Spring had arrived…or so we thought, but April brought another challenging month for the plot-holders. Gone was the mud and heavy clay – now replaced with windswept dust and cold wind s. With barely any
Spring had arrived…or so we thought, but April brought another challenging month for the plot-holders. Gone was the mud and heavy clay – now replaced with windswept dust and cold wind
s. With barely any rain this month and endless frosty nights I think we all lost new plants and dealt with a few setbacks!
Digging over became almost impossible in the iron hard earth and the water troughs saw a busy queue of plotholders with watering cans trying to keep the tender new plants alive. Our collie has got used to calling in after long walks to have a drink while I water the plot!
Thistle removal seems to be everyone’s bugbear as they seem to survive any amount of weeding and bad weather.
Some kind soul donated lots of wooden troughs, which many plotholders were only too glad to avail themselves of, including us! The whatsapp group has been very busy sharing offers of free things and updating storm damage etc.
We got the last few sections of our plot ready for planting out and used the weed membrane to make paths in between. Lots of sheds, greenhouses and climbing structures appeared onsite this month – unfortunately many were then blown down in the storms at the end of April.
With seedlings and tomato plants making tentative appearances in the mini greenhouses at home, we also planted beans, peas, sweetpeas, mangetout and runner beans, although the latter did not survive the hard late frosts. To encourage bees I took advantage of the “Seeds of hope” from 38 degrees and bee-friendly sunflower seeds free from Morrisons and have also sown flowers around the beans and peas – nasturtiums, cornflowers, poached egg plants and calendula.
The new allotment year has now begun and a couple of plots became re-available so hopefully new people will quickly come and tackle the thistle forests on those plots – I wish them luck!