Sunday 3rd. very wet.
This is the first time at our plot for me for a couple of weeks as I’ve just had a hernia op. So on light duties for a while. Steve arrived with a trailer load of cow manure – one year old and organic, he doesn’t even feed antibiotics to his cows! I’ll store this pile until the end of this year, so by then it will be well rotted down. Cover it to keep the weed seeds out. £50 for the load.
Sunday 10th. overcast.
June piled the manure, in about eight wheelbarrow loads, onto the last of the allotment to be covered. Its taken us from about October, because of holidays, bad backs and other inconveniences! I pruned the gooseberry and blackberry bushes and did a little weeding ( light duties.) Unfortunately the heavens then opened, so June couldn’t spread the manure.
Tuesday 19th. Bright sunshine, and a frost this am.
I cycled up to the allotment, and broke down the manure June had piled up, and then racked it over the last area to be covered. Fantastic! The allotment looks like a gigantic bar of milk chocolate. Two inches of muck over 250 square meters! A bit late but I then planted two rows of Asda garlic cloves. Then weeded and manured the rhubarb bed. Brought home the last of the beetroot for pickling.
Thursday 20th. Bright and sunny, another frost this am.
Replaced the wire on the grape vine supports with 3.5mm. Drew up a plan for the strawberry net cage. Re-cut the edge between mine and Jason’s plot. At long last measured the exact size of the plot. 41m long by 6.5m wide.
Saturday 23rd. sunny to overcast
Drove up to the allotment with Leo to buy the seed potatoes. Was a little early so walked around the site for half an hour or so. Bought 3kg Nicola, 3kg charlotte, both early varieties, 3kg Picasso and 3kg of sarpo mira both of these maincrop. Also bought 500gms red sun and 500gms Stuttgart onion sets. Had a chat with Cliff and co. outside the shop. Have had a lot of people leave, so Cliff ‘inherited’ a few apple trees.
Have bought a proper budza on amazon, really chuffed, everyone uses them in Zim. a lot quicker for weeding and digging then a spade or fork. Its really a very big hoe. (£17.05)
Have also had a delivery of seeds delivered from Kings. Tomatoes, winter squash or gem squash, another Zim favourite, broccoli, chard, cucumber, courgette, celery, watermelon, pumpkin, fennel and skirrit.
Skirrit is a root vegetable which hails from China, but probably came to Britain with the Romans. It was very popular in Europe write up until the end of the seventeenth century, but then carrots, which was a new variety, took over. Skirrit is a perennial and provides lots of thin, pale coloured roots which can be divided, and replanted. Because its thinner than carrots, and so more work to prepare, it lost its popularity when carrots ‘came in’.
Monday 25th. overcast.
Brought out the upright cloche from the garage. Sowed cauliflower, sweet peas and peas.
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