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Poor Growing Weather.

Generally, I think it is true to say that most Plots seem a bit more untidy than usual. Normally, when you look around our Site you can see a few untidy patches here and there, but this year there seems to be a sea of weeds everywhere. I think a lot of people have struggled to find suitable times when they could go up to their plots to get things done. Also, it was so miserable at the start of the season with a lot of wet and then it was just cold all the time with some nights that were definitely cooler than they should have been so things couldn’t be planted. Indeed according to the Weathermen it has been the coldest Summer for some 15 years I think they said. More recently we have had a prolonged dry spell without much rain. This has meant that with the combination of all of the types of poor weather, a lot of things have struggled to grow. Indeed, some people don’t seem to have really grown anything much at all. We have had more vacant plots this year than usual which has not helped either. Unlike most Allotments we don’t normally have much of a waiting list of people wanting plots, but empty plots do still usually get snapped up quite quickly, unless they are in a bad state. However, this year we have several vacant Plots and we are struggling to fill them. We have covered a couple of the worst ones with some large Tarpaulins to try to prevent the weed seeds from spreading too much onto those plots where Plot-holders are working their plots. Abandoned Plots can also have the problem of overgrown trees on them that quickly get out of hand shading out other Plots and then they can cause a real problem. Nobody wants to deal with them because they need such an effort to remove them, so they are often left and they just get worse. We have one such Tree on a Plot halfway up our Site, but these days, dealing with Trees is something that I am getting used to at the Centre where I do my Voluntary Work, so, I have offered to cut it down and hopefully, even dig it out. I have also just cut down an overgrown Apple Tree on a Friends Plot that she wanted rid of. The Plan is to shred what I can of both of them and then make use of the shreddings on my Paths.

Our Plots are laid out in blocks of 4 that have a stone chip path dividing them from the next block and for some time now I have had 3 Plots out of a block of 4 with the 4rth one more recently being left very untidy. This summer it became totally abandoned and I managed to twist the Committee’s arms to let me have it temporarily to stand the Plants on for the upcoming Plant Sale as they were taking up so much room everywhere. I could hardly move on my Plots as they were all down the Paths and it wasn’t much better at Home on both of my Yards. However, at the moment, they have only decided to let me have the Plot on a temporary basis, but first I had to tidy it up before I could even cover it with Membrane.
I have been working on my own Compost Heap recently and had turned out the mature bin full onto 2 of my beds carefully spreading it around the plants. We hadn’t had any rain for some time before I did it though, so, I had to water the Beds thoroughly first as you should not put a Mulch onto dry soil because it will prevent any rain from getting to the soil underneath unless it really pours down. This gave me two empty Compost Bins that I could put lots of waste material in, so I did start dead heading and cutting back some of the early flowering Perennials in my Garden at Home. Things like Senecio, Shasta Daisy and Lysimachia had the chop and went into it along with some prunings from shrubs like Broom, Senecio and Weigela that had all flowered earlier as well.

However, there was plenty of room for a lot more rubbish, so, when I had to clear the Vacant plot next to mine, I was able to just dump it all in there. Fortunately, most of the weeds on the Plot were Annuals and they pulled out easily, but some were Dandelions and Thistles that had to be dealt with differently. There were great armfuls of weeds that came off the Plot and I filled up my, more or less empty, Compost Bin. Indeed, I almost completely filled one side just with the rubbish that came from the abandoned Plot.
I piled up all of the bits of wood, old tyres and other debris in one corner before I tackled the Weeds and then managed to find a home for pretty much all of it with other Plot Holders who could make use of it. There were some bits that had to go in the Bin – things like broken Plant Pots and some broken Trellis that had gone brittle over time, but the rest of it was recycled on site.

Next, I levelled out the soil a bit before covering it with odd pieces of Plastic Sheeting and Membrane that I had got tucked away in my Shed. I knew that water would drain through the Membrane, but I had to pierce the Plastic otherwise the Plants that I was to stand on it would be standing in pools of water whenever it rained. After the Sale the plan was that the left over plants would then be kept there until the next Sale in the Spring by which time the Plot should be practically Weed Free from the effects of the Membrane and Plastic Sheeting blocking out the Light. I have wanted that Plot for my own for a long time and haven’t been able to have it for one reason or another, but now I am hopeful the Committee will allow me to keep it permanently in the New Year. That will be one less Plot that keeps changing hands!
The problem that we have with our site really is that we seem to have quite a turnaround of Plot Holders each year. What we want is more keen gardeners who are going to keep their Plots for the Long Haul and not just give them up after a year or two of half-hearted gardening. Having said that I think that it is only fair to say that a lot of people have had a lot of problems this year with things like Health, Work, relationships and Family and Friends generally. It is unfortunate for us, but true nonetheless, that when people face difficulties in life the last thing that they think about is keeping their Allotment tidy. Having said that, it has now become widely acknowledged that Gardening is therapeutic when you have problems, so perhaps people should be more enthusiastic about their plots when they have problems and not less.
Where Plot Holders have planted things, some of the Vegetables have not grown so well, but the Vines and Trees seem to have done particularly well with them liking the cooler and wetter weather. Plot Holders have done better with the later planted things though - things like Beans and Courgettes, especially where they have been watering them. Earlier plantings of Vegetables that have been grown under some sort of Fleece, as people often do with Brassicas to keep the Pests off them, have done alright as well. I’ll have to see how my Grapes do as they did put on plenty of foliage earlier, but now it has gone a bit cooler again, the Grapes may not develop properly and may get mould, or mildew. My Raspberries and Blackberries, which both like it a bit cooler, have also done very well with lots of big, ripe and juicy Berries. My Gooseberries were a complete failure though, because they all disappeared just as they were starting to ripen. The Logan Berries were OK, but not as good as last year and my Apples, Pears and Quinces are looking good.
Indeed, the first of my Apples have been picked from the earliest fruiting tree. That particular variety is a soft Eater and doesn’t keep well, so I have already eaten them all! The Apples from some of my other trees are developing nicely, but will be a week, or two before they ripen properly. However, quite a lot are falling, but unfortunately most are still too small to make use of even in Crumbles. I have been Picking Figs quite regularly from one tree in particular for a few weeks now, although they aren’t normally ready until the beginning of September. My Dwarf French Beans went in very late, but I think that all of the Bed preparation that I did by digging in a lot of compost before the season started really paid off this year as they have done quite well compared to other Peoples. My Runners were very late starting and went in the same Bed but here again they are picking very well now. One poor soul had some lovely Bean Plants growing as she had been watering them religiously, but the canes were blown down by the unseasonal wind that came from a different direction to the normal prevailing winds. The wind on our site usually comes from the right or left (east or west,) but this time it was a strong wind from the south. It was a warm and welcome wind, but the Canes were not braced for strong wind from that direction! Elsewhere, I have not had so many Tomatoes in my Greenhouse as they have not done very well either. This year is definitely one of those years when it has really paid to follow the old adage and, “Grow a wide variety of things, because you never know what is going to do well in any year!”

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