Giving the small allotment the once over

Not that it takes long to look over our small allotment which lies over the fence at the bottom of the garden. It’s very handy if I want to pick up veg at short notice. Also useful for keeping an eye on French beans, courgettes etc when they are ready for picking and for salad crops.

It has two compost heaps made out of wooden posts and chicken wire lined with cardboard. One has recently been emptied onto the allotment. The other has been “turned” by transferring part of the contents into the emptied one. We’ll gradually add new garden/household waste and some from the second heap. Gradually old and part composted waste is mixed in layers. Once this one gets full I’ll cover it with cardboard and tuck it up for the rest of the year. I find this system works well. The heap usually contains slow worms which are carefully moved along with the contents. I once counted 17 of them a couple of years ago.

The leeks are doing well, some here and some in our other “big” allotment which is about 3 minutes walk away. Handy?…yes indeedy. We grew three sorts Bandit, Colossal and Monstruoso de Carentan. That way we have a longer season. Note the garlic sprouting in front. We have planted over 60 cloves on the big allotment and a few here. I hope they do well as we use a lot of garlic in cooking. Generally we use generic garlic from the local green grocers but this year we are trying a named seed variety Solent Wight.

I’ve also got some chicory overwintering under cloches. They last very well as long as they have protection from wet weather. I try to overwinter lettuce as well but that never works for me. The plants simply fade away and those that survive, like the one in the first cloche below are too damaged to be of much use.