Early Spring in the New Allotment

In early March it seemed like Spring at last! On one gorgeous day I went down to the allotment to set out some self-layered Winter Jasmine from home, and plant Jerusalem artichokes – and for more digging out couch grass and ground elder roots (see above!) And whilst digging I made my mind up about the design of my plots. I’ve only dug over about half the area I want to use, and I’m keen to get started on sowing. So the solution is four plots running parallel to the long sides of the allotment, so that each is half dug (and weeded), and half not dug. Normally it’s recommended to have beds in line with the sun, and mine are at right angles, so if I have massive runner-beans other crops will get shaded. But it suits at the moment. Later I may go for something far more ‘organic’ in shape as well as ethos.

My crop rotation starts with potatoes on the plot worst for weeds. I’m hoping that their thick leaf cover will shade out weeds, and I’ll dig out weeds as I’m digging up the spuds. The next plot will have onions and roots, the next beans and peas, and finally brassicas in the last one.

It was super to just be out in the sun, listening to the birds, watching the two robins eating worms, and listening to the yaffle laughing. As the allotment got more shady as time went on, I could see that the shed casts a big shadow. But I’m not moving it! Pleased to see that I have comfrey appearing from what looked like a rubbish heap near the shed.

A few days later I had lunch sitting outside for the first time, then got on with pruning my currants – lots of currant clearwing moth caterpillars in the stems – I found out later they are a feature of the St. Ann’s site anyway, so I don’t need to worry about importing them! I cut the blackcurrants nearly to the ground, and pruned the red/white currants to ‘goblet’ shape, with varied success as there aren’t many branches yet. Decent material poked into ground as cuttings.

Then on with some garden design! I measured out a 6.6m x 3.6m plot and checked it was square – 7.5m across both diagonals. Old tent pegs and lots of string are very useful for this.

Then worked out by trial and error that I can have four beds 130cm wide with a 50cm path in between – just about right. I thought the space looked about right for four little plots and it is. I used bamboo poles to mark out the paths (see above) and scraped away a couple of inches of soil on each path and trampled them flat. It really looks like an allotment now! I covered up the second plot with black fabric to warm the soil for onions.

Spring Equinox

Time to plant potatoes! Three Premiere and three Maris Bard 1st earlies at each end of of the first bed. In the second plot I planted three rows of 7 Sturon onions at each end. The idea is to see what difference digging over has made. The third bed got two rows each of ‘Aquadulce’ and ‘Stereo’ Broad Beans. The seeds are seed-swap ones from the Alys Fowler event.

I noted that the plots are a little wide – I still have to step onto them to sow seeds in rows at right angles to the paths, and the idea is to not stand on the soil. The soil is showing its clay character by cracking in this dry weather, and the drainage when watering is lots worse on the areas not dug over. When I got home I planted the left-over onions and some beans and some peas into modules, to replace any which don’t germinate or get eaten.

At the end of March a friend who is giving up her allotment brought her water butt, downpipes and guttering, compost bin, two watering cans and loads of bamboo. Super! I feel like I’ve really got the kit to get going now.