After a sporadic year of allotmenteering we’re back at the plot, renewed, refreshed and all of that. Last year’s weather was so rubbish that there didn’t seem to be much point to gardening and the only plants that thrived were the dandelions, nettles and brambles which are now overrunning and smothering everything else including the brave tulips and daffodils.
Towards the end of last year the council decided to trim the bordering Cyprus trees and their approach was to let the branches fall where they may. After a reccy a couple of weeks ago we decided to implement a two stage plan and stage 1 took place today.
Clearing up
We hired a strimmer and got through 7 blades hacking back the brambles and woodier bits of old weeds. Now that the weeds are at ground level the plan is to cover the areas we don’t want to use immediately to suppress re-growth and concentrate on gardening on a smaller plot initially. The other ambition for the year is to get rid of the bed system that I’d initially put in and move to a larger, free-form, gardening area. The aim is to establish a sort of peak and trough system to enable irrigation for more effective trapping of rain water and efficient summer watering. Apparently this plan requires more heavy machinery than HSS has in stock to flatten and level the plot so as to create the peak/trough system. I’m planning on a more artisanal trial and error approach using fork, spade and rake.
I rescued some bulbs from the weeds and strimmer attack and have replanted them in a cleared patch of ground. It was tough work, the soil is heavy and with the large amounts of rain waterlogged so about double the weight. I doubt you’re supposed to move bulbs at this time of year but thought to try it out and we’ll see next week whether we have happy bulbs or dead green/brown shoots.
It’s not quite back to scratch as the fruit patch is doing very nicely. The year off has meant that all the fruit is nicely established and I’m hoping for a bumper crop of strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries.
Stage 2 starts next week…
Blackcurrent buds
Rhubarb 2013
Before strimming
After strimming
Plot 36 