I ended this week with a horrible migraine, feeling completely wiped out. Woke up this morning feeling stressed about not having done everything I planned to at work this week and worried about the general state of the world. Thought I was too knackered to go up to the allotment, but after a bit of food and quiet reading I felt better so off we went.
It’s really wet up there at the moment; it’s been raining heavily on and off for a few weeks. On the plot, trying to build another raised bed, we hit water less than a spade’s depth down.
It seemed like the heavy rain from this morning had passed, and there was a brief bit of sunshine but there was a strong wind and before long the rain and then hail was back. A stunning rainbow over London stopped me in my muddy tracks for a few minutes and lifted my mood 100%. Now I’m home warming up by the fire and feeling much much better than this morning. Proof, if it were needed, that getting outside is always a good idea, even in the hail and wind.
It was difficult to get much done, but we did get one more raised bed in. It was too wet to align it very precisely, so it will need adjusting again later, but at least it’s in.
I noticed on the way in that there had been a delivery of leafmould, which was too good to pass up on. There are regular deliveries of manure but it’s normally fresh and you have to stack it for 6-12 months before it’s usable. This stuff was already black and ready to use straight away. Brilliant.
We managed 13 barrowfuls along the muddy path to our plot, filling up three of our new raised beds with lovely organic matter for our seedlings. I grinned like an idiot for most of this time, because allotmenting in the rain makes me inexplicably happy and finding a lovely pile of treasure like that just makes my heart sing.
Meanwhile, the tomato and pepper seedlings have germinated so I’ve moved them out into the cold frame to stop them getting too spindly inside. I’m a bit worried the cold might upset them, but I think it’s important not to let them get too leggy in the poor light and warmth indoors, and I can always sow another lot later in March if it all goes wrong.
The annual flowers in the cold frame are just starting to germinate, as are the onions. But no sign of the broad beans or sweet peas just yet…
Hoping to make it up there again in the morning to dig over the other 2 beds, maybe get some of the woodchips I saw delivered today and make paths between the beds with them, and maybe sow a few seeds in the ground.
Keeping the Plot 