Caged Fruit

A very windy day on the allotment, with some small rain showers, but otherwise lovely sunshine everywhere.. except on our plot, which was in deep shadow and very cold! The fruit cage was finished, which took up most of my time this afternoon.

Malcolm concentrated on digging more of the 'Peggy pen' grassed area, which now has a large section raked and ready for grass seed. There's still an area behind it, next to the shed (at the rear of the picture below) that's overgrown with brambles and piled high with rubbish. That will be a future extension to the lawned area, as it's raised and will give fantastic views across the Neath Valley to the hills. But for now there's the rest of the grassed area and more beds to dig.

In the Net

It's rained virtually non-stop for the last week or so, including the days we'd have been able to come, so it's 2 weekends since our last visit. Amazing how much can change in such a small time - the height and denseness of the weeds in the areas we're not working on were eye-popping! Same goes for our own plants. The potato plants are big and healthy looking, with flowers starting to appear on the first earlies. The broad beans are well and truly in flower, despite being munched by something (one or two are reduced to a bare green stems with no leaves at all). And the fruit is coming along well, especially the whitecurrants and gooseberries. Even the elephant garlic has started to grow properly, which I was beginning to think wouldn't happen this year.


Malcolm started the day clearing the path between us and the next plot, which was so badly overgrown with the sudden appearance of grass, bindweed and old mint, that it was almost impossible to walk on. We spent most of our time today attaching nets to the fruit frame. We got the top done and one of the sides, before we ran out of netting, so will have to finish it off tomorrow. We also did some more digging in the corner section, between the fruit cage and the fence (at the back of the picture below) which will eventually be grassed over and fenced in to become 'the Peggy pen'. In other words, a safe area to keep the dogs so they can come with us, and somewhere nice for us to sit and have our sandwiches!

First Signs of Success!

Arrived in the afternoon after loading the car boot with 7 bulging sacks of compost from the recycling rubbish place, to find things have started to come to life on the small area we've been doing. Little gooseberries are dotted all over the bushes, and strings of tiny green currants that will hopefully mature into whitecurrants and blackcurrants (providing the birds don't see them first). In the veg beds, white flowers have started appearing on the broad beans, and potato plants are appearing!


Most of the day was spent working on the fruit area. We extended it widthwise by digging a few more feet, and planted a row of summer-fruiting raspberries. I made the mistake of thinking that when you buy a raspberry plant, the 4 or 5 canes in the pot are all the same plant, not individual ones. So we've ended up with about 10 summer raspberry canes and 10 autumn ones!


The further we dig towards the fence side of the plot, the worse the soil is - it's very stoney and compacted, and the topsoil gets very thin in places. So we used plenty of compost under the raspberries, and as a mulch afterwards. The rest of the time was concentrated on building the fruit cage. It turned out to be more fiddly than we imagined, and we only got as far putting up the main frame before we had to call it a day. It was pitch black and we couldn't see anything, and we were itching all over from big mosquito bites! We put the rest of the compost on top of the potatoes and raked the soil into raised ridges (or as best we could without actually being able to see!) and left!

Flying Visit

Paid a very brief visit to the allotment, just to check everything is still ok after the big planting session at the weekend, and a day of rain followed by a day of sun. Plus the dogs were desperate for a walk, so we thought we'd take advantage of the gate to the park next to our plot. Actually the gate comes out right in the middle of the park, it was a gorgeous warm evening, and the dogs had a lovely run - well worth remembering for future reference.

All seem to be doing well in the new beds, none of the wilting or sickly plants we'd half expected to find! One of the old blokes told us a top plot at the other end is going to come available in September - it's not as overgrown as ours, and has its own shed. One or two of the old guys have suggested we could use it to plant stuff while we carry on digging over our existing plot. But I don't know if we'll go for it - it's a nice sunny patch and the shed is a good one - but would we have the time to run it on top of what we already have? Hmm.. We'll think about it, but I don't know.

A Fruitful Day

Arrived quite late after taking the dogs for a run on the dunes, and then filling 7 sacks of compost from the waste recycling centre, but we worked until nightfall and got loads done.

Finished off the broad beans bed by planting garlic cloves in the empty half row (mostly Elephant garlic and Isle of Wight garlic). They'd already had a head start in small pots, so there's more greenery to see in the beds. Tried giving them a sprinkling of wood ash left over from burning the brambles, as we'd read somewhere that onion-type plants like it.

Carried on digging the fruit bed, and extended it by a few more feet. Finally got most of the fruit bushes in (a row of gooseberries, a row of blackcurrants, a row of whitecurrants, a couple of redcurrant bushes, and a couple of single gooseberry bushes). Unfortunately not enough room for everything - raspberries, rhubarb and more gooseberries will have to wait until we extend the fruit bed with more digging. Planted all the bushes by digging a trench and adding a layer of compost at the bottom before putting the roots in, then gave everything a good watering afterwards.

Poured the remaining compost over the potatoes bed, which will hopefully act as a mulch as well as providing some nutrients.