This green and pleasant land

2011

In late March 2011 we took on allotment plot at our local site.

In the first year we took several weeks to clear the plot and make it ready to plant on.
As we 'got the keys' on the 31st March, that left little time to get sorted.

4th April 2011

The plot had been used for fly tipping so there was plenty of rubbish to remove including a dog bed, several moldy carpets and a whole lot of broken glass - shameful. One of the other plot-holders offered to get his friend to rotivate it for us. This wasn't necessarily the best course of action as there was lots of couch grass but I think that in the the end we have prevailed, mostly, in the weed war, mainly through persistence.

  

Easter 2011

Once it was rotivated, we set to work marking out growing beds. I didn't want to waste any space so there are six rotational beds and a fruit bed at the end. This will two blackcurrant bushes and a rhubarb which I rescued from the sprawling mass of weeds. You can see them sat in black bags at the end, awaiting new digs.

So, we took on the plot at what became the beginning of a drought period. This added to the workload with the extra watering that everything required. The plot is located midway between two taps so we were able to run relay with a number of watering cans. I am not particularly fond of using a hosepipe as you can't really measure how much water you are giving.

June 2011

Soon potatoes, beans, sweetcorn, onions, garlic, peas, chard and brassicas were growing happily.

There was still a patch of weeds down the side of the path to deal with but this had to wait until the following spring.

 July 2011

 On the up side, the potatoes, cucumber, chard, kale, beetroot and onions grew fantastically well. In fact, I dug up a record potato weighing in at 1.3kgs!

This is our first harvest taken in the first week of August 2011.

So as summer turned to autumn, we had more potatoes and, particularly, more chard than we quite knew what to do with then eager pickling, and freezing ensued.

2012

Spurred on by an exhausting but successful first year, we were looking forward to the second year.

2012 was a complete contrast. Off to a good start, March was warm, sunny and encouraging. What a false sense of security we were led into. April brought unseasonably cold and wet weather which persisted for months causing much consternation in the agricultural sector as crops failed to grow, ripen or yield anywhere near what is expected.

I had three attempts at growing French beans, ending in either premature death due to cold winds and cold rain or mollusc damage till finally a weak and disappointing crop was harvested.

Potatoes were grown, blighted, but saved from destruction by a dry spell. The resulting harvest was relatively healthy but tubers were small.

On the up side, I had fantastic crops from my golden courgettes - three plants yielded plenty of soup and chutney. I managed to get on top of the weeds along the side path with a few applications of weed killer and a lot of digging. The border was then planted with 'Russian Giant' sunflowers and sown with calendula and nasturtium seeds. They grew really well, covering the border and preventing the weeds from making a return.

So as the long, freezing winter set in...