Very cold weather arriving from Wednesday onwards

 

The cold spell I was warning about from a couple of weeks ago is coming later this week with day time temps down into single figures even mid single figures for large parts of the country. With sleet, snow and hail in places and night frosts where skies clear so be prepared to protect any tender plants

(c) 2026 Keith Wheeler of Facebook Group Allotment Life For Beginners UK

I love these informative posters that Keith produces and I have made a Keith Wheeler hyperlink label so you can find them all.  Used on manvslug.uk with permission. 

Vote For Your Local Allotment

Please take the time to support your local allotment, or at least Mill Green Allotment in Sutton  

Vote Here 

Smaller site category (Yellow Pins) £500 :

Three Pits Allotment Society
Kimberworth Park Allotments
Castle Hill Allotments
Sydney Street Allotment Association
Tullos Crescent Allotment Association
Community Plot (Gavin Morgan)
Mill Green Allotment Site (Sutton)
Carter Royd Allotments

Larger site category (Red Pins) £1000 :

Armstrong Allotments
Bayer Street Allotments
Brandon Allotment Association
Hellesdon Allotment Holders Association
DALGS Forest of Dean
South View Allotments Association
The Saltings Allotment Association
Stainforth Allotment Association
Pontygwindy Allotments

Vote for Mill Green Allotment (Sutton)

 

WIN £1,000 or £500 FOR YOUR LOCAL ALLOTMENT!

We’ve just launched our Oakland Gardens 2026 Allotment Competition — and this one is all about community support.

There are 17 allotment groups across the UK taking part, and the winners will be decided by public vote.

Two prizes up for grabs:

• £1,000 worth of Oakland Gardens vouchers

• £500 worth of Oakland Gardens vouchers

As we’ve got a mix of different sized allotment sites taking part this year, we’ve split the competition into two categories to keep things fair.

Even if you’re not a gardener, people love supporting local projects

Allotments taking part:

Smaller site category :

Three Pits Allotment Society
Kimberworth Park Allotments
Castle Hill Allotments
Sydney Street Allotment Association
Tullos Crescent Allotment Association
Community Plot (Gavin Morgan)
Mill Green Allotment Site (Sutton)
Carter Royd Allotments

The winner of this category will receive £500 worth of Oakland Gardens vouchers.

Larger site category :

Armstrong Allotments
Bayer Street Allotments
Brandon Allotment Association
Hellesdon Allotment Holders Association
DALGS Forest of Dean
South View Allotments Association
The Saltings Allotment Association
Stainforth Allotment Association
Pontygwindy Allotments

The winner of this category will receive £1,000 worth of Oakland Gardens vouchers.

The allotments with the most votes by 31st May will win.

Vote here: Oakland Gardens 2026 Allotment Competition Vote

Vote for Sutton — Mill Green Allotment Site

How it works:

• Anyone can vote

• One vote per person

• Support your local allotment — or simply vote for your favourite

Get involved:

If one of these allotments is in your area, get behind them and help them win.

Share this with:

• Friends & family

• Local Facebook groups

• Gardening communities

• Your own feed

Let’s see which communities can rally the most support

Good luck to all allotments involved — and thank you to everyone taking part!

Cutting Grass Paths

13c Sunny down on the allotment from mid-day today various higher readings in the potting shed even with the door open whist I was there.

We have had 4 dry days in a row but also ice on the car windscreen. The grass and weeds have started to grow, so I decided I would trim the boundary beds with the all gold raspberries especially as some wanted to grow in the main path.

Photo above the first trim along the boundary bed

I also went up and down the path between plots 1 & 2 and 1A & 2A it involved a rest break and water and a battery change

Look at that clear blue sky and first trim up the path between plots 1 & 1A and 2 & 2A

Half of the path done on the way up

Second trim off the boundary beds, with a more powerful battery

Lots of Raspberries now pocking their heads up out of the woodchips

Grass cut on the main path to the plot 1 entrance, that will stop my trainers getting wet due to rain or dew 

Path to the plot 1 entrance

Trimming Completed

Full Path width (way over 600 recommended) now cut.

 

Spring Begins

Astronomical spring, which is the one people typically think of, starts at 10:46 a.m., March 20th. Astronomical seasons are based on the position of the Earth to the Sun. Meteorological spring started on 1st March 2026.

We still had lows of 3c overnight and ice on the car windscreen yesterday morning!

