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Wellington Fields Allotments - Hixon.

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Wellington Field Allotments Hixon

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By Mrs FM
Hartley.

Unusual & Old
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Alan J Hartley

Some Odd Weather.

We normally have our Spring Plant Sale at the start of May with the intention of being able to sell various types of Bean Plants, Sweet Corn, Courgettes, Squashes, Tomato and Cucumber plants that should all be ready for sale by then. Going into May normally means the end of Frosts and cold nights thus making it a good time to plant all of these things in earnest. If we had it earlier, in April, we would be restricted to basically Brassicas and Root Crops with most of the Garden Plants not being ready either as they would not have woken up properly and they would still be pretty dormant from the Winter. However, the start of this Season has been very erratic with some quite cold Days instead of cold nights and an awful lot of wet weather which has put plant growth all over the place. Even though our Sale was a week, or two later than normal, being held in the Middle of May, a lot of things were not really ready. Perhaps it was my fault for not preparing better and getting my sowing dates right, but it seemed to creep up on me unexpectedly. As the day got nearer, we did suddenly have some warmer and sunnier days and nights that were not so cold and you could almost see some of the Plants growing daily. My Asparagus seed definitely went in late and seemed to take forever to come up, but then suddenly I had a Trayful of green, whispy shoots. Several people had some of these before the Sale though, while they were still very small, and we did sell a few more on the Day as well so it wasn’t too bad. I had hoped to take a number of Cannas to the Sale and although they were shooting, they were not as advanced as usual and I had to leave most of them at home. However, after dividing and re-potting they did come on quickly and I was able to take a few more to another Fundraiser that someone else held a couple of Weeks later.

All through Winter and early Spring, My Yacon Crowns that I had divided up and potted individually, looked pretty dead, but they too burst into life and I ended up with nearly every one Shooting.
One thing that really was a failure was all my Trays of Beans and Sweet Corn. What I did wrong I don’t know as I have never known anything like it before. I can only think that Mice were to blame as there was barely a shoot in any of the Trays.
Before the Sale, as usual, there was a little apprehension about it’s prospective success, perhaps more so than normal because the Plants hadn’t looked good on the Allotment beforehand after the wet Winter and there were a lot of other village events happening at around the same time which we thought might also affect our Sale by putting a dampener on events. However, it went spectacularly well with the Weather being kind to us and giving us a glorious day and everybody helped to get things organised. We had more Plants donated than we have in previous years which helped boost our takings, but we weren’t prepared for the grand total which was approaching twice as much as the best we had ever had before. Although we got things ready well before our allotted time, customers started buying things while we were still setting up. For about 2 hours it was non-stop and then it seemed to be all over. We did put up the price of the Plants a bit, but it didn’t seem to make a difference to the Sales and when People knew that it was a fundraiser, not for the Allotments, but for the new Community First Responders Project, people were adding a little extra in cash donations for the Cause. We did have quite a bit left as usual, but most of the flowering plants, or Garden Plants, that remained, went to another fundraiser who was having his Sale a week, or two later. The rest of the Vegetable plants went up to the Allotments with an Honesty Box as we have done in previous years.
With the May Sale firmly out of the way it is now time to start thinking about our Autumn Tree and Garden Plants Sale that we have held for the last few years. Actually, with the May Sale being a bit later than normal and with the odd weather, a few of the Trees which are not normally in full leaf by then, had been in full leaf on the day of the Sale so I did take a few with me and they sold very well. There should still be plenty for when the big day comes in Autumn though.

