The AGM

While it wasn't anything at the allotment the AGM was a notable event. See here for my impressions.

A start?

I've laid a sheet of black polythene over one bed in an attempt to warm up the soil over the next two or three weeks. I had to brush the snow to one side to lay it down!

Still waiting for warmer weather.

A visit today to clear the compost bin of the wood chippings that have been in it and check on the weed harvest.

Clearing the woodchips didn't take long, and not many weeds got cleared either. It was just so blooming cold. and today it is snowing again! The soil will take forever to get to a temperature at which things will grow.

I did however, purchase a propagator and must get that going this weekend. Hopefully it will have warmed up by then.

It's still there.

As promised - news of the plot. Well, It's not really news...... The ground is wet. After all those days with snow on it, that is no surprise. The broad beans, peas, onions and garlic are growing well. As you will see from the pictures, Thomas came with me and helped to pull out all the marking stakesthat I'd been too lazy to remove. I put the stakes in to mark the borders of the beds out the beds before I dug them.

We also managed to spread a load more wood chips over the paths between the beds. We really have far more chippings than I'm ever likely to need, so I might see if I can give some away to my fellow plot holders.

The photos make the weather appear better than I remember it being. It was blooming cold, miserable and started to drizzle before we finished

Now I need a week or two without any really hard rain and a good drying wind to get some of the water out of the soil. Gosh I'm beginning to sound like a farmer - still a good whinge about the weather always gets your excuses in first before the crops fail.

A Promise

I am mildly disturbed to hear that a small but dedicated band of readers look forward to new postings on this blog. They have been waiting in vain recently. The weather has been awful and I have not attended my allotment for a week or six. With the snow gone, this sorry state of affairs will be rectified and I shall visit the place on Friday.

Have faith, dear readers. New will appear, I promise.

Not posted for a while, but that's 'cos I've not been to the allotment. Well, I wandered down there today and had a look. It is still ever so wet, but I pushed and pulled the rake around to disturb a few of the weeds. It made me feel better. The peas and broad beans are coming on nicely, and so are the onions.

I need to find some really warm clothes before I spend an hour or so down there.

Happy Gardening to everyone in 2010.

Cooo, it's wet!

A visit to the allotment was called for today. I hadn't been for a while and it was time to see that everything was OK. A couple of hardy souls were on their plots digging, but Boy, the ground was sodden. I fear that any digging done today will have resulted in some seriously compacted soil. I am much relieved that I had completed the digging and path creation before the record breaking wet weather started.

I did actually rake one bed to break up the crust that was forming, but that was it. The ground was just too wet to do anything else.