So You Have A New Allotment Plot

 

(c) 2026 Keith Wheeler of Facebook Group Allotment Life For Beginners UK

I love these informative posters that Keith produces and I have made a Keith Wheeler hyperlink label so you can find them all.  Used on manvslug.uk with permission. 

Bed H1 Topped Up and Completed

Morning on the allotment 17c Sunny and light winds It was between 44c - 30c in the potting shed, which gave me a buzz as the coffee grounds are in the sun drying out and the potting shed smells delightful.

More 30L pots with handles of soil decanted into Bed H1, then Wally arrived and helped me get the two sacks of soil conditioning compost on the top and I cut the sacks with a Stanley knife and decanted and spread the material over the bed.

Plastic Hoops installed ready for debris netting.

Bed H1 filled with additional soil and hoops added

Bed H1 topped off with conditioning compost

Bed H1 topped off with conditioning compost

Chitting Potatoes

 First Early  - Sharp's Express - Taylors 

First Early / Salad Potato - Pentland Javellin - Taylors

Second Early - Charlotte - Taylors 

 Main Crop - Desiree - Taylors

The morning and lunch with the Diginator and Emma, and then down to the allotment in the afternoon when Digs needed his nap. Grandad will be growing Digby some sweetcorn this year.

14c feels like 10c Sunny. I spent most of my time in the potting shed after finding the mushroom trays that I use for chitting potatoes.

I should have got them out of the carrier bags faster and into the chitting trays, they have all grown hair and look like Boris Johnson, and will need a trim, they were a little sweaty, so nothing like ex Prince Andrew, but they can now breath better.

No one has taken any woodchips yet, nice mound

First Early / Salad Potato - Pentland Javellin - Taylors

First Early / Salad Potato - Pentland Javelin - Taylors & Charlotte Salad Second

Charlotte & Sharpe's Express - both Taylors

First Early - Sharp's Express - Taylors on the left &
Main Crop - Desiree - Taylors on the right

Potatoes in Chitting trays, I need to make some labels up one label for each row as I put 4 in the 30Litre Pots with handles from the looks of things I'm going to need 27 - 28 Pots with handles. Easter Good Friday Falls on 3rd April this year.

I need to find out when the water will be turned on as I have coir blocks to hydrate.

Potting shed bench top.

Starbucks Coffee Grounds laid out for breaking up and drying out.

Tales From The Plot

It's getting to that time now to sow/plant or not too ?

The decision is entirely yours but here's a few thoughts you might want to think about before pushing the go button.

This is very much the month when we have to balance Risk V Reward

We get a few very warm days, We all get giddy and get out in the garden relieved we've got through another wet bleak dull winter. We start sowing and planting and Bam another week of hard frosts or god forbid even snow suddenly comes out of nowhere.

But that's what gardening is all about we have to listen to and work with mother nature and give her the ultimate respect.

The bottom line is we have to weigh up that risk versus reward get lucky we get an earlier harvest than other people or we could loose it to frost.

I think awareness is the key here by all means if you think its worth the risk go for it but do it smart, Be aware of your last frost date, get yourself a decent weather app to watch for a frost, and have fleece ready for when its forecast.

If you live away from your plot and cant rush there to put fleece then its probably better to wait than loose your plants.

Sow another batch just in case spread the risk by sowing little and often.

Make sure plants grown indoors are properly hardened off I will post my hardening off and when to plant out guides below.

(c) 2026 Keith Wheeler of Facebook Group Allotment Life For Beginners UK

I love these informative posters that Keith produces and I have made a Keith Wheeler hyperlink label so you can find them all.  Used on manvslug.uk with permission. 

Mulching Raspberries & A Load of Woodchips Dropped Off

11c dropping to 10.5c with a chilly wind this afternoon as I collected 3 wheel barrow loads and four 30L Pots with Handles of mulch worthy rotted woodchips to mulch the Raspberry beds, and clear the woodchip pile so another fresh load could be dropped off by Dave our tame tree surgeon.

Three wheelbarrow loads and four 30L Pots with handles

Woodchip area just before Dave the tree surgeon arrived with his van

Nice looking path worth woodchips

Lots of smoke as he tipped it and it continued for some time after

Idverde came today and treated plot 9 for Japanese Knot Weed 

The Garden Tool Relocation Program

 

Foxes can be added to that list, I have found shoes, gloves and socks left on my plot that are not mine.