Path Maintenance

 

We are finally having a good burst of warm weather and sunshine (for which we should all be grateful) which brings with it the need to get the watering can out.  I normally have the whole site to myself in the evenings but it was like Piccadilly Circus at the Hill yesterday, with plotters coming in to do a bit in their greenhouses.

I, meanwhile, am making good progress on the paths - I'm hoping that the weeded and stamped down paths with a black plastic base and deep chipping top will save me time in that I'll only be weeded the beds, not contending with the paths too.

I have a sneaking suspicion that in 5 years time I will be weeding out the rotted down chippings and cursing the very idea of putting down black plastic as that breaks down, but that's a concern for another day - or even decade.  For now, this looks smart!  I still have about a quarter of the plot paths to cover, but I am well on the way. 

Meanwhile, the runners' profusion of flowers are giving way to teeny beans, and the sweetcorn is shooting up.  I'm eating the tail end of the broad bean crop, and digging potatoes as I need them.

And when everyone has gone home, I can enjoy the stillness again, and this rather lovely view across the valley.

Brilliant Beds and Beans!

Just because I haven't noted here what's been going on at the Hill doesn't mean that I haven't been busy for the past six weeks.  Admittedly, some of that busy has been 'busy on holiday', but furious weeding before and after times means that the plot is in reasonable order.

Turns out that my prediction was right - the runner beans *have* shot up and the broad beans *have* been wonderful!  The first early potatoes are pretty good too - bit variable in size, but plenty of yield from each plant.

In an attempt to prevent so much time being taken up by path weeding, I'm going through my once-every-few-years path maintenance programme whereby I lay down some sort of weed suppressant and load up bark chippings.   There's a mountain of chippings free to use, and I bought some black plastic from the store shed a few weeks ago, so I've made a start on that too.

There's still plenty of light until late into the evening but noticeably not quite so much as a month ago - and it feels like summer hasn't even got going yet either!

There is a plus side!

'What difficult weather we are having on the plot!', said every allotment holder, every year, since the dawn of allotment history - except that this year, just maybe, we do have a bit of a point.

The sunshine when it comes is hot and lovely, but is interspersed with days of cold, and heavy rain too.  This has been brilliant in that everything gets a boost and jumps up in the sunshine (weeds inc.), and also nothing needs watering yet - hurrah!

Wet weather means that the slugs have made merry with the Maris Piper potatoes (although not the Pentland Javelin) and the cucumber plants bought from the plant sales a couple of weeks ago.  

One of my lovely little lavender plants is looking a touch suspect too (far left), for some reason.  No sign of the parsnip seeds coming up, either.

But we are optimist, of course, and on the plus side, the runner beans are bedding in nicely, and the broad beans are full of flowers and bursting with health.  

Perhaps in the same way that last year was 'year of the brilliant winter crops' this will be 'year of the brilliant beans'. Who knows?

 

Beans, Beds and Brooms

A couple evenings this week I have manage to shoehorn an hour or two in at the Hill before dusk (or more accurately, 'at dusk', or even, 'rather beyond dusk') which has seen a bit of plot maintenance, and a couple of jobs knocked off the list. Marvellous.

The Hill Stables up the road drop off their bags of manure every couple of weeks into a big heap which is conveniently at the side of the roadway by Geoff Crosspatch' plot next to mine; and a couple of evenings ago, I shifted half the bags - about twenty, I guess - nicely filling up one of the 'side bar' beds which are set aside for permanent plants, but in reality have just sat and done nothing but grow weeds for years.  

I have plans for fruit bushes, but in the meantime, a 6" deep blanket of horseshit should supress all but the hardiest of annual weeds.

Sweeping up afterwards, I noticed the broom head was loose, so I upended it, grasped the head firmly and gave it a couple of thumps to drive the handle back into the head.  Next thing, I'm standing there holding the broom head neatly cleaved into two halves.  Oops.

Then tonight, I had a lovely evening lined up - planting out the runners and weeding.  I'd just arrived when the heavens opened.  After about 20mins, the rain lessened enough for me to hurriedly plant out the runners and dive back in the car before I got totally wet through. 

At least I didn't have to water them in.

Frontage Facelift!

Whilst my seeds have been nursing their bruised heads in the pots at home (now far more securely sat on the bench), I have been keeping on top of the weed explosion at the Hill, going to the allotment AGM, beefing up the 8 beds with new stakes to hold the edges in place, and getting round to 'doing something' with the front of the plot.

All plot holders are encouraged to devote the first 3' or so of their plot fronting the roadway to a floral display.  Not only do these look fabulous, up and down the site, but it also acts as a sacrificial strip for those drivers on site - to and from the plots and/or the social club - who are incapable of keeping four wheels on the roadway.

We do, in fact have a competition for the most attractive, which is often won by those showing floral 'mosaic' displays of annual flowers depicting a tableau of some sort.  Some devote a great deal of time planting up a template of blue and white lobelia, red salvia, orange marigolds (and those green silvery furry plants that I don't like very much) to make a picture in flowers a month later. 

My two overgrown and woody straggly 10yr old never-been-pruned lavender bushes with a natty under-display of couch grass and self seeded calendula, dandelions and forget-me-nots do rather let the side down (pic above).

So the bank holiday saw me wielding a fork with great intent, and once every (discernible) weed had been evicted along with the two lavender, I set about bed prep and soil grading.  I created a stamped down path for access to the first bed, used some slabs for matching paths each side, and planted out a dozen English Lavender plants, bought from Homebase for £1.40 a pop.

Just got to learn about pruning them.

Potential Disaster!

The most convenient place in the (rather weedy!) courtyard garden for me to put seed trays is on the low wall between the yard and the hardstanding.  If the trays are on the ground they will be tripped over; on the bench, there is no where to sit.  The wall is just fine.

Except it is not safe, it appears from my clumsy nitwit cats. 

Whether it was a chase gone wrong, a mis-step whilst jumping up to the adjacent fence, or collateral damage whilst after something 'fluttery' I will never know, but two of my four trays of just-sprouted seeds took a dive. 

Both trays of beans all scooped up and righted, a few days later there seems to be remarkably little set back - although if I've mixed the dwarf beans and climbers up (identical at the mo), I won't know about it until a week or two after planting out when I may find have some sulky climbers and sprawling dwarfs.....

Wooosh - and we're off!

So if you want to know what a week of sunshine does in May after a very wet but mild Spring, you only have to blink at the Hill (alright - a week since previous attendence) to find that there has been a collective explosion of growth. 

In the weeds on the paths mainly (MUST get round to covering and chippings there) but also with the broad beans and garlic - both of which are looking superb.

An hour this evening saw me filling one of the daleks with pulled up weeds (they disappear into nothing in a few days) and fluffing over the bed with the most recent Dalek compost spread about. 

Some of the more straw-like went back into the dalek for a another go, but this is now looking more like somewhere you can plant things rather than something you would feed to a horse.  

Meanwhile, in the kitchen last week I had a mammoth seed sowing session in front of the tele - most relaxing.  Runners, dwarf and climbing french beans, sweetcorn, leeks (bit late in according to the packet) and 4 varieties of courgette - the quantity of which I am already regretting.