Such rain – I am glad I rotovated last weekend, as the soil is too water-logged to easily work now. The lower part of the allotment is flooded, but the upper part is still dry. The area covered in clear polythene was showing a hint of green and if weeds can germinate so can parsnips.
So off came the polythene, in went seeds of parsnips, lettuce and early carrots, and a double layer of fleece went over the top. If all goes well, emergence should start in about 20 days; if nothing appears by late March I will resow.
Moving such wet, heavy soil is dispiriting work, but I finished mending the first raised bed, hoicking out some mint roots. These have gone home for a mint tub near the kitchen door and a fresh reserve stock of mint has been planted on the allotment for replenishing the home supply.
Going round the crops, the garlic is growing very strongly and was weeded, with the weeds going into the bottom of the renovated raised bed. The onions are beginning to recover from their winter damage, and the August sown salad onions, which have always looked good, are growing strongly. The September sown spinach is sickly, but it is nearly under water!
Broad beans have a number of casualties from botrytis disease. They were sown through a black landscape fabric sheet to keep down the winter weeds whose removal is such a tiresome job in March. The sheet was 'picked up' by the autumn gales and had to be removed, but I think young stems must have been damaged letting in disease. There is nothing to be done and the remaining plants should fill in the gaps to some extent.
The October sown peas on the other hand are growing very strongly and a decision will soon have to be made when to uncover them. Left covered by fleece for too long disease can take hold, uncovered too soon they can be damaged by any stinging late frosts. I expect that I will have built the necessary pigeon proof cage for them, and the follow on crop that should be sown soon, by mid-March and they can uncovered then.
Pigeons have started attacking the winter cabbage family crops through the netting. All the cabbages, except for half a row of savoys, have finished now and they will be cleared once the tide goes out. The Brussels sprouts are nearly over, but purple cape cauliflowers are cropping very well. Unfortunately, numerous slugs have taken up residence in the curds, so a soak in salty water is needed before cooking. The first shoots of purple sprouting broccoli are showing, but the plants are poor. I took liberties with this tolerant crop, planting out a bit late after a crop of peas, and the plants are not as they should be. They will crop sufficiently for my needs.
Root vegetables are still palatable, but the carrots and parsnips are losing their sweetness – I will clear them away by mid-March. Leeks really come into their own now and should stay wholesome until April.
Later, in the afternoon, when the rain set in, there was some shed work to do. I renovated my yardstick – actually a 'metrestick' in my case; a one metre timber batten marked at 5cm intervals with a sawcut inked in with a felt-tip pen. I also mended my 'marking out tools'. I have two of these home-made wooden rake-like tools with teeth at 45 or 30cm intervals. They are used to make grooves in the soil to help space rows and plants. I don't have a cropping plan as such where detailed measurements are essential – but allotments look better if plants and rows are evenly spaced and these tools speed up the task. Keeping your cropping plan in your head has the advantage that it can be revised at any time. I find usefully distracting in dentist's waiting rooms for example.