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Friday 26th March what an exciting week its been at plot 33! today Anne finished digging over bed 5 and planted all the first early potatoes, while continued to potter around the plot weeding the other beds and having a bit of a tidy up (resting up and taking it easy is sooooo difficult).  earlier in the week while sorting out the spare cardboard in the greenhouse I checked on our hot bed experiment unfortunately its not been a complete success the heap has quickly cooled ( i think the manure wasn't fresh enough) it has rotted down more than the rest of the muck we have and retained enough warmth to be an ideal house for what looked like a field vole who scuttled around the greenhouse before disappearing off into the wild. We decided to move the heap outside to our new designated composting area just behind the greenhouse incase it came back to nest. Started adding non cooked left overs that we are collecting every Friday from B'arts Bread in Common free food scheme.
We ended the week by planting the oregano moved from bed 4 in its new position next to the lemon balm and rhubarb all in all the plot is looking really good as long as you dont look past the greenhouse!
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So far a busy week, making the most of the good weather. On Monday we did more digging on the potato bed and clearing on rhubarb bed, planting our first two rows of first early arran potatoes and admiring the wonderful growth in the greenhouse!
 On Tuesday we picked up a load of bricks from my daughters' back yard. Wednesday: more digging in potato bed, preparing it for second earlies spuds. We boiled an egg on the camp stove, and added it to our salad along with some of our own chives #eatingfromthe plot.
After sustenance we planted the rest of the first early spuds, continued with digging and clearing and Rachel used the bricks to create a cold frame, to warm the ground so we can hopefully get some of the beans planted outside a bit earlier.
Friday 19th March I'm not allowed to dig this week :( Doctors orders and well i cant lift my arm anyway its most frustrating . However we got to the plot bright and early for a cuppa with our social media guru Val and sat watching the birds flit around the plot After Val left we set to on the fiddley and not too strenuous task of pulling grass out of the rhubarb crowns using hand forks to loosen the soil and before we knew it we had removed a big bucket full of roots
we noticed a little grass poking through on the no dig bed and also a few seedlings had popped up so Anne raked the whole bed over spreading out some more compost we found and disturbing the seed roots at the same time. Then on to the bed by the greenhouse my shoulder was feeling much better so I though I'd give digging a try alas no one fork full and I quickly swapped to cleaning a sheet of pollycarb from home to help warm the soil ready to so some seeds direct in a few weeks time leaving Anne to the heavy work (although I did come and help picking over the previously dug bits with my hand fork so I didn't feel too useless )  We decided to use an existing compost bin to put the free manure into (it was piled up on bed 5) to allow it to decompose for next year. It soon filled up so we spent time emptying a second bin full of weeds, a mass of roots and old compost. It took some doing but we dug it out and sieved through it . It gave us more compost to put on our no dig bed and an empty bin for the rest of the manure. Bed 5 now ready for for a dig over, the plan being to plant the first early potatoes that are currently sprouting on my bedroom windowsill.  We are really looking forward to welcoming people onto Plot 33 and to involving them in our growing and making projects. One of our on-going groups is Wonder Women, a very diverse group of women who meet to do creative stuff together for our sense of wellbeing. We get involved in arts projects across the city. We are currently collectively making a bold decorative sign for the plot. I went out on my bike and delivered a bag of materials to each of the women (who come from all over the city) so they can each create three decorative letters that will make up our sign. Watch this space to see the result and to find out what our next project might be. This series of activity with Wonder Women is funded by a Stoke-on-Trent City Council Covid Grant.  Monday 8th March First task: remove the oregano from Bed 4 (some things have to go) and give it a final dig over ...oooh it's looking good, ready for planting when things warm up a bit.  Having done some hard digging we had a break over a cup of tea and using high tech scrap of paper and pencil we thought about what we would like to grow and Rachel worked out what should go with what and where. So thinking realistically that we will have 5 beds prepared. The first one will be for flowers, the second for rhubarb and herbs, the third for potatoes, the fourth for cabbage, kale and kohlrabi, the fifth for onions, leeks, garlic and carrots and we will create spaces for a pumpkin, courgettes and kuri squash.  We are going to remove some slabs from the greenhouse to make more growing room for loofahs, tomatoes, aubergines and cucumber. What a plan! And a blackbird keeping an eye on our progress.  We had an over the fence meeting with our colleague Deb Rogers and Liz, an arts student from Staffs Uni looking at how we move into face to face sessions once we are able. Looks like our first one might be with a student placement from Staffs Uni working with out Wonder Women group....watch this space. We will be introducing The Wonder Women next week.
Friday 5th March March is the month for sowing and growing things on. I spent the morning pottering around at home in my greenhouse setting tomatoes, potting on Aubergines and the exciting crop of Loofah plants. Each year i like to grow something new and loofah has been on the list for a few years now. In January i got some seeds and set them. Having never grown them before id asked about and been told the take a while to germinate and have a lot of seed failure, need a long hot season to mature the fruits. not all this advice is true within 2 weeks 7 of the 8 seeds had germinated and were growing strong . According to the radio as i pulled up to the allotment sales of loofah seeds has rocketed this year! and the advice was to set them now. I wish i had known they're starting to get big now.
monster loofahs in need of canes tomatoes starting to show through Once on plot 33 it was a day for digging carrying on with bed 4 where we left off last week. we managed to finish the bed apart from the last corner which houses a Oregano or Marjoram plant (im not sure what the difference is )that will need lifting and the roots cleaning before replanting somewhere we've not quite decided where to put the herb bed yet.
