Welcome to the first in a new series of monthly allotment diary blogs. I always enjoyed doing my Walled Garden Diaries when I was working in kitchen gardens, however, now I have put the professional tools down and write about gardening full-time I no longer spend my days in a walled garden. But I do have my allotment and that gives me a great opportunity to kick-start again writing regular blog updates.
I can talk about what I have been doing on the plot, what has gone great and is providing a bounty of harvests, and things that haven’t gone quite as well – all the realities of having an allotment. It will be useful as a way for me to track the goings-on down the allotment and also potentially beneficial to inform, inspire, and shed some light on the realities of looking after a (relatively) new plot that I was fortunate to get in May 2023.
The truth is that January has (unsurprisingly) been a slow month at the allotment – and that is mainly due to the weather. January was very wet, and often very windy too. The amount of rain meant that the ground was saturated, and you would make a big muddy mess if you attempted to do much. At least I should be thankful that the plot did not end up waterlogged, like the old allotment did. You can read about the waterlogged allotment issues in this old blog post on the subject. The storms did mean there was some clean-up required, but thankfully nothing major – and I consider myself lucky compared to other allotment holders on the site who had their polytunnels ripped wide open.
It may have been a slow month, but that doesn’t mean that nothing exciting happened. I am happy to have expanded the range of soft fruit on the plot. Some dormant rhubarb crowns were planted, and I was fortunate enough to be given a large redcurrant bush. The rhubarb crowns won’t provide delicious stems for a few years yet, but they are a thankful addition. The redcurrant bush that was planted adds to the collection of soft fruit bushes – there are also some salvaged redcurrant, whitecurrant, and gooseberry bushes that were planted last summer. Add to this lot the raspberry canes that I planted back in November, and it means there is now a good selection of perennial soft fruit in the allotment. Exciting times for lots of fruit in the years ahead.
Clearing of beds and weeding is a task that remains ongoing, part of preparing the allotment for the coming season. However, on a more exciting note, there are still crops to harvest that have overwintered and are still providing. We are still getting harvests of leeks and kale primarily, with a few cabbages remaining, some winter radish, and the last of the turnips. There might still be a picking or two from the Swiss chard that remains, but most of it is looking a bit worse for wear. Some of those plants have performed astoundingly, for example kale and chard have been getting cropped ever since the summer. It goes to show the benefit of planting crops that you can harvest repeatedly, especially if they are hardy and can stay in the allotment all winter long.
When it comes to anything growing, the garlic and onions that were planted in autumn are finally showing signs of life. I feared the worst for them as they weren’t doing much, but now there are green shoots on most of them. And what have I sowed so far this year for the allotment? The answer is nothing. January is a tricky time and I do not have a warm greenhouse or polytunnel and grow lights like I had when I was working in kitchen gardens. Now that February has rolled round, I will start sowing some onions, broad beans, and brassicas to transplant out when the temperatures increase.
In February, the main plan is to finish clearing the ground and get everything ready. I also need to build a simple rainwater harvesting system. The allotment site I am on has no access to water, so I need to collect all the rainwater I can. Currently, I have some rain barrels that collect a bit but do need to build a simple structure to collect lots more rainwater. Last summer I was lugging bottles of water over from the house, and that is not sustainable long term. If I can get something built, and add another barrel or two to collect it in, that would be fantastic. Whether I get around to it or not, I could also do with adding another bay to the compost heap – the one bay I have filled up very quickly.
Going forward I intend to continue these monthly updates from the allotment, and I will also put regular pictures, and potentially some videos as I am trying to get more confident with them, from the allotment on my Instagram page.
Perennial Nerd 