Time to get going again

So Christmas has been and gone and 2019 is now well and truly here. There's an abundance of jobs to do at the allotment, even at this time of year. I have read of some people shutting down their allotment for the winter, why on earth would they do that? Every time I think about it another item goes on the list, and there's a very good reason for that; if previous years have taught me anything it's that hard work put in now will pay dividends come the summer.

So what can we doing now that is going to make our lives easier in the months ahead, what should we do to give our plants the very best start? For me a huge issue last year was the pathways. In my infinite wisdom I decided that grass paths would be an affordable and suitable solution to getting around on the allotment. Well, I got the first part right at least, but they are far from suitable. I found that I would spend hours cutting it, edging the beds and generally doing battle with it. I'd even plan special trips to the allotment just to cut it, and of course as a result the things that I actually wanted to grow got neglected. So that's it, they've come out and in their place will be woodchip.

The next job will be putting some goodness back into the soil. I'm lucky enough that my allotment is situated in the middle of a beef farm and manure is readily available at a good price. In a handful of beds I have grown some green manures which will be dug in next month. For the beds that have been left exposed they will be topped with the well rotted manure. Again this is another lesson learnt from last year. I'd inherited the plot with no clues as to it's previous history. It was completely overgrown so I thought I'd risk just clearing and planting straight into the existing soil. It worked to some extent but would definitely have been improved had some organic matter been added to the soil beforehand. Poor soil leads to weak plants which grow slower and are more susceptible to pests, the end result being a smaller harvest.

Next up for me will be the greenhouse, a valuable asset in any garden but very much an underused one in mine. I had a good amount of tomatoes from it last year but that was pretty much it, at the moment it stands empty. So far I have just used grow-bags and containers inside but now I think is the time to establish a permanent bed, at least along one side. I'll begins sowing things in there very shortly with Broccoli Raab looking like a good candidate at the moment. In theory this should be ready by the beginning of April and continue to produce through until June. But first a good clean of the whole thing and a few running repairs.

This will be plenty to keep me going for the next couple of weeks but if you're sat there getting itchy fingers I'd certainly suggest that you start thinking of where you are going to grow things this coming season. This may be based on what is growing there now, what grew there last year, how much light it gets and what soil conditions you have to offer. Just remember any work now is going to make life easier later on and with a bit of luck give you some time to enjoy the sunny days ahead.