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. 

Bed H1 Nearly Completed

 

A trip to Tool Station to pick up the 5 x 70 T20 Structural Screws for building the next raised bed frame, then down on the allotment today which was Sunny bright and 11C. 

I started by decanting the 14 number 30L pots with handles worth of woodchip that I have been squirreling away for this very purpose in the bottom frame of the raised bed.

The next job was to cut the short 700mm lengths of Scaffold boards for the narrow parts of the frame, and predrill and screw the framework together on the improvised work bench that is beds 16 & 16 A        

In the photo above you can see the 4 number 2.4m lengths of boards that will make the raised bed H2 to its left.  Fellow plot holder Alex helped me lift the second frame onto the woodchip filled Bed H1 first frame. 

I then used short lengths of roofing batten and screws to tie the two frames together 

I then spread tree leaves over the woodchip and emptied all the 30L pots with handles of decanted soil into the top section of the raised bed, taking cared to spread the soil and remove any bindweed or mares tail roots that I may have missed when originally filling the pots up. 

I have more buckets of soil to decant in order to bring the soil up to the top of the bed, but I had extended my visit by and hour and a half past lunch time, and was quite frankly knackered, so collected my tools, and made my way home.  

The Oakland Garden 30L Plant Pot with Handles have been designed and manufactured with a dual-tier base system and drainage holes to prevent waterlogging and promote excellent drainage and thus healthy root growth, plus it stiffens up the base of the pot. I guess its the ex R&D and Structural Engineer in me that notices these kind of things.

What I hadn't taken into account was just how useful that profile is when lifting and decanting the woodchips and soil out into the raised beds. The Oakland pots are so much easier to grab, and tip out as the dual-tier base system gives areas for your fingers to get a grip and make handling and emptying easy. 

They are so much easier to handle and tip out, than the flat bottomed pots I have from other suppliers. 

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Raised Bed H1 & Fixing The Loft Conversion II

9c Sunny day down on the allotment today, I started by fixing the solar panel to the arris rail that the original two smaller solar panels were fixed too.

Ex-Fireman Andy came and did the honours of fitting it in the hole as I had removed the sheet that had been keeping the rain out since it became unstuck and fell to pieces. The fans were spinning really fast as it was a very sunny day, one could tell as I have a long sleeved T-Shirt on and my Paddington like hat.

Then cutting roofing batten to screw the first frame of H1 to the original Bed Edging.

Cutting up branches and old bed edging to go into the first frame of the raised bed H1.

Fixing the Flower Pot Man that Little Man (Digby) bought me for my Birthday in my potting shed.

Digby bought me this for my Birthday and his name is Bill as that was my Grandads name (which is fitting as he is a Flower Pot Man). Every time I see Bill, I will think of Digby and smile a Grandad like smile.

Raised Bed H1 & Fixing The Loft Conversion

70mph winds last night and the store in the back garden was laying flat on its doors. That's never happened before. Bleeding Freezing this morning, so I left the allotment to this afternoon said 8.5C Overcast but felt a good 3 - 4 degrees lower and a cold wind.

Frame assembled yesterday lifted with the aid of Ex Fireman Andy onto bed H1, he is around tomorrow and has said I can call on him to lift the Plot 1 Greenhouse Loft conversion back in place, as he knows I can't climb ladders anymore, and could not get the loft conversion into the hole in the roof on my own, these days.

That meant I had to get the loft conversion assembled today, which gave me motivation as it was cold and I could have happily come home, but working in the potting shed it was sheltered after I had cut the roofing batten up to join the parts of the loft conversion together.

Timbers cut ready for screwing the polycarbonate panels together that have been tack welded in place on the outside face

The two legs will hang down in behind of the aluminium frame to what was the opening vent and stop the loft conversion sliding off the roof, yes it did happen on the Plot 1A greenhouse when the glue gun tack welds failed.

I have the timber for an additional frame which will make the H1 raised bed significantly higher on the plot 1 side and little higher on the plot 1A side, due to the slope between the levels of the two plots across bed H1.

The cubic metre bag of soil has gone from the car park, so I have arranged for a load of woodchip to be dropped off Monday.

Just A Little Thought For The Day.....

 

And that people is when you decide to install raised beds !

Raised Bed H1 Frame Build

Sunny afternoon turning Cloudy 11C and an afternoon of cutting scaffold boards and making the next raised bed frame for Bed H1.

Cut two end timbers and assembled the first layer of the raised bed for H1. I will get a fellow plot holder to help me move it in place.

Main Path looking towards the plot 1 entrance from the tap and water tank

Closer view of the Boundary Beds

Closer view of the Boundary Beds

Closer view of the Boundary Beds

Main path looking at the boundary bed from the entrance towards the back of the allotment

Raspberries coming up

Blossom on the plum tree

Comfrey Bed with Daffs and Bluebells which come before the comfrey and give the bees some early pollen