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Wellington Fields Allotments - Hixon.

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 Planting At Last.

The new allotment plot that is actually within my village has finally materialised after many months and over a month later than planned. The big plusses about this site are that it has been rotavated, is far less stony than my other site and has been Rabbit protected, although people do constantly leave the gate open while on their plots. Rabbits don’t need much encouragement when they can see nice green plants and unfortunately mine is one of those nearest to the gate, so my plants are going to be the first to be eaten! I chose a plot next to the parking area, so that my elderly, partially sighted mother can go up there in the car, get some fresh air and be near to me. On the down side the site is on a slope, has sandy soil and seems to dry even quicker than the other allotment site.

Because of the rabbit protection and the fact that the soil has been finely rotavated I am putting all the smaller vegetable plants in this plot. The greenhouse at home has been full to bursting with young vegetable seedlings that I have grown in preparation for planting. Almost all of them were desperate to go in because of the delay in opening the site, so when we got the go ahead I started planting immediately. Unfortunately it was the windiest weekend that I can remember for many years and it ripped to shreds most of my newly planted dwarf and French beans that were all special, exotic, fancy coloured varieties and battered everything else as well. Hopefully, the lower buds will shoot again, especially as we had a heavy shower the day after planting. I didn’t risk putting in the runners beans with their tall wigwam though as it was just too windy. One or two plot holders did, no doubt swayed by the fact that one local garden centre was selling trays of bean plants at half price.

The soil is very soft and deep at the moment, so I want to put in some Celery and some Leeks as it will be easy to plant them deeply and in blocks where the soil can later be mounded up for blanching. Kohl Rabbi, Sweet Corn, a few Broccoli, Swiss Chard and some more Cape Gooseberries are other vegetables going in along with a few root crops such as Celariac and Beetroot that will benefit from the loose, soft soil. A very late and much reduced in price, packet of Onions has also been planted, but many were going soft, so I don’t think they will be much good. Many other plot holders are also planting onions and potatoes as well as pea and bean seeds, because most packets of early vegetables have been reduced by the shops now as it really is getting late for them. In a normal year you might get away with it and be able to harvest something from such late plantings, but this year, unless the weather changes dramatically, it is really too dry to be planting seeds in the ground without a lot of watering.

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