The Carrot Tops Allotment Blog!

February has been a total wash out this year. If you’re gardener like me, yhe wind, the rain and the cold can be really off putting, and it makes you not want to go outside.

Also, dare I say it, I’ve experienced some gardening-fomo – whereby I keep scrolling and seeing lots of people sowing seeds and getting stuck into the growing season, whereas, compared the hurry of activity of January I experienced, I’ve not done a lot at all this month.

This reel I made on Instagram pretty much summed everything up at one point…

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Looking outside of the window, at the damp and the cold, I keep thinking to myself that there’s no point in sowing anything, as I don’t have a cold frame, meaning it would be too cold and nothing would germinate.

Video: Planning the allotment for 2024

I decided one day in February that come rain or shine, I’ll be going out there and going to measure the plot and figure things out.

I thought this could be my achievable goal for the month, in between the splashes of rain, and it seemed to fit in my head as the right thing to do seeing as I’ve not grown anything properly for quite a while.

So out I went, and I measured up.

Once I measured up, I Googled garden planner to see what was out there to help me focus my thoughts, and I stumbled across Growveg.com and decided to give it a whirl.

I was most impressed with how it works, and what features it has, and I think really, I only scratched the surface of what it can do. The intro video states that planning can be overwhelming even for experienced gardeners.

I’m not an experienced gardener, but it gave me reassurance and confidence to use it none the less.

Here’s what may plot looks like, and this is the plan I came up with.

And this is what the growing season looks like in table form, as if I were to line up all the seed packets in a row and work out what to sow/plant/harvest.

It was also reassuring to know that I can’t really do much sowing until the weather picks up, because I’ve not done a dot of sowing yet – but that’s ok.

All I need to do now is order the seeds, so even though February was a bit of washout, I still managed to do something worthwhile. With any luck, I should be sowing in a week or two to catch up.

I’ll go into more detail in another post about what I’m growing and why, and how much it costs in another post.

The job tally so far

1. New posts for new numbers.
2. Raised pot for carrot growing.
3. Burn unwanted, rotten wood.
4. Repair the shed bottom on the outside, make mouse proof.
5. Board shed inside, add more shelves possibly, create a sitting area.
6. Chop open new barrels, remove lids, place in positions on plot.
7. Dig out compost bins.
8. Rebuild compost bins.
9. Clear out the bit behind the shed, create seed sowing area perhaps, or plant shrubs.
10. Order seeds/bulbs…etc.
11. Clean out pond, create sediment catcher (I think that’s what it’s called?).
12. Weed rhubarb strawberries and gooseberries and currants.
13. Dig out raspberries, replant.
14. Repair steel water butt.
15. Prune blackberries.
16. Sow seeds/plant bulbs.
17. Paint sheds, paint bench.
18. Go to the tip, remove unwanted stuff.
19. Repair wheelbarrow.
20. Build a new bug hotel with scrap logs and wood at the front of the plot.
21. Bonus: Plan growing season!