Despite the travails of recent weeks we have made it to the allotment several times this week, because it is a shame to waste such glorious weather after such a wet and dismal autumn and winter.
First of all Peter dug over the potato patch ready for planting whilst we also dug the bean trench, put in newspapers to retain moisture, emptied one of the compost bins on top of that and back filled.
The ground is still quite damp so it was heavy going but its looking okay.
Also put wood chip down to cover the membrane in the spaces between the raised beds. which you can see in the picture of Peter hard at work below.
Next job was to dig a path between the fruit beds, lay down a membrane and lay a brick path. One side of the path is a raspberry bed and the other has a Tayberry. Looking forward to those summer fruits
The soil that was dug out to lay the bricks was very useful in topping up the levels in the raised beds that have sunk somewhat since last summer.
Just need to fork over the soil around the fruit bushes and weed them before putting some compost down. Raspberries are hungry plants!
Also the bed containing two espalier apple trees was dug over and temporary membrane paths laid on either side – plus some old scaffold planks on the rhs. Last year the apples did not do well because there was not enough air flow. I also cut back the Himalayan Nutmeg tree on the wild-garden side for the same reason – it was crowding the apples out of existence!
Still plenty to do while waiting for seedlings to get growing. But it feels as if the allotment year is finally taking off!
Jan Edwards 