Allotment news round up 2019
Tuesday 5th November 2019
All trainees are present Today.
We have to Welcome Shari (one of our new members of part time staff who we know from Pioneer Sailing).
Andrew planted broad beans with Simon and Joanna with Vanessa.
Daniel and Connor planted some garlic with Shari.
Joanna planted a new head of rhubarb to replace the old rhubarb which was accidentally dug up and Matthew has been cutting some grass.
The weather is very overcast and foggy
Friday 8th November 2019
All Trainees are present today.
We have been Digging the soil in the back bed and raking the leaves.
We planned the bug hotel.
Garlic, onions, rhubarb, broad beans, spring onions are what we have planted so far.
The Bug hotel will be made from logs, dry Leaves, hay, twigs, bamboo and broken flower pots.
The aim is to get lots of bugs.
Tuesday 12th November 2019
All the trainees are here.
We took two metal frames (which were stored underneath the apple trees) and put them over the broad beans.
We then put nets over the frames to stop the deer or mice from eating them.
The nets were tied on with care and we collected some leaves and then put them in the compost.
Matthew has been cutting the grass.
The weather today is windy, sunny and cold, with a blue sky.
Neil (our next door allotment neighbor) also gave us some help and good advice.
Neil’s Advice
1. Cover the broad beans
2. Double dig the beds.
3. Plant early potatoes in March
4. Plant the potatoes with eyes facing upwards with at least two shoots showing.
5. Allow each potato plant to reach a height of six to eight inches before putting in the earth.
Tuesday 19th November 2019
Everyone is here except for Daniel.
Andrew and Joanna collected fallen leaves and put them in the compost.
Simon and Connor tied the new laminated labels which the Friday group made in their session and attached them to sticks and put them in the correct place.
We all joined together to collect leaves.
Matthew did a fine job cutting the grass.
Sarah joined us and the weather was blue sky’s, cold and crisp.
Friday 22nd November 2019
Everyone is here, it was raining earlier but now the sky is blue with some clouds.
We have excellent compost and we took it in buckets and dug it in the beds. The cat Rochester came to visit.
We made plans to keep peels form the kitchen.
Tuesday 26th November 2019
Bug Hotel:
We need logs and leaves, damp places, seed heads, cardboard, broken pots, pinecones
We are now going to forage. We have found some leaves, cardboard, sticks, flowers twigs. Linda brought some logs in. Jane found some broken pots and plates, connor and Andrew and Vanessa have been cutting. The rest of the group packed in the pieces. We have started the big pieces and got smaller.
We had some bugs moved in already
Friday 29th November 2019
It was dry sun and blue sky today, 2 degrees. We took vegetable peeling and coffee grounds from the kitchen and dug them into the compost bin.
Rochester came to visit us after break.
We cut canes for the Bug Hotel.
Tuesday 3rd December 2019
Daniel, Simon, Andrew, Connor, Vannesa and Colin are here at the Allotment.
It is very wet and damp, Colin is taking some pics,
the weather is a little chilly with blue sky with lots of white fluffy clouds.
As we couldn’t work at the allotment, colin suggested we did some psychogeography.
This involved taking an alternative route back to the art cafe.
Along the way, we saw some swans, ducks, coots, lots of dogs, seagulls, two cats (one cat was black and the other one was a tabby cat) and we also saw a few squirrels on our exploration.
We were joined by Matthew and Dave. Halfway through the walk, Matthew lead the last bit through Castle Park.
In the summer we thought this route would be nice to give us some shade.
As we came back early we talked about the bug hotel, Daniel would like a bug hotel in his garden.
Daniel and Andrew reported that the bug hotel needs to go down to the allotment.
Friday 13th December 2019
The weather is overcast and chilly, Connie (our newest full time member of staff) is at the allotment with us.
We looked at the vegetable beds, there are no jobs as it's too wet underfoot.
Tuesday 17th December 2019
All the trainees are here also Connie and Vanessa.
We didn't go down to the allotment because it was wet and damp.
Instead we did a colouring project to make table cloths for our Christmas Meal on Friday, colouring different leaf shapes and cutting them out to stick onto a large sheet of paper.
This is the last allotment session before Christmas.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year!