Terry Walton looks forward to a new year and a new start for all
As we welcome in a more hopeful 2021, let’s all keep on gardening and growing lots of our own food
We face 2021 with a lot more hope and optimism with the roll out of the Covid vaccine. After what was an extraordinary 2020, li le did we know when we purchased our seeds and made our plans that our lives would be impacted for so long and in so many difficult ways. The allotment has been the one constant in all of this and I, along with so many others, kept my sanity and health by being out on this open space. You could forget temporarily, and life continued unchanged, although the meetings were at a social distance. Let’s hope this virus will soon be defeated and the full camaraderie of allotmenteers will be restored in sheds and cafes throughout the country.
The other piece of good news is that the hours of daylight are on the change and we’re slowly but surely turning our lights on a li le later each evening. But now the sun’s been lost behind the clouds I’m unable to see at what hour it appears over our hillside to greet another day! We may not know what Mother Nature has in store for us this spring and summer, but one thing that looks likely for this year is food prices are going to be high. This is the time for all gardeners, and those who are not, to do something about it. During 2020 many people turned to gardening as a way of living with the virus and I hope that many of them have enjoyed this way of life and stick with it.
This is the time of year that work on the plot is almost non existent. I was removing the fixed frames that held the Enviromesh over my carrots to protect them from carrot fly all summer and autumn long. These are rigid frames and I constantly have to replace the legs as they’re in the wet soil for many months. Also, when I take them off they’re large and difficult to store. Mike, my neighbouring allotmenteer, saw me struggling and over a socially distanced coffee said, ‘why don’t you make them collapsible?’ The plan was set! Mike picked up the tanalised wood from a local wood yard and cut them to length. So, next year the legs will be knocked into the ground along the row and the frame screwed together, and all this after the carrots have been sown. Then, when they’ve served their purpose, they’ll be unscrewed and the individual lengths stored in my new shed. This will make them last for years and still protect my carrots. Two heads are be er than one! Thank you Mike!