Planning and Reviewing February in Previous Years

 Reviewing the diary over the last TEN years for February

2013 - Infrastructure works, drying weeds for burning, burning weeds, Rain start of the month, dry towards the end, delivery of woodchip to plot, built a coldframe  
 

2014 - Infrastructure works, transplanting bluebells and daffs in comfrey bed, bought and planted fruit trees, Constructed Greenhouse Sub Frame, Seeds from Lidl I could not resist at 29p a pack or 5 for a £1   

2015 -  Allotment Winter Tidy Up, Spent tomato compost & coir dressing added to beds, Sprouts, Cabbage, Chitting Potatoes, Timber base for the greenhouse created, Onions from Seeds   

2016 - Infrastructure works, kerb stones off freecycle, Base for the shed on Spencer Road. Erecting the Shed, Trimming shaggy weed membrane, gathering compost paper & Coffee Grounds.

2017 - Infrastructure works, Laying concrete slabs at Spencer Road in the Greenhouse area , Portable Grow Station created and Sprouts sown, Grow Station 2 created, Chitting potatoes in Grow Station 2,  

2018 - Infrastructure works, Laying concrete slabs on Plot 1A, Installing the bed edging that had been brought from Spencer Road Allotment, Warming Up Beds with solar tunnels and obtaining Timber Roof Joists from the building site next door.

2019 - Infrastructure works, Frost and a couple or raining Allotment days this year. Andy brought leaves from home for my leaf pile. Burning rotted timber and dry vegetation. Painting timber joists on the plot. Attacking the Hawthorne along the wall. Purchased potatoes from Wilko and set up chitting potatoes in Space saver Greenhouse. Attended the Garden Press Event and came home with lots of  packs of seeds and other goodies.

2020 - Infrastructure works, picked up a stack of free slabs off Freecycle, Showed vacant plots and they took plot 4. Cleaned the Space Saver Greenhouse ready for the season and for chitting spuds in. The contractor converting the industrial unit to residential behind Plot 1 & 1A decided in the infinite wisdom to remove the trees that were holding the unstable wall in place and destabilise the wall directly behind my shed on plot 1A. They cut and dropped the branches directly on my shed! Not happy and informed them and the council.       

Showing Chris the vacant plots available, he decided to take on plot 14. Storm Ciara blows many polytunnels off the plots and destroys them and light weight greenhouses on plots. Mentioned In Despatches by Waltons, National Nestbox Week 

Lots of Rain during the early part of the month Storm Dennis with many photographs of flooded allotment plots, especially in Wales and then suddenly at the end of the month, dry weather bluebells and daffs showing and Fools Spring has arrived. Won Mr Fothergills Facebook competition of Swing F1 Cucumber seeds

Picked up another free Dalek to add to Dalek Army II. Attended the Garden Press Event and came home with not so many packs of seeds but lots of other goodies, and promises of equipment to trial. The Covid -19 Virus starts sweeping around the globe, and people start to think twice about shaking hands at the Event. Still cataloguing what's in my Seed Box, need to get this done a lot earlier next year, if not by the end of 2020 

2021 - Making Warm Mushroon Trays. Chitting Potatoes, covered in the Norfolk Space Saver Greenhouse . The beast from the East II and snow. The Paved path was installed and so were the scaffold tubes to the first 3 Raspberry beds. The first SFG bed frame was installed in February 2021.

2022 - Sowing Grow With Me tomatoes, Sowing Brassicas and planting seedless grape vines against the wall. Storm Dudley came and went and then Storm Eunice removed greenhouse panels and took items on a journey around the allotment site. Laying slabs around the Plot 1 greenhouse. Grow With Me 2022 with Joe Mills Basil. Spuds in the Space Saver Greenhouse chitting. Making a new store on plot 1A at the location of the old potting table and adding the bench with roof to the new potting table behind the greenhouse on plot 1. 

Below is the to do list in no particular order and catching up with what actually happened in January and what has slipped. We had lots of rain in December and sub zero temperatures and rain in January and then my wife was taken into hospital, so no real progress has been made on site over the last couple of months.  

The plan is now to get as much infrastructure on Plot 1 in place as possible and get both plots and greenhouses ready for March/April and the sowing season. 

To Do List   

Mill Green - Plot 1A

• Re Add additional supporting timbers to the roof of the shed - TBD
• Tidy Up the Allotment - Ongoing but getting so much better 
• Weeding - Complete the weeding of plot 1A
• Greenhouse 1A - Get ready for early spring sowings and perhaps some hydroponics
• Greenhouse 1A - Construct a dormer window with twin solar fans to replace the vent like the one on Plot 1.

Mill Green - Plot 1

• Beds and Paths - Third Square Foot Gardening and Solar Tent Bed to be formed.   
• Install the kerb edging along the bottom of Plot 1 - TBD over Winter months. 
• Potatoes in Buckets - See what state the last four buckets of spuds are in. 
• Greenhouse 1 - construct a dormer window with twin solar fans to replace the vent that has been damaged by the defective automatic vent opener. - Construction completed and being installed today!  

Home 

• Planning - Ongoing
• Cut Planting Membrane - Make more full bed blanks
• Space Saver Greenhouse - Clear and Clean then Sow some winter crops.