Nic Dempsey

So I had a list 2 weeks ago and this is where we are with it.

• weed the paths
• cut the grass
• weed the top of the plot
• weed the beds
• pot up the verbena
• half the old broad bean bed
• plant out and net the kale
• change the netting on the cauliflower bed
• sort out the second squash bed and plant out the squash
• thin out the beetroot
• stake the third tomato bed
• plant up the new blueberry plants

As ever it’s the weeding that’s a problem. I am feeling a tiny bit more in control of the plot but I really need to cut the grass!

I’ve also made other progress, behold the pond area!

I took up two of the pots of potatoes and used the compost to mulch the area around the pond. I’ve also planted up a lemon thyme (I need to find a place for the other thyme plant bought at the same time), some campanula and a white borage (I did a swap with my plot neighbour, a white for a purple). It’s not exactly as I imagined but I’m happy enough with it and it’s actually come together for less than £45 (including the price of the pond!). The red flowers, came from another allotment friend, and the pond weed from a different friend, the aramanth just grew, the lavender and verbena were re-located from other areas of the plot, as were all the roses.

Ma got a letter from the crem where my grandparents ‘rosebush and plaque’ are saying that if we can’t get up to water the rosebush then there’s very little point in paying to keep it there. So we’re going to relocate the plaque to my rose garden and plant some more irises there. My grandma’s dad was a gardener, so I think she would appreciate the plot, and I like to think of my grandad on the plot, probably tutting at the weeds!

Which means that the only things I have to do on this area is fence it in and plant irises. Although I will also want to give it a really good mulch again as I did that in spring but didn’t have quite enough compost!

In other news, the kale has been planted out and I sorted out the other squash bed. Neither of them are quite what I wanted to do but perfect is the enemy of good and the plants that went into this bed (a mixture of winter and summer squash) were not in the best of health. I’ve put them in and we’ll see what happens. I do need to build a bigger cage for the kale and I’m going to try and get to that tomorrow.

The cauliflower bed got weeded and got a cage, it took ages to put together because I was determined to use the netting that we had and I basically had to thread three pieces of the stuff together. I really need to find a better solution to plastic netting but for now, I’m going to just reuse it as much as I can!

Other work on the plot, I weeded round the gooseberries, and dug up the daffodils and tulips, they need to be replanted into the flowerbed at the front of the plot. I’m planning on putting all of the spring bulbs there and then when they die back the self seeded flowers can do their thing, there will of course be californian poppies, (their already in the bed, but I’ll also scatter some afgan poppy seeds there and maybe re-plant some of the self seeded calendula there, so spring bulbs and then wild (ish) flowers.

I now have 5 blueberry plants that need planting into buckets so I’m in desperate need of some ericaceous compost. For any of you still counting that makes 11 blueberry bushes in total and I’ve promised that I’ll stop at 12. The 5 new ones won’t start to really produce for a couple of years, but my three oldest plants are really producing this year so I’m hopeful that by the time I hit 50, I’ll be self sufficient in blueberries. I’ve been feeding them (and the roses) with an ericaceous feed, which does seem to have helped as I don’t have enough rainwater (what with there being hardly any rain!)

I pulled up all the mangetout last week and am about to sow florence fennel in that bed, and I potted up quite a bit of the verbena bonariesis that had sown itself in the broad bean bed. I’m going to halve that bed to give me a path and then sow pak choi in it. I also pulled up the radishes and salad in one of the beds, I’m going to pot up the self seeded calendula and then sow some more beetroot for mum and salad for me in there.

So jobs for the next couple of weeks:

• cut the grass on the paths and at the back of the plot
• pot up the calendula, replant some of it in the flower bed under the plum tree
• put up a bigger cage for the kale
• pot up the blueberries
• cut back the mint and the lemon balm
• weed the paths (again)
• plant up the bulbs in front bed
• find a location for and plant the thyme plant
• halve the old broad bean bed
• ‘fence’ in the pond area
• deadhead the roses
• sow florence fennel
• sow more beetroot
• sow salad leave
• sow pak choi
• keep everything watered and fed!