The clematis in the seating area looks a picture at the moment.....
Although the seating area itself is a bit of a mess!
At least today we managed to procure some chippings, in not too bad a condition, and tidied the path by the cemetary wall.
Well, thanks to the good old British weather we haven't been down the allotment, productively, for almost a month. I have been down to drop off kitchen and garden waste for the compost but, essentially, no work has been done for over three weeks........... and it shows. We had cleared ninety per-cent of the weeds, but look at it now. Still, on the positive side, the wild flower garden is looking good.... ......and the wallflowers are still going strong. The clematis in the seating area looks a picture at the moment..... Although the seating area itself is a bit of a mess! At least today we managed to procure some chippings, in not too bad a condition, and tidied the path by the cemetary wall.
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In the past five days since our last visit there has been an awful lot of rain. This, along with slightly higher temperatures, has just encouraged more weeds. Today we tidied round, cleared away much of the pine needles and tidied and weeded the large fruit-cage. It was basically just a flying visit as the ground was pretty saturated Found time to plant some Hollyhocks into the wild flower bed. Well, it's been four months since our last "productive" trip to the allotment. That's if you don't count three or four journey's to add kitchen waste and recycling to the compost area, and a surprisingly very well organised bonfire night. Unsurprisingly though, bearing in mind the recent wet and mild weather, the beds are clogged up with weeds. We actually came down yesterday and today and just did a couple of hours both days to get accustomed to the exertion - it's been a very lazy winter............ It's not just the weeds that are blooming though. The bulbs are coming up nicely. The wallflowers too look in tip-top shape. After a bit of attention we cleared two beds of weeds; only twelve beds to go! We also swept and tidied the seating area. For one reason or another we haven't been down the allotment recently as much as we normally would this time of year. It's not adversely affected anything but the weeds are flourishing and several beds could really do with a water. Weeds are enjoying the late, dry, warm summer. The celery doesn't look too good; possibly not had enough water. The bottom two beds near the cemetery wall are exceptionally dry, and have a lot of weeds. The beans and cucumber plants look spent. One success; we do have an exremely large pumpkin. Goodness knows how big it would have grown if we'd watered it properly. The grapevine, roses and clematisaround the shed and seating area have gone a bit beserk. Having spent an hour clearing the foliage the compost heap is hgher than it's ever been. Some decent produce today, including half of the carrots which has equated to half a bucketful. Finally, we get some decent weather, and what happens..........? ............. weeds! Today we planted some squashes in the bed by the rhubarb. My new support frame for the tomatoes seems to be holding!!!!! We also planted a couple of pumpkins. Some cucumbers too. Our trips down the allotment are getting fewer and far between as winter approaches. Another Lockdown is on the cards but if it happens we probably won't be able to spend time down the allotment due to the onset of winter. It's not too bad today but the long-term forecast doesn't look promising. We moved the Pulminaria to the old artichoke bed in the seating area. Tidied the rhubarb. Cut back the asparagus to a couple of inches. We also cleared away the sweetcorn. We're still unsure as to exactly what this plant is. It's well into Autumn but it seems to be thriving so we're not about to get rid of it. As our visits are likely to decrease from here-on in we spent a bit of time tidying some of the beds. And finally, after all that cutting back and weeding, the compost heap is the highest it's ever been, yet I bet that next time we come down the compost will have dropped by a couple of feet. Concentrated on the big fruit cage today. The raspberries weren't very wonderful this year so we're going to dig them all up and start afresh, and with different fruit. First of all though, weeds have taken over and they need to be got rid of. There's that many weeds I don't think we'll manage it all today This looks better! The first new fruit bush is a redcurrant. An before we leave............ another bucketful of carrots. This is probably our best ever year for carrots. We decided it was time to empty the shed, brush it out, and put everything back tidy. Although, while we were down the allotment we weeded some more of the paths. This is how the shed looked prior to tidying. And this is the shed being tidied, and the end result. Big improvement. Weeded a few more paths........... As is usual this time of year we picked a load of produce. The potatoes have been very good this year. We decided we ought to have a good go at the weeds and, as luck would have it, Stacey is on leave this week and had asked if we were going down the allotment at all this week as she hadn't been down for months. This was partly due, to Coronavirus, although "Lockdown" had actually encouraged us to go down more frequently. After a couple of hours of intense weeding and cutting back we'd cleared much of the paths and several of the beds. The effect on the compost heap was dramatic. A big improvement weed-wise. The purple beans have now come to an end so one of the bean "wigwams" was demolished and the surrounding ground cleared. The raspberries in the large fruit cage haven't done very well for the last couple of years so we're going to try some "cuttings" from the very prolific blackberry bush in the top fruit cage. We're going to attempt to get some blackberry "runners" to root in pots (like strawberries). We really should go down and do some proper work. The weather for the last week or more has been erratic to say the least but there is some serious weeding to be done.
We had spent the morning pruning the wisteria and had accrued eight large bags of cuttings, so the compost heap is rapidly filling up. We also did some picking while we were down there. |
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