A cooler feel to the air first thing,

Posted August 24, 2025

Allotment Tales 21-08-2025

A cooler feel to the air first thing, though the sun broke through and warmed things up.

Richard and Pam arrived with lovely new signs for the beds. The Bridgend Caley plot is a demonstration allotment, so we’ll be able to expand the information we’re able to give alongside each crop. Whilst there, our visitors worked out a way to temporarily shore up the apple arch.

A more permanent structure will replace this once our enormous (and very heavy) cookers have been harvested.

The raspberry and bean beds got a comfrey feed treat and a new batch of comfrey was picked and stuffed into a lidded bucket with water. In a few weeks’ time this will have marinaded into an evil-smelling brew and be ready for the next lucky veg.

We watered extensively, as everything is so dry, and no rain is forecast. Courgette leaves and mint affected by powdery mildew were cut back. This may slow the spread of this fungal disease which tends to proliferate in dry conditions.

We added extra support to the dwarf French beans and earthed up the maincrop tatties, but mainly focused our efforts on weeding today. We did harvest plums and beans that won’t last till Sunday’s workshop, picked more sweet peas and a few windfall cookers.

No flatworms under the paving stones – probably buried deeper due to the hot weather.

The Caley Harvesting, Storing and Showing Workshop: we were lucky to have a great day for this. Colin Ainsworth ran the session, assisted by the Caley Bridgend volunteers. Participants really enjoyed the very practical, hands-on approach. Lots of veg and fruit groups were covered throughout the morning and interesting storage tips given. Discussions and demonstrations of clamping root veg in the ground as a storage method were particularly appreciated. Culinary preserving ideas were shared at Break time and samples were tasted. Some folk left cradling a punnet of redcurrants, as we have so many this year!