Manchester Drive Allotment Society

2008 started with me digging out more of the grass from the front of plot 44. This gave me another 3-4 feet of bed at the front of the plot. In addition to that I also dug out a semi-circular bed at the front next to the large spiky plant. I didn't know quite what I was going to grow there, but it meant less grass to cut!

I also dug out a new bed on Plot 45a. This was de-weeded (more bindweed), rotovated and then planted with potatoes. They went in late, but managed to avoid blight until very late in the season. I think I missed the first round as mine were the only healthy looking potatoes on the site. Admittedly there had been many growing which were now being enjoyed on the dinner plate, but I got there in the end .

Sweet corn was grown again, and I experimented with Squashes grown amongst them. This was a suggestion I found on the internet, and I must say that I wouldn't recommend it. I didn't get any fruit - the plants seem to prefer more sunlight than the corn was letting through.

I experimented with Nasturtiums to try to rid my beans and other plants of Blackfly. The idea is that these pests prefer the Nasturtiums and infest these flowers rather than the beans etc. This worked with some success, although there were still enough on the beans to make picking them a messy job .

The Swiss Chard had been left from last year in the ground over winter, which was also a mistake. It looked good, but soon turned to seed. Whilst I was on holiday this year, the corner of my plot was covered with seeds! These were to re-grow for a couple of years to come!!

At the beginning of the year I suffered my first attack of vandalism. It wasn't much, but someone took offence at the angle iron that held up my Blackberry wires, and bent it right over. This snapped some of the branches of the Blackberry bush, but that and the inconvenience was the extent of the damage. The angle iron was bent upright again, and strengthened with a stake. The Iron would need replacing at some point, but would be fine for the time being.

The Garlic which was planted last year turned out really well. It was soo strong, but there was soo much of it! I ended up chopping it up and freezing it for future use!

Rather late in the season I dug out a Raspberry bed. The Raspberry bed was double-dug with lots of compost. Raspberry canes were purchased from a shop on e-bay. These all grew for the first year, but either because I planted them late or didn't look after them properly, only three of them re-grew the following year.

The large clump of Asparagus at the front of the plot needed to be moved. It was still being driven over, so I decided to start an Asparagus bed. This was placed in the middle of plot 44 to keep it safe. The bed was double dug with compost and sand. The sides were edged with broken paving slabs to try to keep the grass out. The Asparagus was dug up, de-weeded, and planted in the new bed. I also purchased a number of asparagus plants from an e-bay shop to build up the bed. These didn't do as well as the mature plants, and I don't think many survived .