Having a leek!

I was on my own at the community allotment today as J had gone to a conference in London and there were no service-users there. I spent half the time that I was at the allotment site working on my own plot and half the time working on the community allotment.

I had a lot of leeks to plant which a local smallholder had kindly donated. I dug over part of a bed first and then raked it to make the soil as fine as possible, and raked it level. I did three short rows (about eight in a row) of holes with a dibber, six inches deep, into which I put the leeks, which I then filled with water, trying not to make the holes collapse as I poured the water in. I also watered some of the other plants.

Since I was last there last week, some courgette and a squash plants have been planted in the ground. That would have been on Monday, but Monday is not one of my days. J must have planted them.

Trying to catch up

At the allotment today we got quite a lot done considering there were only two of us for most of the time. We did some watering as the ground was very dry, in contrast with just a few weeks ago when it was saturated. I filled the water butt with the hose. Some canes were erected in one of the tractor tyres and runner bean seeds sown. I sowed some dwarf bean seeds on one of the beds, having dug it over first and raked the soil to a reasonable fine tilth, fine enough for large seeds, anyway. J sowed some lettuce seeds. Some of the broad bean pods are ready for picking and we meant to pick some today but we forgot. If we leave them too long they will get too tough. We have some seedlings growing in the growhouses including sweet corn. We have been promised a free greenhouse as a donation by an agency that no longer wants it. One of the participants that comes to the allotment swears by Rudolf Steiner methods of organic gardening, known as the biodynamic method. I don't know enough about it to pass any judgement on it, but I understand the preparations used are expensive.

Anyway, we are now attempting to catch up on lost time.

Clacton Digs It on Facebook

A dry day for a change! There were three of us on the allotment today. Jobs done included weeding (of course!), cutting the grass at the edges, tidying up the shed, and erecting the two growhouses. I mowed the grass on Sunday so finished it off today by using shears to cut the long grass growing at the edges where the mower couldn't reach. Some time ago we acquired some wooden pallets from the factory next door which we never got around to using and they were just taking up space at the back of the shed, so today J asked a worker at the factory if they would mind taking them back and they did (take them back that is). We picked some lettuces, both for ourselves and for Fresh 'n' Fruity.

We are now on Facebook, so if you are on Facebook, click the link below and if you like it, click Like on the page. More photographs will follow on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/ClactonDigsItAllotment

Mud, mud, glorious mud!

Went to the allotment today. There was a hint of rain in the air but it stayed largely dry for our two hours there, with just a few spots of rain, and it was rather muggy.

Needless to say, the soil was soft and soggy and digging was very messy, so we confined ourselves mainly to weeding, though I did dig over the raised beds once they had been weeded. There were three of us for part of the time this morning. I removed the daffodil bulbs, now finished flowering, from one of the tractor tyres, and buried them in a corner of the plot until autumn. Having cleared the weeds, I added some fresh compost and some chicken manure and raked it level. I also cleared part of one of the beds. We are weeks behind thanks to the wet weather, and everywhere is mud, mud, glorious mud (or not, as the case may be)!

Please Lord, let us have some dry weather for a change, but let it not be a drought And we don't want plagues of slugs, locusts or greenfly. Amen.

The plot thickens...

with weeds! Because of all the rain we have had, our allotment sessions have been cancelled for the past few weeks, and as a result we have not been able to get on top of the weeds. J had written on our message board "Welcome to the jungle". It isn't anything like it was when we acquired the plot back in 2009, but it does need a lot of work and a JCV isn't likely to be of much use for these pernicious but low level weeds. It just needs a lot of hard work. In doing so we are being distracted from the real work of growing stuff. Thanks to the incessant rain this April, in this, supposedly a drought year, we are weeks behind in sowing and planting. The soil was waterlogged and very soft.

We had two new volunteers today so there were four of us altogether (but no service-users) and we made some impact on the weeds, but there is still much to be done. But at least we only have three beds to work on as the fourth is SureStart's responsibility. Although I won't be able to go myself, we are going to start doing Mondays again like we did two years ago during the summer.

So far we have just the following vegetables growing:

Lettuces (started off as plugs)
Perpetual spinach (from last year)
Broad beans
A few shallots and garlics
Parsley
Rocket (must have self-seeded as I don't remember sowing this last year)

And lots, and lots, and lots of. . .WEEDS!

It raineth!

No allotment today. It has been cancelled as the forecasters had predicted more rain. As it turned out, it was dry and sunny for the rest of the morning after the welcome rain we had last night.

Only three of us today. It was a beautiful morning on the allotment. I have never known a March like it, but I fear that we shall pay for this good weather later on with a hosepipe ban and possibly ruined crops. There had been a delivery of manure since last time I went there, so we took some for ourselves before it all went, and we now have a reasonable pile of it plus some in our composting bin. We did some more digging today and weeded as we went along. I raked the newly dug soil so it was reasonably level and ready for sowing seeds soon. I also watered our existing plants, including the broad beans, rhubarb and lettuces. I took some photos of some of our plants as can be seen below. Just two weeks ago, a new rake was purchased for £16. Already it has been broken. They don't make tools like they used to: made to last!

Last week I wrote that I had been asked on a Health Champion questionnaire what I would wish for if I had one wish. I wrote that I would like to see a mass redistribution of land and people starting to grow their own food and that this would go some way to saving the planet. Well, this is really two wishes, albeit related. The only way that people could be encouraged to grow their own food again is by the redistribution of land. But I also know that not everyone would want to grow their own food even if they had the land, hence the inclusion of my other wish.

Young lettuce plants

Broad bean plants, some of them in flower

Rhubarb plants