Cooking,  Growing

5 allotment tasks for the Christmas holiday

December 26, 2020 /

Do you have a few days annual leave between Christmas and New Year and fancy spending a few hours at the plot? For us, autumn and winter are very important preparation times. In an ideal world if you have a tidy, and planned out, plot going into spring it makes a #kitchengarden much easier to manage!

Since the end of September we have put up a #polytunnel and completely rearranged that half plot (2b) including moving nearly all the fruit and rebuilding the large composting bay. There is still some work to do: putting up a fruit cage and finishing laying the paths. We also have some finishing touches that need to be added to the #summerhouse and 2 large #coldframes that need lids building!

Those bigger jobs will keep us busy through Jan to March! Over this week we have some smaller jobs planned:

1. Onions: The overwintering onions could do with potting up and we will be sowing more onions from seed including the maincrop onions and some ‘giant’ onions.

2. Chillies. These will be sown at home in a heated propagator. These tropicial plants really benefit from a long growing season.

3. Cropping. The huge bed of summer kale needs picking and we plan to pressure can this for storage.

4. Structural organisation. Since re-organising the water collection over the plots we will empty, into the new containers of course, and move some water butts nearer to the greenhouse on plot 5b. We will get the guttering up on the polytunnel and attach that to the IBC for collection. The area for the fruit cage needs measuring carefully so we can get that ordered!

5. Flowerbed. Now is a good time to get out and restructure any dormant perennials. We have 3 patches of Croscromia in the main flowerbed on plot 4 that are taking over. These need to come out so the flowerbed can be rearranged in spring.6. Hardwood cuttings and prunings. Apples and pears need pruning in the depths of winter. Just a little pruning is required on our trees. I will also take some cuttings of our fig tree.

Are you planning any #allotment jobs this week?