Allotment Diary–Saturday 28th May

Debbie joined me today and so we had the opportunity to do a really good tidy up, especially of the communal green paths that surround our plot and our neighbours on all sides.  What made this possible was the Ryobi rechargeable strimmer which arrived yesterday and it worked a treat.  I already have battery packs which made it much more cost effective and convenient than hiring one from the allotment society.  A full charge battery is easily enough to do the whole local area.  Debbie did a sterling job weeding the flower bed that runs along the front of the plot.

I finished putting in the top support for the netting that will hold my cucumbers, assuming they survive the slug attacks.

In keeping with this weeks theme (giving) I gave away a big bag of salad to Caroline, 5 Gooseberry bushes to Gill and my ‘patent pending’ design for cloches and netted frames to Tony.

I also took advantage of some freebie tomatoes, some spare plastic boxes and a pallet to create a raised container planting area, six tomatoes now have a home there, and tomorrow a couple of boxes of carrots will be joining them.

Just before we left Debbie cleared a row of Spinach, that’s now past it’s best and we planted a row of baby leeks to take it’s place, they are meant to be ready to eat within 10 weeks of planting, so hopefully in my polytunnel they should be ready in July.  Finally I got around to putting scaffold netting on one of my old rectangular frames, that’s got my Kale in it.

Sadly the whole allotment is still a buzz with the news that a group of teenagers broke into the site yesterday, and into a few sheds, they were chased by Gill and Tony and identified, so hopefully it won’t be happening again – I guess it’s the risk we take.