December allotment tasks

If like us, you’re struggling with allotment motivation in this bad weather, it’s worth thinking about all the good things that next year will bring you if you put in the effort now. This is what our neighbours have on their allotment ‘to do’ lists:

Winter pruning apple and pear trees to remove diseased wood and improve the shape – especially to try and get trees down to a reasonable height, because one of the major problems with allotment trees is that if the previous plot holder didn’t stay on top of pruning, you inherit something you can only harvest with a thirty foot ladder! It really should be a sacred trust to keep trees in trim, because it’s so hard to get them back down to picking size once they get out of hand.

Digging in manure where the brassica bed will be next year, and turning the compost in bins or heaps, to let in a bit of air which will speed up the decomposition process through the winter months when the normally active bacteria become dormant in the cold.

General weeding – especially along paths and around fruit bushes and trees, and general maintenance like checking roofs for leaks, gutters for blockages and compost bins for seeping or rotten areas if they are wooden.

Lots of plot holders are using this damp and miserable weather to highlight the areas of their plot that are holding water, and as soon as the rain stops and the frosts begin they will dig in sand and compost to help with drainage – the frosts will help break up the soil and add air to it, which encourages water to drain and gives added fertility.

Labels: allotment-compost, allotment-crops, allotment-december, allotment-fruit, allotment-tasks

This week's chore

I spoke to my father last night. His allotment is in Torquay, so their weather is definitely more clement, most of the year, than ours, but we’re still undertaking the same task – ye good olde mucke spreading.

It’s the perfect time of year to get compost or well aged manure onto your plot; the frosts will give it a good chance to break down over the winter if there’s anything that still needs to break down, it acts as a mulch around anything that needs protecting from the cold snaps, and it’s easier by far to spread goodness now, than wait until spring and have to work round all the plants that are already coming up.

It is back-breaking work though. Barrowload after barrowload to be wheeled around the site, tipped out, forked over the surface, and then back for another barrowload. One of my neighbours seems to have the right idea – more barrows!

But there’s also something very satisfying about knowing that what you do now will earn you dividends over the year ahead – all that rich food that will penetrate the soil, giving nutrients to the plants, and breaking up the soil surface to make it easier to work and better at holding water, it does make the task worthwhile.

Labels: allotment-compost, allotment-manure, allotment-winter-tasks

Salford lead the way in recycling ... their own waste products!

Salfords's allotmenteers are an imaginative bunch. The plot holders at Tindall Street allotments, in Peel Green, are hoping displays will come up smelling of roses after their own 'manure' is spread on their flowers.

Dan Griffiths, site manager, said, "We are very proud to have this toilet - we think it’s the first of it’s kind in Salford and will help us plough back manure into our plots. We won’t be using it on our fruit and vegetables - just on the flowers."

The toilet unit, bought with a £6,000 Lottery grant, has two internal boxes. After availing him or herself of the facilities, the user puts a handful of sawdust-type material inside the toilet bowl to encourage composting. After a year, the compost will be ready to be used on the allotments.

When that happens, the gardeners will transfer their attentions to the other box and the whole process starts all over again.

Labels: allotment-compost, allotment-facilities, allotment-toilets