A dreich day on the Allotment
Thursday was such a dreich day we had to keep moving to keep warm! With outside help, the blackberry was moved and the shed repaired. Posts were put in for the training wires of the blackberry and the plant was moved with little difficulty. A trench had been dug about 70 cm from the base of the plant a couple of months ago to reduce the spread of the rooting system and encourage new roots so digging it out was fairly straightforward. The planting hole was already prepared with a good base of compost and the berry was quickly put in and covered up. It was watered to help settle the soil around the roots, the shoots were roughly tied up and will be trained on wire next week.
The shed had been leaking badly on the west side so the gaps were filled with wood filler, the door hook fixed and the door mended.
The saskatoon which is also being moved was thinned, the new planting hole prepared and the outlying shoots dug up. Those with good roots were planted to help form the living hedge along the north edge of the plot.
The rhubarb which had been left exposed to the cold was split up and the sizeable shoots were dug in again with a good base of compost. These will not fruit much this year since they will be developing new root systems but we still have another plant so there will be no shortage of rhubarb stalks.
And the summer raspberries were staked. These are new plants and the growth was poor over the summer due no doubt to the hot dry weather, we shall wait and hope they do better next year.
Jobs for next week
- Fix the training wire for the blackberry
- Move the saskatoon
- Check the apples
- Trim the grass edges
