Terry Walton is enjoying friendly banter at the allotment now the cafe has reopened
The cafe has reopened so we allotmenteers can relax with coffee and light-hearted banter again
As the doors to May have opened, the allotment has become a different place. The pandemic is receding in Wales and all of us have had our second jab. The environment has become more relaxed and the one big contributor has been the reopening of Albie’s cafe for coffee! No-one’s going inside the cafe other than Jeff, but he’s making coffee again for all of us. This is still taken socially distanced on the seats and benches around the cafe – but the flasks have gone and good coffee is served once again. It resembles a milking parlour as the call goes out, “coffee is ready”, and we all troop towards the cafe from our various plots! The banter never disappeared but it’s returned to a more relaxed, light-hearted nature like it was in the past. The allotment has been our saviour in the dark days of the pandemic and has brought us all through it unscathed!
The early cold weather that April brought to our mountainside has meant that some planting times have fallen behind schedule. None more so than the sharing out of all the tomatoes that are filling my home-heated greenhouse. These are forming first flower trusses and I’ll be pleased this week when Mike, Ron, Dai, Jeff and Gareth can take their plants from me. I can reclaim my home greenhouse and start to plant it with summer crops. To make room for tomatoes in my allotment greenhouse I’ll first have to evict my wormeries. These are normally taken outside in early April but the cold nights meant these hard-working worms were kept warm for a few more weeks. My redeveloped area at the boom of the plot has the perfect place for them to reside throughout summer and autumn. Jeff, as usual, was on hand to help me with these. I now have to take my four drums of potatoes outside my greenhouse and my long border can be prepared for tomatoes. It’s still only early May so I’ll keep an eye out for Jack Frost and my fleece is at the ready.
This border will be turned over and well-ro ed manure worked in; this year I’m trying growing my tomatoes in bo omless buckets filled with compost mixed with dry concentrated manure. I can feed these from the top and water from the bo om and the roots can spread into the borders. Gardening is always about trying something new!