It feels like it’s been ages since I had a post about the plot where we made any progress but over Easter and last weekend, I feel like we’re beginning to make progress.

There has been a lot of tidying, Ma cut down the bonariensis, tidied up the mint and given the rosemary a haircut.

I’ve cleared the polytunnel, topped up the back bed, and watered the beds hard. The soil is really dry and we found a bunch of ants (the bitey kind) under some pots. So the action plan is to soak the path and beds in anti ant nematodes (which I also need to do for the blueberries). I’m not anti ants but I’m pretty sure that the bite reactions I get are because of the ants and I really don’t enjoy them!).

So the back bed is ready for sowing radishes, salad leaves and spinach, later this week or at the weekend, then at the end of May, it’ll be home to the peppers and aubergines. We also have a potato plant and I think a stray garlic in that bed (which I’ve left to do their thing). The other bed has chard, lettuce and parsley in it we’ll get what we can out of them until the cucumbers and melons are ready to go in in a month or so.

I really had to tackle the stray raspberries coming up everywhere except their beds. I found them in the shallots, the blackcurrants, all around the blueberry plots, the herb bed, and main amongst the irises and sage.

In ‘things that should have been moved in January but weren’t’, I moved the raspberry bed to the back of the plot and gave a bunch of canes away to all takers. The plan is for another blackcurrant where the raspberries used to be. I moved the raised bed that was ‘containing’ the raspberries to next to the gooseberries, we’re going to fill that bed up and it’s where the sweet potatoes are going this year.

I’ve also moved the one of the rhubarb plants. The one in the corner of the plot by the path hasn’t been doing well, so up it came. In its place is a bbq rosemary from Urban Herbs, it’s been in the polytunnel over winter and in need of a home. To move the rhubarb involved weeding the ridiculously over grown grass at the front of the plot, the bulb bed is seriously overwhelmed with grass and as it turns out red ants! The grass in the bulb bed and under the tree is going to take more work because it’s hard to sort out what’s grass and what’s bulb leaves!

The rhubarb crown split apart so I have four little rhubarbs I’ve potted up and they can be donated to the allotment plant sale in the summer. We also set up the tables behind the polytunnel for potting and plant storage. In addition to the rhubarb, there are some leeks, three thyme plants, some chamomile (roman and lawn), lemon bergamot, lemon verbena, two lavenders (pinnata). I have a plan for most of this, I just have to execute the plan, hopefully next weekend

I also planted a vietnamese coriander in the polytunnel, and a tree spinach and chamomile in the wild area.

It was busy but I still have a ton of work to do but I feel like I might be breaking the back of it. Priorities for next week are getting some beds topped up with compost so we can plant the potatoes and sow carrots, peas, beetroot, spinach and salad (yes I’m very behind – haven’t even sown tomatoes yet!).