Today is officially the first day of spring. Time to get started back at the allotment, and get the plot ready for a new season of growing.

I made the first proper visit to my plot yesterday, and spent a few productive hours, getting a few jobs done. I’m in the process of tidying up the plot, trying to recover from last years disaster. They say third time lucky, so fingers crossed, this is going to be my year!

I started out getting a fire going in my rubbish burner, a recycled oil barrel from a local garage, burning some old twigs and dried up weeds together with some bits of wood off my old greenhouse.

Next I cut back the Autumn fruiting raspberries, right down to the ground as you’re supposed to before the end of February. Talk about leaving things to the last minute

Also, my strawberry plants ended up fighting a losing battle last year with a bunch of buttercups. They’re not easy getting rid of when they first get hold, so I dug out 20 plants (a mix of mature plants and runners), and put them in some pots of compost. My plan is to build a strawberry terrace when I get the time, and put them on there i pots. Should be an awful lot easier to manage, both in terms of weeds and in terms of protecting them from pests.

Finally, I made short process of dealing with all the grass on the plot - the result of digging in fresh manure in the topsoil last year. I got out the knapsack and treated the lot of it with weedkiller. A bit sad in a way - but there’s just no way I can manage the plot without help - as time is a major issue.

All in all a rather productive weekend. If everything goes to plan I’m going to order some seed potatoes off eBay before the end of the day, because I think I might get a better deal here than with the commercial seed merchants. More on that later.

Technorati Tags: Allotment Spring Cleaning, Strawberry Plants, Pruning Raspberries.