With the odd weather I was late taking the Bubble Polythene down in my Greenhouse, but after clearing out all of the Courgettes and stuff, I took the opportunity to have a good re-organisation. As soon as the Bubble came down though, with the sunnier days, I also needed to paint some whitening on the Glass to keep the Greenhouse cool. There was now plenty of room in there to remove the Staging and put my Tomato Plants in big pots with strings up as well. There was a mess everywhere, but I soon cleared everything up and started potting up various rooted cuttings and Seedlings that I intended to grow on for the Autumn. These included the Curry Plant, Variegated Cornus, 3 types of different Oxallis, (also different to the edible one in my Plot,) a lovely variegated Mint, some Black Currant cuttings and a few Honey Berry plants taken from suckers off roots that had been left in from when I removed them last Autumn to make room to plant some Blue Berry Bushes instead.
One of the Seeds that I was particularly chuffed to germinate were from my Brother John’s Wisteria plant that he has at the bottom of his Garden. He was quite pleased with himself for collecting the Seeds, so I was relieved when they came up so well. There were only a few, but they are looking good now, although it will probably be some 10 years or more before they flower!

Anyway, back to my Plot. Because of the Plant Sale I was late getting many things in as half of my Plot had been covered up with Membrane which in turn was covered in scores of Pots of Plants for the sale. It was only after they had all gone that I could remove the Covers and think about Planting. One thing in my favour was that with the Beds being covered for so long there were virtually no weeds to deal with and indeed I didn’t even really need to dig most of the area. As my Runner and Borlotti Beans hadn’t germinated I sowed more directly in the ground by the Canes. Normally I start them off in my Greenhouse at Home because of the risk of Mice eating them, but I thought they might not strike twice and I might get lucky! Now the Soil has warmed up a bit they should germinate quite quickly so I am hoping the Mice don’t have time to find them! I did have some poor Trays, where one, or two Plants of Dwarf Franch Beans had come up, so I had those ready to Plant. My Chrysanthemums, Onions, Broad Beans, Turnips and Parsnips were already in elsewhere, but I also put in a number of Yacon Plants, Courgettes, Outdoor Cucumber and Squash that were ready to go out by then. Actually, I planted my Squash, Courgettes and Cucumbers in spaces that I had left in the Bed of Broad Beans. Instead of planting the whole bed densely I had left gaps so that I could plant my Squashes, etc where they could grow on a bit until the Beans came out and then they would have the whole bed to themselves. The Broad Beans should be all out by about late July allowing the others to spread. If I had left the planting until the Broad Beans had come out, they wouldn’t have had much time to grow. When I eventually get round to removing some very big and old Chard plants that are going to seed, I will plant my Leeks that I have been holding back. Most Leeks need a long growing Season, but they have sort of had that with an early start in Trays. I have also planted out my little collection of new and Unusual Vegetables, that were ready to go in, in one of my Small and useless Strawberry Beds which I had cleared of old Plants.

The main job now will be to stay on top of the Weeding as everything is romping away with the better growing weather. The Weeds especially like the constant wet, but it can make getting jobs done difficult because you have got to have the flexibility to be able to go up to the Allotments whenever there is a fine morning, or afternoon. Plot-holders who can only get up to their Allotment on a Weekend must be finding things very difficult as a wet weekend means they can’t get anything done for another week after which they are almost back to square one with the Weeding.
For a short while it looked as though we were going to get some dry Weather at the start of June, but we will see if that continues. If we do, Hoeing is a very good way to stay on top of the Weeds as long as you do it regularly and don’t let them get too big.
I did get round to weeding my Chrysanthemums, but they still look a bit sad and I am wondering if it is because I put them out too early, although all the wet might have had something to do with it because they don’t like it too wet.
I must get on top of the weeding generally as I have been a bit distracted with the plants for the Sale and also helping another lady plot Holder who has health issues. Helping others on the Allotments is really part of Allotment Culture though and I am pleased to do it. It has cost her a bit though as I have been twisting her arm to buy Plants that were in the Sale in exchange for my help!
With regards to Weeding, the years of putting Mulch round my Fruit Bushes is starting to pay off, I think. It has not stopped the Grass and Weeds from growing, but they are rooting into the soft and loose surface material making them easy to pull out instead of having to dig into hard packed soil.
My Compost Heap is filling up nicely with all of the weeding and I turn it occasionally to help speed up the action so hopefully it won’t be long before I can start digging some of it out to use as a Mulch before it gets too hot and dry if we are going to have a real Summer!