(Almost) spring on the allotment

I'd be enjoying this run of warm, sunny weather much more if it was, say, early May than February, but it's certainly been nice to get down to the allotment more than usual at this time of year. While it's a bit unsettling to get sunburned in the north of England in what is technically still winter, we've at least managed to get a head start on our spring jobs.

We've had quite a hectic social calendar over the last few weekends but have spent a few hours each week at the plot whenever possible. Last weekend, our progress included:

• Digging over and covering four beds
• Cutting back several smaller fruit trees
• Digging up a very old redcurrant bush
• Extending our woodchip and paving stone path
• Marking out new beds

But perhaps the thing I'm most excited about is the fact that we finally tackled The Mound. When we took on our plot, the ground was incredibly uneven. We've made good progress at levelling it out over the past year, but a huge mound near the entrance remained untouched. Well, we finally decided to tackle The Mound last weekend. It's hard to see in photos how big it was, but I estimate it at around 4 feet high, 5 feet wide and 12 feet long. The Mound was covered in about 6 layers of plastic and weed membrane, some of which had started to disintegrate. It probably took longer to remove these layers than to do anything else as there were so many plants and roots growing through the various layers, some many feet long.

Before we started tackling The Mound...

...and after!

Once we had removed the bulk of the coverings, we started digging. What we found was a mixture of soil, bricks, rubbish, large shards of glass and lots and lots of stones. It took several hours to get there, but the area is almost levelled out now, which we are delighted about! Now just the several visits to the tip to get rid of all the rubbish and broken glass!

The bricks we found will be put into use elsewhere on the plot, while the soil was used to fill in some of the other uneven patches of ground.

Love a productive Saturday

This weekend's plans include digging over more beds, trying to get hold of a ladder to prune the huge cherry tree, burning as much waste as possible and building some more raised beds. Let's hope it's a dry one! In other news, I planted some crocus bulbs before winter and had completely forgotten about them so was pleasantly surprised when they started appearing recently. So nice to have some colour at this time of year!

Crocuses adding some colour

Cheap, simple allotment paths

We finally got round to starting to lay some paths last week, and it makes arriving at the plot so much more pleasant! After much uhming and aahing, we decided to go for wood/bark chip paths on the allotment. We have such a terrible problem with marestail that we needed paths that consisted of several layers to try and stop anything getting through. Our heavy-duty weed membrane has proven to be no match for the ever-tough marestail, and the nasty green spears were popping up all over the covered parts of our plot all summer and spring.

We certainly didn't want to spend too much cash putting down allotment paths, so tried to keep it cheap and simple. The photos below show the beginnings of the main path down the side of the plot last week. We've done a fair bit more since these pictures but forgot to take photos at the weekend. 

First, we cleared as many of the weeds as possible. Some parts of the plot have been covered with thick weed membrane since last summer, and we've been pulling up the marestail as it pokes through wherever possible, so some of the path areas weren't too bad. Next, we laid down a couple of layers of thick cardboard, hoping this would provide another barrier against the weeds. It will also rot down over time into the soil. On top of the cardboard we added heavy-duty weed membrane, which we pegged down on either side at intervals of about one metre. Next, we heaped on mounds of wood chippings and bark chippings. We got a lot of chippings free as the council had recently delivered a truckload to the allotment. We also bought some very cheap chippings from Asda, Home Bargains and Wilko, and will continue to snap up any we see on offer in the end of season sales! We'll obviously need a huge amount to cover all our planned allotment paths, but we're not in any huge rush so will continue to grab the free council chippings whenever they're delivered.

Finally, we have started laying paving slabs on top of the chippings. We've got a fair few slabs scattered around the plot and thought we'd try them out for this purpose. 

We've had very limited time down at the plot this summer as we both work full-time and this year has been horribly stressful due to family illnesses, bereavements and a number of other things that have taken up all our weekends and energy. It's so nice to see small signs of progress on the allotment though, and we're excited to get some more paths finished over the autumn!

I'm looking forward to seeing how the paths fare against the marestail next spring - fingers crossed it can keep the stuff under control!

Dismantling the broken greenhouse...after we find it

When we took on our allotment 22, there was a smashed greenhouse at one end, near the entrance. We made a brief attempt to clear it last year but we had so many other tasks to do that this one kind of fell by the wayside. We finally set aside a whole day to work on this area last week and managed to not only dismantle the metal frame and clear up lots of smashed glass, but also unearth a pretty sturdy looking brick base.

The marestail (OBVIOUSLY) had taken over the whole area, along with long grasses, brambles and bindweed. For want of a more refined technique, we simply hacked away at the weeds with a pair of garden shears. This at least allowed us to see bits of the greenhouse frame poking out from the greenery. We worked section by section, trying to take apart the frame as we came across new parts. The metal was pretty twisted in places and a lot of the bolts and screws were no longer usable so we ended up pulling most of it apart rather than using any tools.

There's a greenhouse under there somewhere...

It took most of the day to clear the greenhouse and part of the surrounding area but it's made a huge difference. Now when you're working on the plot, you can look up and see other plots and people walking by rather than just a 5-foot high wall of marestail!

Partway through

Unearthing parts of the greenhouse frame...

...and lots of old gloves, trays and rusty tools

We have a greenhouse base!

We've managed to get up most of the glass and that will be heading to the tip. As for the frame, we're going to keep hold of that until there's another scrap metal collection on the site. 

This weekend will involve clearing more of the land around allotment 22 and possibly even laying our first section of path! We're planning on using heavy duty weed membrane with woodchip on top. Handily, the council have just dumped a pile of woodchip inside the site entrance so we're hoping there's still lots there tomorrow. The problem with working full-time when half of the other plotholders are retired is that they're there every day in the week so we miss out on things like free woodchip as it's all gone by the time we get there!