a huge haul. So I’m really looking forward to growing potatoes in the open ground.

February

Finally got to the allotment – a day with rain promised and threatening – and got digging.

There are plenty of roots, and as leaves are appearing it’s clear that I will have a problem with meadow buttercup and ground elder. Great. I hate ground elder. It is supposed to die eventually if you just keep on cutting it down, but curses to the Romans who brought it here as a salad crop. At least I can eat it – and the Japanese knotweed.

Still plenty to dig... 

Then back again with a car-load of red, white and black-currents, which have all been growing in a couple of little corners of my mother’s garden, after being struck as cuttings in the winter of 2008. They were rejected cuttings material from FRESH or prunings from the Community Orchard, so they are coming home, almost. They are evidence of the will to live of currants, as nearly all survived. They did start off labelled, but needless to say I have lost track of which are red and white. At least the blackcurrants will be identifiable by smell. They are now all lined out, and I feel very pleased that I’ve got this done. The seasons have moved on in the last week, and buds are starting to burst. There were still few people about – only three others. Lovely views watching the clouds and rain.

Raspberries and currants

I also brought four blue trays of shrub cuttings – Hebe, Sarcococca, Euonymus – from home. It’s a bit of a hobby – chop a bit off a plant, stick it in a pot and see if it’ll grow. Sadly most of the purple Hebes lost all their leaves in the cold weather, I’m hoping some may sprout again.

My other ‘project’ has been dealing with the mouse in the garage. The little blighter found my green manure seeds and scoffed most of them, as well as some of the last of our stored apples. It also chewed its way into a bag of blood fish and bone – was it now super-mouse? We have been offered a cat on short-term loan…

Another few hours attacking the hedge. The window of opportunity is closing: the birds are starting to think about nesting so the hedge will be left half-cut – it can wait till next year. I’ve now got a couple of huge piles of brash, only some of which is useable. So I’ll have to have a fire at some point – better check my allotment rules…!  

I almost wished I was heavier a couple of times, pulling the 15-foot bits of hawthorn out. It’s quite tricky to cut, as previous cutting has left a tangle of stems. I’ve taken it down to around 4 foot, so it’ll stay manageable. There was a lot of ivy and it’d trapped lots of leaves and bits of wood, not good for the health of the trees. Ivy can be a controversial plant, creating mixed feelings. It is a great wildlife plant, providing nectar and fruit at times of year when these are scarce, and its knarled older braches are ideal for all sorts of nesting birds. But it also out-competes hedge shrubs and trees in some situations, so I’m still pulling out great yards of it.

Earlier in the week I put the potatoes out to chit – high up so the mouse can’t get them. I borrowed an Indian humane mousetrap but the mouse managed to get the cheese off the hook without tripping it. Outwitted by a rodent! A couple of days later a lump of chocolate melted onto the hook did the trick, and a very fit and healthy mouse was relocated to my local park. However, to check I left a little piece of cheese rind on the garage floor… and the next day it had gone. So if there were two mice, I suspect there may be several little ones too, and I don’t feel like depriving them of their second parent!