Anyone with an allotment?

Haha. I respect the hard work. Be interested to see how they get on.

I get a better view of the Cricket now from my plot.

My Winter Leeks have done well.

"Wild" Garlic too.

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Peas in

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Even if it’s only for a few weeks in the greenhouse it’ll hopefully kick them off.
Also did a serious amount of seed trays - San Marzanos, tomatillos, gardeners delight, Shirley’s, chillis, sweet peppers, sweet peas, cosmos purity/dazzler/seashell, pink firs chitting…
And then even persuaded the family to walk up the plot to plant the remaining five fruit trees from last summer which are in bud. Solid day.

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Lifted the leeks today, apparently they turn to flower in April and go unpleasant. Soup ahoy

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Phwoar, they look ace!
I’ve got some leeks in propagator cells but tbh they’ve not really done much yet. Still no bigger than a single chive lol

I can tell you from my visit to the plot this evening that it has been a great year for sycamores. Bastards.

I was walking our dog the other day in a local park, saw a sycamore seedling and instinctively bent down and pulled it up, only to realise that it's not my job to remove them there.

Popped over to the plot to find the resident fox has done a poo in one of my slug traps. Cheers mate.

Just back from my plot.
Started with a bit of weeding but a bit of man flu means I only managed 45 minutes or so. The soil seems to be mostly clay so any weeding was bloody hard work.
Looking at it when I left it seemed to be a very small patch cleared for a hell of a lot of effort!
Hopefully once it’s planted it’ll be easier to keep on top of. It’ll be getting shit loads of potatoes planted in the hope that it’ll improve the soil and help break it down a bit.

I just let my weeds grow a bit then knock then with a scythe. Otherwise it's a fruitless battles.

I might well give that a try in future.

I’ve got some green manure in the form of white clover and buckwheat to sow which, in theory, will keep the weeds down.

Popped by this avo to make a plan for the weekend.
Polytunnel plastic has arrived so can get that sorted at least.
Got lots of things in trays that can hopefully go in there even if not ready to plant out just yet.

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Our allotment was mostly clay when we started, and we grew a lot of potatoes in the first couple of years to help break the soil down, so I think your approach is a good one. Get as much organic matter into the soil as you can too; I remember having to move four bulk bags of well rotted horse manure from the site entrance to our plot using a wheelbarrow, but it really helped improve the soil.

Yep, we also started out with about 3” of soil then straight onto clay. 3.5yrs later we’re pretty much 12-18” of soil now I reckon.
I dug it over relentlessly and have added manure, bulk soil, cheap compost from Wickes and anything else over the years.
Just growing stuff and lots of digging to break it all up seems to be the winner overall.
It’s still nowhere near a dark and fluffy as some peoples but it’s definitely improved.

If I planted leeks last august when should they be ready to harvest. They look like they’re nearly ready. But still quite small.

I’ve found someone locally who’ll deliver a transit tipper load of shredded and aged mulch from their landscape gardening business, I’ll get a load of that dug in over the next week or two and hopefully that’ll help break things down.

Now - apparently they'll flower soon. Bad winter for Leeks I'm told.

My book says as you want to eat them, they don't store well. But lift by end of April. Clean and trim on lifting.

Alan Buckingham - Allotment

I just put some leeks in today. Am I doing it wrong?

There is no wrong, go for it!

Got the purple firs in this morning and constructed three more 8’x4’ beds before rain had me sliding around on the clay like an ice skater.

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So fucking neat.

Niiiiiiice!!

I got up the plot today for an hour or so. Lugged up a couple of hundred litres of homemade compost I’d emptied into bags from our garden composter and planted 27 earlies (arran pilot and pentland javelin).

Got the tunnel sorted.

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