Keeping busy over winter

[Sian Bunney]

Hello all,

For our 'Allotment Inspiration' pages in the December issue, I'd be grateful for your usual brilliant responses to this question:

How do you keep busy in the garden or allotment during the less productive winter months?


Best wishes,

Sian

[Cadalot]

There is always something to do on an allotment over winter its a time for infrastructure works to the allotment that you don't get time for during the growing and harvesting portion of the year.

Clearing and making compost, there is always something to do one is never at a loss. No matter the weather unless it's actually raining you will find me on one plot or another every Sunday.

If its raining there is always something you could be doing in the shed or the greenhouse. if you are looking for inspiration look at my diary (link in the signature) there are records of what I did over four winters for you to digest and select from.

My plan this year is to get as much infrastructure work done on my new allotment ready for next years growing season.

[Penellype]

I usually end up with a list of stuff that I want to get done while I can actually move around the garden. This year that includes moving the cold frame to a different position (more sun), replacing my fruit cage net with a finer insect mesh (I use it for brassicas and carrots as well as fruit) and removing an uninspiring pieris plant to make room for a blackcurrant bush. I also have the road end of the front garden to reorganize, having just had a leylandii hedge removed. I anticipate this will involve several visits to the garden centre

Then there are the regular winter jobs to do - a lot of cutting back dead foliage on perennials, pruning fruit bushes and generally tidying up.

Also important is the planning aspect - what varieties to use, when to sow them and the final details of the groundplan which has already been roughly thought through. No doubt I will again try to beat the calendar by sowing inappropriate seeds too early in the year and ending up with a plant flow problem!

[spamvindaloo]

In a moment of total insanity I recently decided to take on the plot opposite mine, mainly because it hasn't been worked in over three years and I was fed up seeing a plot full of five feet high weeds blowing their seeds everywhere. So I've got a mammoth task of trying to clear 390 square metres of new plot and move all of my fruit (trees and soft fruit) across whilst dormant and leaving my existing plot just for veg.

In between that and working 60 hour weeks, if I manage to work on my existing plot then I want to build some new beds (I've had the timber since Easter 2015 ) put up the greenhouses I bought ages ago on offer at B&Q, sort out some irrigation on the polytunnel, paint the shed and have a good tidy up plus the other 1001 things I'll find that need doing.

I doubt I'll get it all done before winter 2020.

[Greenleaves]

Winter for me is all about maintenance, not just infrastructure but the soil too. Time is also spent removing habitats for some of the pests that lurk ready to pounce in the spring.

I also have a new allotment that will need plenty of TLC

[Snadger]

Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!

[mothhawk]

I watch the birds on the winter feeders which go up in the garden when the runner beans come out and there's a bit of space....

[Jay-ell]

It's going to be structural and planning for me - assuming work and weather permit.

Starting November I'll be burning the wood built up from the demolition of two rotten fences and a shack.

This will leave the are clear so I can get the frame up for my polytunnel (weather permitting) and the beds to go inside it.

I plan on starting the redesign of my second plot to get the best usage of the area. Won't be able to do all of it but hopefully get a couple of the beds rebuilt and moved and also get the bean frames in place.

Of course I need to sort out the seed collection so that's going to take up a fair chunk. Then there's sorting out the pots, frames, canes, nets, etc.

[Sian Bunney]

Thank you for your great replies - enjoy the rest of your harvests before the cold weather sets in!

[BUFFS]

SPAMVINDALOO, you need to find more to do , it will stop you having so much time on your hands..

[rary]

This year I intend to have some fresh greens for Christmas dinner, also shifting my greenhouse benches to give the concrete floor a good clean, I would do the greenhouse glass as well but need to make sure OH didn't see me or I would have to clean the Windows also

[BUFFS]

I watch the birds on the winter feeders which go up in the garden when the runner beans come out and there's a bit of space....

I keep feeding the birds all year so we have "residents" that hoover up sawflies and cabbage white grubs etc, so I just let them get on with it, the robin will feed from the hand when he feels brave, but sits on the rake handle as I use the fork/spade about a yard away, and he misses nothing and turns up only minutes after I go out there....

[bramble]

I really dont do much gardening in winter. I grow some winter lettuce in the greenhouse but dont eat a lot of it as I find I prefer something hot. I make jam or any other preserve I have the ingredients for.
Generally I try to get out and walk every day even when the weather is bad. I potter and pick weeds and rake up leaves but otherwise not a lot to do outdoors.
I also go to my pitch and putt and try not to let the weather beat me.
Hate the dark mornings and evenings.

[BUFFS]

I really dont do much gardening in winter. I grow some winter lettuce in the greenhouse but dont eat a lot of it as I find I prefer something hot. I make jam or any other preserve I have the ingredients for.
Generally I try to get out and walk every day even when the weather is bad. I potter and pick weeds and rake up leaves but otherwise not a lot to do outdoors.
I also go to my pitch and putt and try not to let the weather beat me.
Hate the dark mornings and evenings.

I am with you on that, I don't function too well in the cold, the legs pack up, now with a bit of sun on your back and a packet of seeds in your hand, now there is happiness..

[Jimmy]

In winter I retire to the Pub.
Jimmy