Allotment Diary–Thursday 09 June 2016

It was a bit cooler today so I decided to bite the bullet and finish digging over the area under the trees, it went quickly as there were a lot fewer weed roots in this area of the plot and I was soon finished.  I’ve now pretty much decided that the cooking apple tree that’s next to the compost bins is going to be cut down once it’s cropped.  The area directly under the other two trees is going to be grassed, the remaining area is going to be productive.  Having finished the digging I scavenged around for some wood that I’m going to use for water pipe netted frames, laid them down and planted inside them.  i didn’t have any screws of the right length to fasten them together.

As this land is a bonus that I didn’t expect to have this year, I’ve decided to take the risk on two plants I didn’t expect to have space to grow, cauliflower was my first choice.  I had some free seeds in the draw and decided to sow them ten inches apart, with the intent to crop them when they are nice and small, enough for a couple of meals.

The other plant I didn’t expect was cabbage, because it takes up so much room, but I have a little room, so I’ve popped in a row of red cabbage.  I’ve planted 3 times as many plants as I should because I’m going to thin them out as they grow and eat the surplus leaves.

The ground’s not very well prepared unfortunately as I don’t have any manure available, but I sprinkled on some blood fish and bone meal, and will mulch with compost once they get going.

Other than watering I didn’t get to do anything else, but Simon popped his head around to say that he’d got some pallets for the fence and so he gave me a hand moving them onto the plot ready for my next project, maybe in July.

There’s not quite enough for the full front of the plot, but I have an excellent wire frame that I’m going to use as part of the fence and grow something on next year, maybe sweet peas.