Hillside Harvest March Newsletter
Here is another monthly newsletter from the Growers Committee following the deep winter break. The days are growing longer and sunshine has been spotted, though I understand that we are due for another cold spell before the end of the month.
Winter on Lotti
January and February have been cold and snowy. It was a great shock to hear that our Polytunnel had been squashed by the weight of one snowfall. It seemed likely that serious, perhaps even terminal, damage had been done but the Poly popped back up and with some running repairs to door frames and supports by Glenda, Eddy and Nick, things don’t look too bad. The Polythene is still intact though the structure has a flatten top. But clearly the Poly will be under threat again from any heavy snowfall in the future. We have identified a way of reinforcing the central section of the roof using adjustable props and Eddy is leading on purchasing the materials needed (about £150). We need to to make the repairs before the end of April so we don’t delay this year's main growing period in the Poly. A big thank you to Eleanor’s mum who has donated £100 towards the cost of the repairs.
March
Lotti is looking pretty good for the time of year and we seem far more ready for the new season than ever before. This is mainly due to keeping the Wednesday and Saturday sessions going throughout the winter (in past years we have eased up in December and January).
We also have one big weekend open day each month when we try to get as many people on to the plot as possible to tackle some of the bigger projects. In February we also put on a training day with a workshop on compost. This brought new people on to the plot. We also had some student volunteers from Sheffield University. This all helped us make good progress on clearing and composting beds; weeding and making paths in the Fruit area; and renewing the bark chips on some of the paths. We have another training day scheduled for March 16th. We have developed five mini projects of work that could benefit from concerted action by small groups on these monthly dates. These cover bed preparation, the fruit area, paths, building a bridge on the path to the lower car park, the top boundary and repairing the Polytunnel.
We had a stand at Sheffield University Student Volunteering Fair in February.
We have done a lot of work on infrastructure during the winter but our efforts will switch to growing from April onwards. Here are some of the improvements:
· A new raised bed in Rivelin and new paths.
· Fruit trees relocated from Plot62. These are now in a border alongside the new path that runs between Rivelin and the Poly. Eleanor is busy pruning all the fruit trees and we are going to re-erect the poles and wire to support the Esplanade fruit trees. We are going to make these linear beds next to the main path attractive with flowers (Paul is leading on this).
· We are making the Wyming Brook area in to a more structured growing area. We are building edges and paths to make five 4.8x1.4m beds. This will be the overflow area for any vegetables that cannot be fitted into the four main areas of the crop rotation. (see picture below)
· The wood shed is looking very tidy!
· The compost bins have produced some great compost (thanks to Eddy for managing the many bins).
Looking Forward to 2013 Growing Season
We have prepared a new bed planting plan for 2013 incorporating the standard 4 year crop rotation (legumes, potatoes, root crops and brassicas). Seeds have been ordered accordingly and the first seeds (Broad beans, Tomatoes, Cucumber, first crop Broccoli, Peppers and Leeks) have been sown or are scheduled for March.
The bulk of seed sowing gets underway in April. We are staggering sowings so that we spread the harvest over a longer period (called sowing for succession). As our crops suffered badly from poor germination and slug attacks on small seedlings last year, we are sowing more items in pots and tubes first and will not plant out the seedlings until they have reached a good size.
So we have made great progress this winter but there is always lots more to do! We hope to see you on the plot on a Wednesday morning, Saturday afternoon or at one of the monthly open days.
Paul on behalf of the Growers Committee
