Starting from the top

I went down to the allotment today, in the C5 (Hurrah! Finally got it back). I’ve only got a couple of pretty duff batteries so I can do one trip per battery (I should be able to go there and back on one really). Anyway it was great fun to get down there in an ecological manner (let’s just forget about the fact that I’m charging it from home using fossil fuels shall we! I’ll get to that a little later)

Anyway, I’ve decided to start from the top on the allotment (physically as well as metaphorically). A few weeks ago I finally planted out the fruit trees that I purchased from Lidl’s for a bargain £3 each. There’s a Jonagold, Cox’s Orange Pippin, Stella Cherry and Pear (I can’t remember the variety at the moment, it’s labelled so I’ll sort that out later!). Whilst planting these I also set about starting to mark the border with some very make-shift low fencing made from old pallets (they are a swine to take apart without ripping the wood though!!). This isn’t being done to define where my boundary is in a territorial manner but for me to be able to see where it is so I can ascertain just how much I’ve got to do. I need to be able to see boundaries so that I can plan just how much more I’ve got to do! I am also planning on losing the slope that my allotment has. At the moment the bottom edge of my plot is probably 2 or 3 feet below the top edge and, as a result of that, the rain causes most of my nutrients to end up on other people’s plots and leaves me with a VERY sandy loam.

Lidl , starting Saturday the 7th, have got fruit bushes for the bargain price of £1.45! They have Blueberry, Gooseberry, Redcurrant, Raspberry, Blackcurrant and Blackberry. Well I’m up for a bit of all of that action (excluding Blackberries which are more than prevalent enough behind my plot). I’ve started preparing an area at the top-left corner of my plot for some of the fruit bushes – probably some raspberry canes. I found some interesting square metal poles which have holes in at just the right height for cane support, just need to add wire and we should be good to go. I think that the area to the right of this, where currently there are some very sorry looking gooseberry bushes which were strangled out of existence by nettles, weed and bramble and are now dead will be a good place for the rest of the berry bushes – probably in a nice square formation.

I can work on the top area because the height is already correct. The lower edge of the allotment will require some retaining walls built out of old pallets, lots of nails and some more of the handy metal poles. I can then work on backfilling this area with organic matter and soil. Ultimately I plan on covering almost the entire plot in around 1 or 2 feet of manure (where the slope dictates) and leaving it covered in black plastic for around a year – in the meantime I’ll continue growing goods at home. The fruit bushes and trees should be quite happy up the top with just a light mulch (I hope)