Adventures* in Allotmenteering

 * Adventures are not guaranteed.

Particularly at this time of year when growing has barely begun.

 

Here we have Allotment HQ seen through the bare branches of a Bramley apple tree.

On Sunday I spent over an hour manoeuvring between my shed HQ and next door's, cutting back the dead loganberry canes and pulling this year's fruiting stems back onto my allotment and tying them to the lean-to and freestanding frames.

The smoked plastic cloche and wonky waterbutt are blocking gaps in the fence to prevent deer from getting in - and Bitey from escaping.

They still do, though.  And so does Bitey.

 

 

This is the view up my allotment from the Bramley.

That's a big plum tree on the left, an apple on the right with another apple behind it, and a Victoria plum in the net.  On the far right is a raspberry bed which leads up to a couple of loganberries and some more raspberries (and that netted plum).

 

 

Here's the whole 'orchard': a conference pear in the centre with an eating apple behind it; that netted plum on the right next to the bonfire heap; two more eating apple trees on the left (with the Bramley behind them); and the big plum at the back.

 

 

At the front here are loganberries and raspberries, with another raspberry bed on the right leading down to Allotment HQ and the original loganberry which grows from behind it.

 

 

The fruit cage which is just a rickety frame now that I've removed almost all of the torn and rotted netting.  Despite allowing the horrid currants to go free, they stubbornly remain in place.  Which means I've got to dig them up and get rid of them (just like I say every year).

The cherry tree (at the back) has long outgrown the cage and all the cherries get eaten by Beaky and his ilk before I can get to them.  Bah!

 

 

Ah.  Here we have the Leaning Shed and water station.

There's no piped water supply on the allotments so we have to catch our own.

 

 

And finally, this is what one sees upon entering my allotment: The Leaning Shed and staging area/dumping ground flanked by a rhubarb bed and three blackberry bushes.  Well, they're not bushes - they're canes just like the loganberries.

It's all overseen by the greengage tree in the corner.

 

 Anyway, the point to all this is to remind myself to get up there and tidy up/sort out/prepare before the major growth kicks in. And also so that during the year I can look back and see how much it's changed.

(This is how it looked in 2023, 2024, and 2025)