Six on Saturday – Feb 2nd

Having been an allotment holder for over 9 years now, I thought it was about time I started blogging about it! I spotted Six on Saturday on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, and thought that would be a good place to start.

Raspberry Patch

Ok, it’s not really the season to show the raspberry patch off in its best light, but this is an honest view of it! It needs a load of weeding, more manure, and the trellis needs a little repair. These are autumn-fruiting raspberries (they actually grow semi-wild across the base of the allotment site) so the trellis is there to deter the young deer from sitting in amongst the raspberries, rather than for the plants to grow up!

  • Woodwork isn’t my ‘thing’ but rather than buying another raised bed, I wanted to try and make my own this year. It was meant to have notches cut in the ends so it’d just slide together, but a mishap with the angle I was cutting it, meant that some of those notches grew a little too big. So at the moment, it’s waiting for a dry couple of days, then it’ll have some nails hammered in. Once that’s done, it’s just a case of getting more compost into it, then rigging up a net to try and keep the deer off the plants.
  • Last year I planted some broad bean seeds which were covered with fleece to protect them from any cold weather we might get. There’s not a particularly high success rate so far, but I have 5 or 6 plants growing.
  • Under yet more fleece, I also have some cabbage plants. The fleece over these isn’t all that great, and possibly has been eaten away by the deer again, so this week, that’ll need replacing.
  • I’ve grown strawberry plants ever year, although since they’ve been planted in a raised bed there’s been a much better success rate. These particular ones are “Just Add Cream” which has pink flowers instead of the usual white, and was a new addition to my allotment last autumn. It’ll be interesting to see how they compare to the ‘regular’ strawberry plants in the adjacent raised bed.
  • And finally, we have one mess of a tangled blackberry! This was planted two or three years ago, and has never had a support of any kind. To stop it just trailing all over the ground, this year I’m aiming on getting some kind of support rigged up for it, which will hopefully result in a more successful crop too.
  • 6 thoughts on “Six on Saturday – Feb 2nd”

      1. Thanks! I’m hoping to be a bit more adventurous with some of the things I’m growing this year…. normally I stick to the same three main things (runner beans, broad beans, and potatoes or onions)

    1. Welcome to the six on saturday! And thank you for that ‘honest’ view- glad to see I am not alone. I see that deer seem to be very much in your thoughts. It reminded me very much of myself where every garden plan has a chicken clause!

      1. Thanks 🙂
        You can always tell the new allotment plot holders – they have nothing netted, then have a mini disaster when things get nibbled! Do the chickens tend to do much damage once the plants are growing?

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