Thursday 7 May 2020

Lockdown Day 45 - allotment tasks

Another nice day today, with early cloud clearing to a lovely warm Spring day! Today's tasks were mundane but necessary - watering and weeding as well as earthing up the potatoes. 



The forecast is for a lot colder weather from Sunday onwards with the possibility of night frosts. This really isn't what you want at this time of year and I have had the damson blossom and potato foliage affected by a late frost in the past. So, by earthing up the potatoes which involves covering up most of the foliage with earth, I have made them more protected - if needs be I can now quickly cover up the foliage that remains above ground on Saturday evening to protect them completely. If potato foliage gets affected by frost it shows up as looking like the leaves have been burnt. In general I have found that the potatoes recover but are set back a bit. 




I have plenty of plastic sheeting in the shed and in the corner of the allotment so things like the peas and borlotti beans as well as the Meyer lemon tree, blueberries and the spinach and beetroot seedlings can be quickly covered up as well. 

I also weeded the strawberries, some of them are now setting fruit. The onions and garlic are doing well and to be honest these are pretty hardy especially the ones that overwintered. It is very dry still and there's a lot to water, luckily we have access to a tap and so it isn't a problem - for a couple of years at the start of our allotment rental there wasn't one and so I had to carry water up from the house (about three minutes walk luckily but still a long way with water!) or rely on the water butts. All in all things are going well and hopefully we can escape the frost!


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