Down At Christmas

Lower End of N2 Plot Waterlogged (28/December/13)

 With power lines, trees, fences, roofs and goodness knows what else, brought down with this weeks storms it was time to go down the plots today, to check out the damage there. Oddly enough most of the small lightweight items of allotment equipment, situated on the majority of plots, such as compost bins, wheelbarrows, plastic fencing and the like, seemed to have been unaffected by the 2 storms of Monday/Tuesday and Thursday night of this week. I was extremely lucky to have only suffered some minor damage on my plots. 3 plant pots in my poly tunnel were blown over with their contents deposited across the tunnel's floor. There was a slight tear in one of the tunnel vents caused by the wind and apart from the lower ends of N2's 2 main beds being underwater, the only other damage was to a dustbin which had been blown over by the wind.

Minimal Damage To My Poly Tunnel (27/December/13)

Having checked out my plots for damage, I took a walk around the allotments' road to see what other damage the destructive high winds and driving rain had caused. Many of the smaller poly tunnels had been blown over with 1 in particular being completely shredded by Thursday nights storm. One greenhouse on plot 77, opposite my plots, had been lifted completely off its base. Several sheds had their roofs missing, with 2 of them completely flattened and almost unrecognizable as sheds. Several trees along the hedgerow to the south side of the allotments had been blown down and were lying across the banks of the drainage ditch, which runs along the southern boundary of the allotments. Many large fruit cages, situated on different plots had been left leaning at precarious angles by the wind, with their supports loosened in the wet, rain soaked ground. Many items of garden furniture and various types of ground coverings, along with other sheeting were strewn around different plots other than where they belonged, waiting for their owners to salvage them.

Greenhouse Damage Plot 77 (28/December/13)

Greenhouse Plot 77 Lifted Off It's Base (28/December/13)

After taking some photographs around the allotments I was back on my plots depositing more kitchen waste and the usual used Christmas wrapping paper and cardboard onto my compost heaps. Having disposed of a large rat from N1 Plot I decided to remove the remaining Sprout plants from N1's brassica bed. Even after the recent extremely wet weather and continuing rain, the soil was workable, due to the fact that a considerable amount of compost had been added to the surface of this bed, earlier this year. As the Sprout plants and a few weeds were lifted, the soil and compost mix was turned and broke down very nicely. By 3 p.m. the air temperature was dropping, so the Sprout plants weeds and some other decaying vegetation was consigned to the compost heap, a couple of Parsnips were lifted, bagged up with a few edible Sprouts and I headed home for a cuppa. 

 Poly Tunnel Blown Into Trees Eastern End of the Allotments

Poly Tunnel Destroyed by High Winds (28/December/13)

Shed No Roof (28/December/13)

Chair Damaged & Shed in Pieces (28/December/13)

Roof No Shed (28/December/13)

Fruit Cages Damaged (28/December/13)

Heavy Duty Cloches Blown Over (28/December/13)

Guttering Dislodged (28/December/13)

The Only Good Rat is a Dead One (28/December/13)

There's Always Tomorrow!!