Double Digging

We had a husband and wife visit to the plot today, working in parallel on preparing beds 1 and 2...hence "double digging". A lot was achieved in three hours on what are probably the hardest beds to clear of couch grass and bindweed roots.

Bed one has now been dug twice and the first bean trench is ready to receive compostable waste. Bed 2 is partly dug.

The Office.

This was the view outside the house two days ago: it was beautiful.



The thick covering from Thursday night was melting fast. By Saturday afternoon it was nearly all gone: yesterday's panorama would have looked very different two hours later.

When we woke up this morning, however, it had been snowing again:


Any plans to work on the plot were out.

By about 1.30pm, the roads and the sunny half of gardens had thawed, so I took a boot load of stuff (i.e. mainly junk) to the allotment. The road through the plots was a river of melt water: normal shoes would have been impossible. With wellies on I made it to the shed. The ground was the muddiest I have known it.

What I did do, however, was turn some of the junk into shelves for the shed, i.e. I chopped a pallet in half to make shelf ends, and stacked everything else up. What I've ended up with it a nice desk. Looks like I may have a summer office if I keep it tidy!



Back home, it was so warm (about +4C, but I had thermals on) that I decided to stay outside for a few hours and tidy the garden; a much neglected place since we've had the allotment. I didn't get back ache for once. A clear sign that the allotment is doing me some sort of good.

More snow... and potatoes

On Thursday there was yet more snow: quite a lot of it, which put pay to the planned day on the allotment for Friday. I've just looked at MetCheck, which gives a loner range forecast, and there looks like little let up for another two or three weeks. This means my planned preparation has gone out of the window.

Meanwhile I have sown a few things in doors:

• A few more broadbeans, as replacements for those lost since November, in peat pots
• African Marigolds
• Hollyhocks
• A few peas ("Twinkle")
• Three sorts of pepper (free on the cover of KG Magazine)
• Cabbage (F1 Tundra)
• Basil

I might walk round to the plot later, just to see how deep the snow still is. There was a big thaw yesterday, but a deep frost last night.

Here we are, I walked round in 25 minutes and took a series of photos to make a panorama:

Click to download a bigger size.

Whilst there, I found that the seed potato orders had arrived and at the allotment hut, so for £5.00 I now have the following chitting at home (I also have longer arms from carrying them home on foot):

• Javelin 7lb (Early)
• Kestrel 3lb (Second Early)
• Romano 3lb (Main)
  

The Weather Forecast

Constantly looking at the forecasts, it now looks as if the cold winter will extend well into March. If it's true, it will mean manic sowing at the end of March onwards. I suppose it's good for keeping weeds down, and will reduce soil bourne diseases.

Meanwhile, I've sown a few more broad beans and some early peas in peat pots, so give them a head start. Holyhocks have also been sown in a tray.

The Shed

Every allotment should have a shed, ideally an old shack built from skip salvage.

Mine is brand new and built to order. Most sheds on our allotments are similarly purchased.

Today, after a couple of weeks of preparation and anticipation, it arrived. In about 10 minutes it was assembled and paid for. Now it looks like an allotment!







That's rather a lot of photos of a shed, but it makes a change from photos of dug earth!

I spent about 3 hours on the plot in total, and dug bed 8 (peas) twice. Once again a barrow full of bindweed and bramble roots were removed.

Number 7

It's not a scene from the prisoner, but today I've been working on bed number 7, which will be roots. The trouble is that although I thought it was already cleared, once I started digging, I realised it was still full of bramble and some bindweed roots.

The weather was great for lots of digging... cold and sunny, with the bitter north wind being sheltered: I assume by trees and houses.

In just over two hours I managed to completely dig the bed ( approx 3x3m) and clear the major roots. After leveling and tamping down, I placed a row of old large water bottles over a row. They're not doing anything, but it looks as if there is something happening. I also marked out beds 6 and 8.


In my extensive reading I've just found out that onions and legumes don't go well together: only three months late. The onions are doing so badly, I might move them any way!

Tomorrow is the big day........ the shed comes.

Preparing for the Shed.

Today's task was to sort out the long talked about shed. On the way to the allotment, I stopped off at the gate (Sheffield Sheds) to order a 6x4 pent shed, with a spruce green treatment.

I brought some 2x2 ft slabs last week, and some sand, and had left it on the plot. Now it was time to lay the slabs as the shed base.

Taking off the surface to level the area I realised that the bind weed was worse here than anywhere. I dug out an area much bigger than needed, down to 12 inches and removed roots , then buried a membrane under more soil, then sand, then the slabs. Three hours later, the shed base is complete.





I also removed the last of the black plastic: Is has been very effective in keeping the weeds down.