A lot of allotmenteering

April showers have kept me indoors, or at least close to the house when gardening, today but it has been a busy week down on our allotment, getting the plot dug over and tidy ready for planting the second-early and main-crop potatoes later this week.

I confess that the allotment tends to be Jon's domain with the routine grass-cutting and digging over done by the little chap, often on my work days, because he likes it to look neat.  I have more of a strategic role usually, working out where things should go as part of the crop rotation system and then abandoning the plan as various crops outgrow their space in the greenhouses or, alternatively, fail.

One task that escaped both of us last year was clearing weeds from the patch we had dug the compost heap out onto and transplanting a mass of self-seeded foxgloves off of another.  Both plots are needed for potatoes this year so, while Jon turned over a couple of the established beds, I brought down my big stainless steel fork and spade and set about turning over and de-weeding the top bed.  The spoil has gone to make a new bank under the hedge behind the shed, incorporating a couple of "Springwatch" washing-up bowl ponds, side-by-side, and planted up with some of the hundreds of rogue foxgloves.  The soil scalped from the top bed also includes nettles which we can cut when young for green manure and later leave for the butterflies where they can now spread and seed without causing a problem.

The broad beans, which had been hardening off in the cold frame, have now been planted out and seem to have settled in well.  Hopefully they are sturdy enough to resist any minor flea-beetle damage although I must get some sticks and string round them soon to stop them toppling over during windy weather.  There is a later sowing just starting to germinate and, if I can keep the beds nicely weed-free in the early stages, I plan to plant some of my squash and pumpkin plants between the rows in early summer, so they can take advantage of the nitrogen-rich soil.

The onions will also be ready to go in soon and will take up most of the next two beds up, leaving two more for direct-sown crops like parsnips, climbing beans, sweetcorn and, perhaps, more squashes, although I will probably concentrate on growing those in the back garden.  The brassicas I have for sowing this year are for winter crops so can follow the first early potatoes in the garden and the first broad beans on the allotment, or possibly even the second earlies if I can keep them growing on in pots, and safe from slugs and butterflies, in the cold frames. 

How any of this plan will fit in with another possible long-distance boat-trip remains to be seen, of course...