15/16 December - In the Bleak Midwinter

This weekend we have managed to spend quite a bit of time in the plot. This is because the weather was not wet and indeed quite sunny though very cold as the picture on the left shows (ice on puddle). We thought we should Go For It.

A very sad sight met our eyes when we first got to the plot. It looked as though something has eaten the vibrant growing tips of our over-wintering onions. It is particularly distressing as they were doing very well only a few days before and were grown from seed. We don't think it was rabbits, probably mice. The garlic planted a little while ago has yet to make an appearance, so we are wondering whether to call it a day on this bed, cover it with compost and start again in the spring. Bah humbug.

First task, the digging of the third bed. N did his usual magic with the long boards, three nailed together on each side and we slotted the frame into the neatly dug trench (marked out with poles and things). Now we can dispense with double-digging to condition our soil, we just pile it up and rake it a bit.

This soil has a real load of nasty stuff still in it, wire, plastic etc. Yeuch.

Then there was seasonal tidying up. Farewell to the amateur rabbit-proof fence round the bed with the sprouts (still going and very tasty) and celery. Farewell also the celery, which remained in my view an enigmatic crop whose potential was never fully realised nor (probably) understood. Intrestingly there were a couple of radishes still growing, set probably from the seed of bolted plants.

Then we had a long ponder about the Way Forward, or what people where I work call The Direction of Travel.

We decided that we had to begin to break down the heap of loamy soil (the former pumpkin bed) and relocate it after jettisoning obvious weeds etc to the new just-dug bed and indeed to populate other beds on the area where it is currently situated, as well as two new small beds. This is rather a curious conundrum. There is no point moving the soil somewhere just to move it back but it needs to be moved somewhat because the trench needs digging. That area (near the compost bin) is rather large, so that is why it is going to be two small beds.

The boundaries of the two mooted small beds will be such that we had to move our current plastic compost bin - and compost. We duly moved it temporarily to the other end of the plot near to the shed. The idea is to eventually put our pallet-compost-thingy there and to move the shed round.

N did a tidy up too of our various wood holdings. Unfortunately we do not have enough of the really long boards to make the new beds, so we will be trying Freecycle or some such to get some.

Anyway. We thought you'd like to see what the allotment looks like from the main entrance in the lane. This was taken at the end of our labours on Sunday. It is a view that never fails to cheer us up when we set off to the plot.