Once again we left with a feeling of having accomplished something
A cold start with very heavy ground, so we decided to leave the digging for the moment and to investigate the fruit bed at the top of Plot 33. It is a bit of a mess. See pic below from January.  We started to clear all the dried weeds and brambles etc. growing around and through the bushes and revealed a very busy fruit bed. Lots of black currants, red currants, gooseberries, an apple tree and in between them all raspberry canes. It seems a shame to remove it all but it will need thinning out and the apple tree digging up and replanting. Rachel's well informed suggestion is that we do this and then see what happens this year. You never know there could be an amazing crop there.....we will see. We did cut the raspberry canes down to the ground. Oh yes, and accidentally found three frogs under a stone   Just clearing out the surface weedy stuff has made a massive difference....you could almost feel the bushes expanding into the space. Digging over the bed will be a gradual task. While working on the fruit bed the sun came out. So, after a cuppa enjoyed while watching two buzzards circling overhead, we dug over a bit more of the single dig bed and transplanted some aquilegias (columbine, granny's bonnet), identified by Rachel, to the 'flower bed'.   For anyone like me ...I googled aquilegia .. here is a pic of 'aquilegia vulgaris'. So much to learn.
Friday 26th Feb A late start again on plot 33 the jobs today was to finish covering the 3rd bed with cardboard, levelling the edge and removing any couch grass roots left behind from the old wooden posts removed on Monday. A very satisfying job especially when you pull a long root out from under the path. While I pottered way Anne got stuck into digging over the 4th bed
Anne digging bed 4 bed 3 ready for more compost We’ve met a few new faces too today, soon we will need a chart to keep names faces and plots in order. Everyone says we’re making good progress and can see a big difference which is encouraging as it’s easy to forget what the plot looked like back in January when we got the keys.  Sitting in the sunshine eating our lunch and admiring the view over Stoke Anne spotted a train pulling in the usually busy Stoke station. While closer to I spotted the first signs of life in the greenhouse.  Radishes have started to germinate in the greenhouse Looks like spring is round the corner!
 What a beautiful sunny day Monday was! With the sun on your back it certainly didn't feel like February. The ground was really wet so we couldn't really dig, hopefully that's for Friday, but we did do lots of bits and pieces. We are wheedling out compost, soil, rotted material etc. from various weed filled containers (a barrel, couple of wheel barrows etc.) we've found around the plot. We used this to start covering the cardboard on our 'no dig' bed experiment. It just looks so much better. This freed the barrel up to put over the rhubarb - to force it (make it grow quicker in my language) and the wheel barrows to use as planters at some point. We removed all the rotting logs that were edging some of the beds. A load to go to the dump, but could we create a bug hotel with some of them? Our next big task is to clear and single dig one of the beds......a bit of an experiment to see how it compares to the 'no dig' ...time will tell.   We basked in the sun with our cup of tea. We planted more seeds to propagate in the greenhouse: broad beans and sweet peas. We also sprinkled the flower bed that Rachel has beautifully dug over in last few sessions with a wild flower combination...fingers crossed! Oh and here is our resident robin!  Friday 19 Feb I set off for Plot 33 today determined to finish digging over the flower boarder after weeks of not been able to work on this task due recent cold snap. I’m happy to say I got there and the whole bed has had some form of cultivation applied.  the finished flower bed 19/2/21 After about 7 big pots of couch, willow herb, buttercup, dandelion, dock and countless other weeds have been removed I am under no illusion that I’ve got it all out but I have made a big dent in it and it feels like a task completed. Next for this bed will be to sow some wildflower and pollinator seed mix to hopefully create a riot of colour to welcome people to the plot.
the first weed dug 15/1/21 6 weeks later While I was digging away under the apple Anne continued to clear the pathways around the last bed including emptying the barrel of soil we seem to have. We decided that we should use this soil (sifted 3 times for weed roots) to cover the cardboard we had put down as part of the no-dig experiment and the result is looking good. After our break time brew we decided to treat ourselves, since getting the plot all the work has had a destructive or taking away feel to it. This time it constructive as we filled up 3 big pots reclaimed from outside the greenhouse to set our first seeds of the year. Radish, carrots and spring onions set and watered in using the only watering can with a rose (the tiny child size on which we found out leaks) then covered over with what looks like a cold frame door for extra warmth  Anne watering in seeds with a baby watering can Fingers crossed in April we will be eating our first salad grown on site
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AuthorsGreening Stoke is a project run in partnership between Festival Stoke and Letting in the Light. We are based in Stoke-on-Trent. COVID SafeWe are started this adventure in January 2021 in the middle of a national lockdown. Gradually, as things begin to open up, close down and then open up again, Rachel and Anne abided by all the Covid-19 Government guidance, worked in a socially distanced way, to prepare and maintain Plot 33 so that they were eventually able to invite the community to work with them. Archives
March 2023
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