2020 was a strange year for most people, but one thing that kept me sane is this little plot of land. It served as an escape for us when there really was no where else to go.

January was a very wet and slow month. The excess rainfall hindered our efforts to turn over the plot. Our soil is heavy clay, so most of the allotment had become quite boggy.

In February we were battered by storms, but our allotment came out mostly unscathed. The allotment really begins to come to life around this time of year; the mild winter brought forward the spring growth.

Spring had well and truly sprung by March. Signs of life were beginning to show everywhere; flowers blooming, seeds sown, blossom on the trees. The ground went from one extreme to another, waterlogged to bone dry! Its a busy time on the plot, as many seeds need to be sown in Spring in preparation for the seasons ahead.

Although April showers hadn’t hit us yet, the allotment was plodding along quite nicely. Seedlings were germinating and growing well in the greenhouse, as well as the makeshift greenhouse in the office. With the ground still being so dry, digging to plant the potatoes was much harder than it needed to be.

By May, it was time to erect our bean sticks. This year we grew four varieties of beans; Golden Runner, Purple Teepee Dwarf, Borlotti and the classic Scarlet Runner bean. We put a tippy tap on the plot as we thought it would be a good idea to have somewhere to thoroughly wash our hands because of how dirty we tend to get in the summer months as well as Corona, as water points on the allotment are few and far between.

We celebrated one year on the plot in June. It really is amazing to see what you can achieve in just one year. Everything is in full swing and although the allotment productivity is yet to peak, we had just begun to harvest crops. The ground was still terribly dry even though the allotment was watered almost everyday. We harvested some of our elderflowers and made the most wonderful elderflower champagne, which we are still working our way through!

We had lost almost all of our fruit on our trees by the time July rolled around, although this is quite common in their first year or so. We were harvesting crops every day, there was a complete abundance of food to be had and some of it was preserved for later use.

In August, we lost all of our tomatoes to blight for the second year running. The weather earlier in the year had been hot and dry, as well as dank and wet. The unstable weather created the perfect breeding ground for blight. Harvests were still daily, as was keeping the plot tidy and the weeds at bay.

As summer slowly faded to autumn, the plot was still giving us hearty harvests every week throughout September. The squash and pumpkin were growing well and were almost ready to be harvested, the gladioli [in pots] continued to bloom right up until the beginning of November. The bean sticks were taken down a little earlier than planned, due to them being battered by high winds throughout the month.

October was still a busy month on the plot. Most crops had either finished producing or had vastly slowed down by this point, apart from the pumpkins and squash. Our orange pumpkin crop was much smaller than last year. Instead, we experimented more with different varieties and have certainly found some keepers. Uchiki Kuri has certainly become a firm favourite.

Things had slowed down as November arrived. The last few crops were pulled up and we began processing the seeds we had saved throughout the year. It was the perfect time to have a good tidy at the plot, so whilst I spent a lot of time pottering around in the shed, Tom stripped some pallets for wood to be used for upcoming projects. We also took the downtime at the allotment to turn over the soil and add agricultural gypsum to it. We grow our food without the use of any pesticides but have struggled with our soil as it is heavy clay. Agricultural gypsum is a natural way of improving the structure and nutritional value of the soil and help drainage.

December remained a mild month, surprising signs of growth were popping up here and there. Spring bulbs were just starting to peek out from under the trees, and even the garlic was making headway. Visits to the allotment were few and far between during this month, although I still found some time to sow some sweet peas to ensure early blooms for Spring.

Here’s hoping for a brighter, more fruitful 2021.