Too Cold - Frustration Abounds!

It's been so cold, foggy and claggy for what seems like weeks now. Typical winter weather of course but very frustrating for the Plot 13D team! We're just itching to get down to preparing the allotment for the start of the growing season.

Instead I have to make do with the odd little job here and there. Today was washing the plant pots ready for the growing season, to get rid of any possible lingering pests or diseases lurking in dried-on soil. Didn't use fresh water of course, we used last night's bath water, nice recycling....

The compost has also been turned over and it looks like a decent drop of stuff is developing. Added the contents of the shredder to add some "brown" and put it back to bed.

Garlic Progress?

We planted quite a lot of garlic last autumn....and it seems to be doing OK so far. If we manage to harvest all this lot our breath is going to be REALLY pongy....

Of course we couldn't resist digging one up to see how it's getting on - and it looks good. Nicely formed root, all we need is for them so survive winter then fill out before we harvest.

Here We Are In 2017!

And so we enter the second year of Plot 13D. The allotment hasn't done too badly, unattended, for a month or two, so we're now ready to get it prepared for spring.

From the east....with the dismantled greenhouse lurking threateningly in the foreground....

The the fence side from the east, featuring JP! The council have chopped back the huge bush just over the fence (thank you), but a lot of the branches fell onto our side (no thanks at all). Nothing there this winter so nae borra....

And from the west, with bolted spinach and spring onions closest to camera.

And the fence side from the west, sorry about the glare. The strawbs don't look great in their box....

After a couple of hours I had prepped the area and joined the bits on the top left and top centre. In between them is our garlic bed.

The greenhouse will be a real asset when it's up....but for now it just lies there, intimidatingly.

Next job is to move these aluminium struts and prep this area too.

JP has been allowed his own area this year. He marked it out today, forked it over, and can be seen here peering through the fence. No idea why!