With our 2nd batch of comfrey fertiliser now ‘on the boil’ I decided that it was time to investigate the 1st batch. I have been told many times just how bad it smells so I was somewhat prepared – and pushed the unsuspecting children forward. They confirmed for me that it is ‘DISGUSTING’ and refused to go near it. So, I was left with the task of watering it down and putting it on the veggies. Despite the smell it felt great to be feeding the plants with homemade fertiliser, so it was a really successful exercise for me and I’m sure for the plants. The comfrey plant on the allotment has already started to shoot up healthy fresh leaves after its haircut, so I’ll be able to harvest it again in a few months.

We headed down to the allotment this week to put out the replacement batch of sweetcorn (the first having been killed by the late frost). The new ones are looking really healthy and strong so should fair much better! It is a mix of Invincible standard yellow corn and heritage Rainbow Inca corn which should be a mix of colours – the children are excited to see how these come out.

With the corn in I can now say that there is no more free space at the allotment. I’d taken leeks down to plant out too but just couldn’t find the space. I’ll squeeze them in in the garden but I think my broccoli plants that arrived late will have to be given away which is a shame because we love broccoli! So now it’s a case of trying to keep on top of the weeds and pests. The slugs have taken out my allotment peas which is annoying – I’ve still got some sugar snaps and other peas to put in so I’ll replace them with these but they’ll probably just be eaten too! My plan is to keep them in pots until they are as tall as possible and hopefully out of reach of the slugs if I tie them into the netting. The broad beans in my daughter’s patch are covered in blackfly – they were infested before they even had the chance to flower. I have resorted to spraying with soapy water which seems to help and I’ve taken off all the young top growth but I don’t think that we’ll get much of a harvest.

We had lots of jobs to do on the allotment but as you will see from the photo there is only one job worthy of a little boy’s full concentration – digging in the compost heap!!!

More about Lucy...
Lucy is part of the fantastic Heritage Seed Library team, working hard to grow and preserve seed varieties that are no longer available so that our members can enjoy growing them at home. Raising two young children, Lucy is keen to grow an array of fruit and vegetables to become more sustainable and to encourage her children to get involved in growing.

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