November on the Allotment

Leaf kicking season is here and calmer weather has finally arrived, I haven’t managed to get much done on the allotment for a number of weeks due to constant heavy rain and wild winds but the past few days have been very chilly but beautiful. The first frost of autumn twinkled in the morning sun on Wednesday, a reminder of all that I love about crisp autumnal days.

The weather may have calmed but the pandemic situation sadly has not, England is in lockdown again due to rising cases of Coronavirus. This second lockdown came into force on the 5th of November and is due to be lifted by the 2nd of December, but that depends greatly on how things pan out between now and then. Plot holders are allowed to go to their allotments with strict social distancing in place, which is possible on allotment sites. Yet again I am so glad I have my allotment to visit to forget my woes.

I spent some time at the allotment today and my OH came along to give me a hand, I had a minor operation on my back yesterday which required stitches so I couldn’t do certain things. I got on with tidying summer stuff away such as netting and hoops etc, removing frosted runner bean plants from the bean poles for the compost bins and planting daffodil bulbs in containers.

Mulching beds was a job for my OH, I watched on in envy because I really enjoy doing it! Spreading a good layer of homemade compost on the beds as a mulch protects and nourishes the soil which is so important for growing good crops, I firmly believe good harvests follow good soil health.

Before the mulch went on, the soil was lightly raked to knock small weed seedlings, larger ones were pulled by hand.

The mulch will sit on top of the soil waiting for worms and other soil life to gradually do the digging for me, it should keep weeds down to a minimum by smothering them and any that do make it through are easily pulled out.

The bean poles still have to come down and fruit bushes dug up and moved over to my new allotment, but that will be for another day, probably when my stitches are out!

Stay safe everyone x