Allotment update week ending Sunday 24 August

Posted August 25, 2014

A moist morning but fortunately not much wind to hinder us as we took the huge piece of netting off the summer raspberries and moved it over to the pears and apples which are ripening now.

With the Open Day this Sunday, we did a final run over the plot with the hoe and cut the grass edges, checked all the labels were still in place and tied in the branches of the trained fruit which had blown loose in the recent strong winds.

The green manures sown last week have germinated already and as the ground is cleared of crops we shall sow more – an easy way to improve the fertility of the soil.

We didn’t find the time to put in the new stakes for the loganberries but there is always another day.

The hazel trees that were planted on the east side of the plot have now been in seven years. Most are cut back each year to prepare them for coppicing but we left two for the beautiful catkins and this summer we have a crop of hazelnuts. A gentle tap is enough to break the soft shell and first for some of us to taste.