The freeze sets in....

The weather forecast is grim. Snow and ice for 'weeks'! Not looking forward to it. The freeze last year took our early broad beans and hopefully this year I have cloched early enough.

It doesn't look like I will be going to the allotment for a while and running out doors looks and feels positively treacherous!

It looks like walking with Dylan, who loves biting the snow, and the gym is now the agenda for a while.

Nearly first week on the allotment

I went to the allotment 4 times this week to try to make a start. The natural light, commitments, the temperature and the mains water to the loos having been turned off have curtailed my visits to a maximum of 2 hours. Hard work? Hardly - just great fun.








Tuesday I lifted the beetroot and carrots. It amounted to about 50 pounds of beetroot and about 70 pounds of carrots. Both taste great and I am a true lover of beetroot - but this may prove a little too much this year! We have also been eating carrots in most every known way but, as yet, we are maintaining a healthy skin pigment!

Lifting the carrots revealed a whole lot of leeks which, as I cleared some of the brambles revealed even more.

I also found a row of turnips which will come in handy sometime.

Wednesday I started to try to tidy up the plot to show the allotment committee that we are serious. The secretary was saying that people wait on the list for years and then when they have been given a plot they pay their rent and never show up! WE don't want anyone thinking we are not enthusiastic! But Wednesday was also a frustrating visit because there are so many things that need doing there is a temptation to start them all and finish none.

Friday saw a shorter visit where we decided to do some proper planning so we can focus properly on the next task in hand. On Wednesday I had started to define the path and bottom corner of the allotment and that is where we start our proper effort.

We also decided to move the strawberries - some to our garden and some to a 'out the way' bed. These strawberries are perpetual fruiting and have a lot of bud on even now.

But today it has snowed for the first time this year and that may mean less done for a little while.

First day at the allotment

The previous occupant of our plot quit the allotment rather abruptly and left a lot of things behind. We haven't identified everything yet but are trying to 'tidy up'.

I have started by moving some of the blue plastic out of site and gathering up the bags with compost that have been left sitting around and consolidating them into the compost heaps at the back. I have also been clearing brambles from along the back fence and consigning them to the council bin as they don't compost at all well.

Amongst the things left on the allotment is a poly-tunnel which has 3 young vines in. We are still deciding whether this stays or goes.

After that I have been clearing some of the surface weeds and seeing what lurks below..

Various brassicas are still there in various conditions.

There is a patch of carrots and these are gigantic. I suspect some could enter the 'Dibley Village Rude Vegetable' competition.

There is a patch of beetroot and mostly of a good size.

A raspberry pretending to be a bramble.

A gooseberry bush - no babies I'm pleased to say.

Autumn fruiting raspberry. And what's more...

it's still in fruit.

Various fruit trees, but only 2 are labeled - A Granny Smith Apple and a Conference Pear.

Chives.

7 or 8 trees in all, but mostly too close together.

Not sure what this is so we need to 'look it up'.

So I brought a little home with me while we decide how to store the carrots and beetroot.

On top of all this there are currant bushes as well, but I missed out on photos of them!