Green Lane Allotments Diary

Weekend 6 January

On the plot:

• Still managing to harvest a few vegetables. This week it was broccoli, leeks, carrots and sprouts although there are still one or two cabbages.
• Mainly did a bit of clearing up and digging although the soil is still really wet and soggy. Ours is a clay soil and often at this time of year more harm than good is done by standing on it.
• As it was a still day, the fruit trees were given their winter wash which seems to keep the plum aphids at bay. We used to have quite a problem with this before we starting using the winter wash. Click here to read more
• I have kept a few seeds from the sunflowers to plant later in the year.
• One of the shrub roses was rocking a bit so this was firmed in.
• For some reason I found a few strawberry plants which had been uprooted on the paths, the strange thing was that I couldn’t find a gap in the strawberry bed to show where they have come from so I am not sure which variety they are – anyway I pushed them back into the ground so time will tell whther thay survive and if so which variety they are. Not sure if they were blown out by the wind, uprooted by an animal or even worse someone up to no good!!
• Spending a good deal of time trying not to buy too many seeds for next year. This means going through the catalogue time and time again and asking myself – “Have I really got enough room in the greenhouse for all of this – or even the time to sow all the seeds and look after then?”

In the greenhouse:

• One of the garlic bulbs, planted in pots earlier, is now sprouting.
• All the dead leaves have been tidied from the strawberry plants which seem to be surviving well.
• Other plants are just sitting out the winter and hoping as we do that they come out of it at the other end

Click here for more photos

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