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Plot #59

Re-Vamping the Soft Fruit Section on Plot 59

We’ve been talking about reorganising the soft fruit on our main plot for a couple of growing seasons now. This year we’ve rolled up our sleeves and made a start. Raspberries First up: our raspberry patch has been a reasonably productive one for three or four years, but we’ve decided it’s time for a change. […]

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Plot #59

Our Allotment Year in Review: 2016/17 Edition

A year has rolled on by since I posted the first Year in Review piece here on Notes From the Allotment, and a lot has changed down on Plot #59. After three years of hard graft, we’ve finally reached the point where almost the entire plot has been transformed from a weed-choked, debris-strewn nightmare into […]

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Monthly Updates Plot #59

Plot #59 Update: June 2016

June was a quieter month than you might think, down on Plot #59, thanks to a combination of wet weather and exam revision. Nevertheless, Jo and I forged ahead as best we could and kept things moving on several fronts. Projects / Maintenance The ground was too wet for most of the month to allow […]

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Harvest Monday Plot #59

Harvest Monday for July 4th 2016

Summer is here! Although you wouldn’t know it to look at the weather records of late. But the crops are starting to come in down on Plot #59 and we’re beginning to enjoy a wider range of the fruits of our labour. Here’s a quick photo-montage of the foodstuffs that we’ve been able to harvest […]

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Monthly Updates Plot #59

Plot #59 Update: May 2016

May was a manic month down on Plot #59, and no mistake. My plate is particularly full at the moment with revision for my RHS Level 2 exams in mid June, so please do excuse me if I whizz through this month’s update. Projects / Maintenance As well as sorting out an old compost bed […]

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Monthly Updates Plot #59

Plot #59 Update: April 2016

“April is the cruellest month,” said T. S. Eliot, in the opening line of his epic poem ‘The Wasteland’. He could well have been referring to the tricks that April seems to enjoy playing with the weather. Last year April served up a prolonged, scorching heatwave, followed by a thoroughly miserable, damp cold-snap. This year […]

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Plot #59

Signs of Life in the Plot #59 Fruit Section

I swung by Plot #59 this afternoon on the way back from a volunteering session for Incredible Edibles Prestwich, raking over the new raised beds in the polytunnels, to get the third of my second early potato trenches dug while the weather was good enough for digging. Strolling up the middle of the plot, I […]

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Plot #59

Our Allotment Year in Review: 2015/16 Edition

January is the traditional time to post a year-in-review piece, but for me, the start of the sowing and growing season – with the last of the previous year’s over-wintered veg crops being harvested or cleared away and the first of this year’s plants being sown and planted out – seems a good time to […]

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Plot #59

First Hard Frost of the Winter – At Last!

At -1°C, last night was the coldest we’ve had so far this winter, and temperatures are set to dip below zero for the next couple of nights as well. And not before time, either. I might seem strange to be glad to see a frost – after all, now the allotment isn’t only waterlogged, it’s […]