The intermittent musings you will find here are going to be about the allotment my wife and I have just taken on and other random noise from my brain as I grow personally.
This is not our first allotment, we are not beginners at this but I have to confess that my wife is the gardener and I do what I am told. I do not like gardening although I like gardens. I do like allotments though because the point of it is growing your own food and eating it.
Our allotment is number 109 at Washbrook Allotment Society in Leicester. This will be our fourth allotment and our third on this site. We were on our first ever plot for over 10 years on another site in the city. As with a most new people on the site we were given a half plot to begin with but after a year in which the committee could asses us we were offered a full plot, number 36. We worked that plot for 8 years or so and have only moved from it because 109 became available and my wife had tamed 36 and needed a new challenge.
We took over in October 2018 and began clearing the plot intending to get it ready for the new season.
Plot 109 is the first plot you see if you come in the main entrance to the allotments. It is next to the shop and the Washbrook (also known as the Saffron Brook), after which the site is named, runs along one side of the plot the other side of the road that goes to the main car park
Plot 109 outlined in red.
The plot has a large shed and a greenhouse on it. There is an IBC collecting water from the shed roof that feeds two smaller water butts on our plot and one on our neighbouring plot. There are paths around the edge and splitting the plot into four quarters. Once we had done some clearing we found other paths dividing the plot still further. You can see the paths in blue on this picture.
The structure of the plot.
The large white structure was a second green house but has gone now and the shed is outlined in yellow next to the remaining greenhouse in orange. The orange U shape next to the green house is the newly constructed compost bin. The yellow outline to the right of the shed consists of three brick built 'boxes'. The one nearest the shed has a concrete bottom and will serve as a cold frame for which we will construct a top. The second has no hard bottom and is half full of soil. We will add plenty of compost to this box and use it to grow prize winning carrots and other impressive root crops. The third and smallest box still has the remains of a Hawthorn bush and a Buddleia bush in it. These were large bushes and I suspect that the remaining stems and roots will be difficult to remove but they too will come out eventually. You will see from the comparison photos below how overgrown this area was. All three boxes were full of soil, plastic and weeds It was a major task to remove the bushes and took several visits to get it to the point where we could use the gate again.
Before and after pictures from the shed towards the gate.
We had to cut down some Russ trees which were growing as weeds behind the shed and remove several shrubs from the edge of the plot next to the road. All of this along with a lot of wood in various stages of decomposition were removed and formed into a bonfire. You can see just how much we burned in the next picture. The bonfire, although large, was expertly built and constantly monitored by members of the committee.
Waving not burning!
After wood the next most common thing we collected and had to dispose of was plastic. The previous plot holder used a lot of plastic stuff and just seemed to leave it where it fell. Plant labels, twine, pegs, pots and bags were all over the plot. We made many trips to the local waste site with car loads of plastic. Even now as we dig the beds over we have to have two buckets, one for weeds and one for plastic!
There was a pond on the plot which was discovered by stepping in it, it had become so overgrown. We did not want to keep it so drained what little water remained and began to fill it in with compostable material and excess soil from other parts of the plot such as the boxes by the gate. This area is quite level now and we intend to add more soil and some compost and grow squash and gourds up some arches we moved from plot 36. This has added to our growing area and will develop further over time.
Hide and seek!
So much plastic.
There are mature fruit trees in the main bed in front of the shed which my wife has expertly pruned. Judging by the depth of the rotten apples around the bases when we began we should be in for plenty of fruit next autumn. Unfortunately it looks like the cherry tree may not have survived it's pruning but we remain hopeful. We also have a permanent soft fruit area with raspberries strawberries and currants. I think one bush may be gooseberries but I don't like them so am not too bothered.
Let the growing begin!
My wife likes to get the first earlies in sooner than most and so the trenches were dug and the chitted seed potatoes planted and marked out. We have just put in an asparagus bed to replace the one we left behind on plot 36. We also left the rhubarb behind but are hopeful that one of our fellow allotmenteers will donate a crown to us.
Plot 36 was right up at the top of the site and while we had lovely neighbours, who we shall miss, not many allotmenteers passed us. On plot 109 almost everyone who comes in the main gate stops for a chat when they see us working and many have been very kind about our restoration of the plot to something approaching it's former glory. We still have a long way to go and I will document it all here. I hope you enjoy reading about this plot of land we call our own (although, technically, it belongs to the council) and will return every so often for an update on our progress.
