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2015 Review of the Year

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI realise that this may be a little early in the year to review the highs and lows of Maddi’s allotment but, as every gardener knows, January is a time of great optimism, so I thought I’d get it done now while I have some time on my hands…

January and February were a time for planning and preparation. Overnight rain gave way to chilly but bright days, perfect for digging over the ground and incorporating the well rotted horse manure delivered for free by a retiring farmer who was desperate to get rid of it. By the end of the month every bed was ready for the year to come with not a weed in sight. So good was the weather that seed beds were already raking to a ‘fine tilth’ and they were looking like illustrations from a RHS guide book. The over-wintering kale and purple sprouting broccoli were in full swing and daffodils, aconites and snowdrops were beginning to flower on the plot borders. I had 100% success with the tomato, chilli, sweet peppers and aubergines that I started off early in the polytunnel, with no additional heat. I was even able to supply young plants to friends who had had erratic results with their tender seedlings.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMarch and April are always the busiest on the plot. Sowing seeds, thinning, transplanting and pricking out seemed to take all my time and I rarely had a moment to hoe and pick out the annual weeds that normally compete so successfully with everything I plant. Fortunately annual weeds were not a problem this year because they didn’t seem to be able to cope with the lush growth of the vegetables I was growing and the rampant horsetail, couch grass and ground elder, which I have been fighting for years, seem finally to have been eradicated from the plot. Slugs and snails caused havoc again with my allotment neighbours this spring but I found very little sign of their presence. Normally parsnips are slow to germinate but this year they came up so quickly that I had no problem telling them apart from the occasional weed and I had no irritating gaps where seed had failed. The blossom on the apple and pear espaliers and the Victoria plum fan was spectacular and with no overnight frosts or heavy rain to spoil the display, it seemed to last for ever.

By the end of June the plot was looking a picture. I wanted the plot to look more ‘arty’ this year so I mixed the planting up (yellow tagetes amongst the cavolo nero kale, ruby chard next to spinach and Californian poppies everwhere) and used hazel sticks instead of bamboo canes for the climbing french beans, sweet peas and squash. I was approached by a BBC producer who wanted to film the plot but I didn’t want cameramen, make-up artists and other hangers-on trampling everywhere so I declined their kind offer. I am still considering their book deal…

P1010531Overnight showers meant I hardly had to spend any time watering and the warm, breezy days kept potato and tomato blight well away. The plot was alive with butterflies, bees, hoverflies and other beneficial insects and I had no bother from greenfly or blackfly. We ate salads and herbs, sprinkled with edible flowers of borage, nasturtium and day lily, every day and the strawberries were the best ever. We went away on holiday for a couple of weeks at the end of June and I came home expecting neglect to have taken its toll on the plot, but everything was fine. There was hardly a weed to be seen, none of the cloches were broken and everything was growing strongly and healthily.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIn July and August the plot came into full production. We pickled, bottled and preserved for hours on end (my, we had fun!) and still had such a surplus that were were able to supply two local restaurants and the general hospital. The rust that so badly affected the garlic, onions and leeks last year was entirely absent as were pea moth, vine weevil and carrot fly. The crops tasted better than I can ever remember and I’m tempted to take on another plot. The currant bushes that were moved last winter to the new fruit plot have not only survived but thrived, with each bush providing about 20 lbs of fruit, just like it said in the catalogue.

As the autumn arrived I expected everything to slow down but, despite the worst storms in living memory, the plot just kept going. Actually, they weren’t the worst storms in my memory because whilst the rest of the country was giving its impression of a Shakespearean blasted heath the storms missed Southern Hampshire and we suffered no more that a brief heavy shower. I must mention my pumpkin. I don’t enter my fruit and vegetables in shows because I grow them to eat, not look at, but I was flattered to be told by an allotment neighbour that my Atlantic Giant pumpkin was half as big again as the winner at the Hampshire Show and would easily have won had it been entered. I was offered £150 per seed from this mammoth fruit by a Giant Veg competitor, but they taste so good toasted that it seemed a waste to just sell them. Getting this pumpkin home caused some damage to the axle on my pick-up but it was worth it to see the looks on the faces of the little ones after it was carved for Halloween.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANovember and December saw temperatures fall and the first frosts of the winter (all the better to kill off those unwanted pests). The dry weather meant I could clear the beds as the crops subsided and I now have three enormous compost heaps, which will make me self-sufficient in compost next year. The day after I took down the netting from the fruit cage roof we had a heavy snowfall (that was lucky!) and I was able to spend some time with my feet up in front of the fire sampling my home-made rhubarb wine and planning for next year, which will be even better than this.

In my dreams…



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