Adventures in the life of an English allotment
Day two of Storm Christof and the entire allotment site is under several inches of water. There are several plots severely flooded and inevitably, ours is one of them! The last few wet weeks combined with an already high water table has meant the current downpours has flooded vast swathes of the allotment site I... Continue Reading →
Late morning, I ambled down to the allotment to feed the chickens. Happily, the weather was dry and there even was a hint of sunshine. Upon arrival, I found Phil in the Clubhouse. It turns out Steve has done a big clear out of the clubhouse, taking out the chairs and carpet. I walked across... Continue Reading →
Today, despite the rain, something very exciting happened. I put Pop out into the tree pot and left her for a few minutes to enjoy the greenery and a fresh chunk of courgette. Leia had laid another egg and assessed my every move as I cleaned out the bedding. When I finished, I checked on... Continue Reading →
Yesterday and today's rain has left the plot flooded yet again. The fruit trees, willow and bark path have worked well up to a point but there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop the water table rising to the surface! I didn't realise how high the water table was until I walked onto... Continue Reading →
When I arrived on site today, I found Sarah and Cliff hard at work digging an enormous hole for the new pond. Cliff had spotted a perfect container on another plot and the plot holder was happy to donate it. This saved huge amounts of time and effort as we didn't have to buy pond... Continue Reading →
It was a long day yesterday and I barely had time to stop let alone complete the blog. So here it is, very late! I walked down early to make a start. The greenhouse and the shed needed cleaning and tidying, weeding and general sorting amongst other jobs. It was going to be a busy... Continue Reading →
Where oh where has the sunshine gone? Judging from how wet and rainy June and July have been I suspect we have had our "summer" in May. Today was overcast and I walked down to the allotment to check on Pop and to go a few jobs. When I got into the greenhouse, Pop looked... Continue Reading →
Despite the south of England enjoying a mini heatwave, up here we have reverted to the age old relentless rain. This meant that I couldn't use the mushroom dowels or clean out the chickens. Tracy was down and we spent a while checking the loofa plants in the greenhouse. It continues to grow at a... Continue Reading →
I had decided that today was the day I was going to build the vertical garden using pallets, weed fabric and compost. As I opened up the curtains this morning, I was greeted with overcast skies and rain. Great. Plan suspended until the rain stops. Despite the rain, the chickens needed feeding so my husband... Continue Reading →
So today was another one of those memorable and eventful days at the allotment. As with these days, things started off quietly. I went down to feed the chickens in the main coop, collected four eggs and sorted out their food (tons left) and water (also tons due to the intermittent torrential downpours). I spent... Continue Reading →
This evening's plans lay in tatters as another storm rolled over our house. The thunder was rather spectacular, reverberating tones sustained for several seconds before dying away. Prior to leaving home, we made sure the cats were inside. Like fireworks, loud noises and our furballs are not compatible. It was raining when we left but... Continue Reading →
Today I ambled down to the allotment armed with 8 beautiful salmonberry plants. A fellow allotmenter was selling them - they are rather like raspberries and grow best in pots. Upon my arrival, I found Tracy and gave her a couple as well as a handful of tiger nut seeds. Its quite late to plant... Continue Reading →
I dashed down to the allotment in the rain this morning. I don't know how the weather instinctively knows when I am stepping out the door but it always saves the heaviest rain for me walking to the allotment. By the time I arrived, I was fairly soaked. I stopped to have a chat with... Continue Reading →
After spending the entire morning waiting in for a delivery, I got down to the allotment late. There weren't many people down, just Geoff and a few others briefly checking on chickens. My first job was to put in the pond pump. The instructions made it seem absurdly easy. Put it together, put it in... Continue Reading →
As Britain is hit by yet another storm, the allotment lies half flooded with the other half saturated. Any additional rainfall will surely put our plot entirely under water yet again. Forecast is for a month's worth of rain over the next few days - I am seriously considering opening my plot as a boating... Continue Reading →
Last week I finally got around to sorting out Georgie. She is one of our rescue ex-commercial layers who has developed a weird growth on the sides of her beak. Cliff had a good look and recognised it as an overgrowth. Apparently it can happen quite often but I haven't had any chickens with it... Continue Reading →
Work has been crazy the last few weeks and I have barely made it down to the allotment, let alone had time to post an update. Now however, this shall be rectified! Over the past few weeks the weather has been horrendous, repeated deluges, high winds and cold snaps so it has been difficult to... Continue Reading →
Over the last couple of weeks the deluge has continued. I have given up hoping the plot will be dry enough to dig over before Christmas. I suspect I will now have to wait until the spring as the next torrent of water is due to arrive shortly. Today we bought six bags of landscaping... Continue Reading →
Yesterday, I walked down to the allotment in the sunshine. Thankfully the rain had stopped and I wandered down to the main coop to find all the chickens sunbathing. I fed them and went back to the top of the plot to open up the greenhouse. Emily and her chicks were hungry and made good... Continue Reading →
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