I made the first visit to my plot this morning for about the past 2 months expecting it to be in a derelict state, after the wet and windy Winter weather conditions since November last. Surprisingly my plot was relatively tidy, mostly weed free and showing no signs of damage from the continuing high winds we've been experiencing here for many weeks now. Although the grass lawns around my bungalow have continued to grow considerably, over the Winter, due to the mainly mild temperatures, the grass paths & borders around my plot appeared to have died back, saving me the job of mowing them, which I had expected to have to do today.
My old runner bean plants were still entwined around their supporting canes on the L-shaped-bed so I set about removing the dead foliage from the canes, dispatching it onto my nearby compost heap. Despite the deluges of rain since last Autumn, No 1 bed was relatively dry with little stickiness of the soil. No 2 bed was wetter and the soil/clay sticky to walk on.
After I had finished removing the runner bean plants, I lifted a few parsnips and carrots from No 1 bed. I expected these to be rotting down by now, due to the very wet Winter weather but they were still in good condition, ideal for freezing.
I then removed a few weeds from various areas of the plot, the usual ones making a head start at this time of year, like creeping buttercups, shepherd's purse and clover, when the drizzly rain returned, drifting in across the allotments, so I loaded a few items of gardening equipment into my trusty old Astra and spuddled off home, mid-afternoon. With no other allotment holders to be seen around the plots it was a quiet, drab afternoon. The only real highlight being the masses of bluebells, currently well-established along the lower end of my plot on top of the drainage ditch bank.
There's Always Tomorrow!!
My old runner bean plants were still entwined around their supporting canes on the L-shaped-bed so I set about removing the dead foliage from the canes, dispatching it onto my nearby compost heap. Despite the deluges of rain since last Autumn, No 1 bed was relatively dry with little stickiness of the soil. No 2 bed was wetter and the soil/clay sticky to walk on.
After I had finished removing the runner bean plants, I lifted a few parsnips and carrots from No 1 bed. I expected these to be rotting down by now, due to the very wet Winter weather but they were still in good condition, ideal for freezing.
I then removed a few weeds from various areas of the plot, the usual ones making a head start at this time of year, like creeping buttercups, shepherd's purse and clover, when the drizzly rain returned, drifting in across the allotments, so I loaded a few items of gardening equipment into my trusty old Astra and spuddled off home, mid-afternoon. With no other allotment holders to be seen around the plots it was a quiet, drab afternoon. The only real highlight being the masses of bluebells, currently well-established along the lower end of my plot on top of the drainage ditch bank.
There's Always Tomorrow!!
I'm glad for you that all is well (relatively speaking). The storms this Winter will have put a lot of people off the idea of gardening / allotmenteering altogether. I have a lot of sympathy for the poor old farmers too. Sometimes their lives must be really miserable.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Mark its been really miserable all round. I mentioned in my Nov top 10 tips that I thought a cold spell was on its way from studying slugs/snails eggs, should have realized they like damp/wet weather by the phenominal amount seen over a given area compared with the past couple of seasons.
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