Any hopes of Spring arriving were soon dashed – as the weather pundits have repeatedly told us, May was a cold month! Alexandra Allotments took a few more batterings from the northerly winds and the
Any hopes of Spring arriving were soon dashed – as the weather pundits have repeatedly told us, May was a cold month! Alexandra Allotments took a few more batterings from the northerly winds and the main topic of conversation was the demise of beans and sad withered vegetables across the plots! Lots more sheds and decking areas have appeared and the donated wooden trough boxes have been set up across a number of plots. We put radishes and lettuce in one and a “bee bomb” in the other for another pollinator section.
Potatoes are up and doing well and most plots have had some successes to alleviate the frozen failures! Our best section so far is the fruit and herbs – all doing well. Blossom on the little apple trees was followed, once the warmer weather did finally arrive, with tiny apples and plenty of strawberries and fruits forming. I have tucked my strawberries up in straw as my Nan always did and put netting over. All the herbs are doing well too and we added tarragon, myrtle and parsley.
Growing from seed has seen some flowering plants sturdy enough to plant out, but most of the vegetables failed – too cold even in the little plastic greenhouse at home! On our plot we now have calendula, sunflowers, nasturtiums, marigolds, poppies, asters, poached egg plants, nigella and wallflowers making determined efforts to survive.
Strangely, the lettuce and salad leaves have thrived and are now planted out and we had our first mini-harvest -radishes. The dead rhubarb has made a miraculous reappearence , which I am really pleased about.
The endless weeding of thistles continues, interspersed with “lord mayor’s tails” and, on our plot, many oak saplings from the acorns we missed. Some plot holders have tried some interesting remedies involving vinegar to tackle the thistles.. sadly some have resorted to weedkillers too. My partner has never gardened before and decided to make one little section an alpine rockery as a means to try a new thing and to use all the stones we keep raking up!
We have no earth at home and our little Christmas tree was potbound , so we have re-located it temporarily to the allotment in the hope of it reviving before next Christmas.
Of course, now summer has actually arrived, the main activity for everyone at Alexandra Allotments is watering!