It’s been a while since I last put fingers to keyboard, but then I haven’t been down to the allotment as much as I would like. Weather and other commitments have conspired against me in that respect.
That’s not to say I’ve not been down there at all, just that my visits have been more sporadic and not for as long as I’d have planned usually. Back in November I found some garlic bulbs had missed being lifted and started to grow.
After carefully lifting and separating them into individual cloves I’ve replanted them in the hope of getting a whole new crop – hopefully this year I’ll get a better harvest than last years, which was not the best. I also planted some shop bought cloves, lucky I use a fair amount of garlic in the kitchen. Fingers crossed, after this lots is ready to lift, I won’t need to buy any more garlic for quite a while!
Returning to the plot after any time away will always mean returning to find lots to do, mainly weeding.
Both these borders had rogue brambles growing on them, last year they were quite unwieldy, produced some lovely fruit, but picking them resulted in plenty of scratches and prickles.
With the aim of making this year a little less painful and a little tidier, both bushes had a good prune and I’ve attempted to create a ‘fence’ of canes to train them along. It came at the cost of a lot of scratches and several splinters of thorns, which required digging out with a scalpel blade and tweezers. I’m hoping it will be worth it, certainly at the moment it is all looking a lot tidier, although there is still a lot left to do!
