Dig In's First Ever Newsletter!

 

Still chilly...

The now thawed, it rained, then it got cold again! It was a very very chilly morning at Dig In when Karen went to check how things were on 13th February. 

 Everything OK in the polytunnel, even though it had gone down to minus 5.5 degrees C! 

 

Lots of footprints in the snow. 

 

The floating glass ball had got frozen in, so Karen pushed it out so now there's some clear water for birds to drink from. 

 

The black plastic Karen put down a couple of weeks ago has stayed put. 

 

And the garlic has certainly got the cold snap it needs to grow well!

Dig In - in the snow!

 Kath took some lovely photos last week of Dig In in the snow. So here's a few of them! Can you guess what's under the snow?

Waging War against Weeds

Maybe that is a little too militaristic! After all some weeds are pretty, some are useful, and many aren't too much of a problem. And what is the difference between a weed and a wildflower? Not much! However, Dig In does have a bit of a perennial weed problem, something inherited from before Dig In began, when those allotment plots were unused for many years. Perennial weeds are ones which go on for years and years, often with long roots underground - many of us remember them! 

Here's Karen digging couch grass weeds last April

As well as digging out, there are other ways of keeping down weeds like this. One is to shade them out with mulch. A mulch is anything laid  on the soil surface, from a layer of compost to landscape fabric with woodchippings on top, they are all mulch. We've used newspapers and woodchip to reduce the couch grass round the herbs and raspberries at Dig In. This slowly decomposes and feeds the soil too, and is an environmental option. However it is best used on perennial crops, so a different approach is needed on the Sunray Beds where we grow annual vegetables.

Here there's newspaper mulch round redcurrants, covered by hay

 For years we have used black plastic sheeting to keep out the light through the winter months. This isn't a common technique, usually landscape fabric which lets water through is a better option for healthy soil. But Dig In gets very wet in the winter, being at the bottom of the hill, the water drains down. Some years the lawn is like a pond! So the soil stays healthy under the plastic, and the weeds are reduced. Plastic degrades over time, and after about 10 years use we needed to replace the plastic sheets. We found some made of recycled plastic to be less un-environmental, and last week Karen went to collect it, helped - at a distance - by Kath. Then was the fun of laying it out and cutting to size! 

Eventually all but one unplanted bed covered - hopefully massively reducing the weeding time spent by volunteers!

[Whilst Dig In is closed during lockdown, Karen and a skeleton crew are keeping an eye on things ready for volunteers to come back]

January Update

Due to the current lockdown, Dig In will not be running volunteer sessions for the next few weeks. We will keep in touch and let you know when we are able to start sessions again.

We'd like to thank all our volunteers for the sterling work you have done in keeping safe and cheerful over the last 5 months since we started back again. We hope to see you all soon, and keep well!

Here's some photos from January.

 

We managed one volunteer session in January before lockdown! We tackled brambles...

And cleaned the outside of the polytunnel to let light in

Karen brought in some plants for the polytunnel.

 

Look at those roots!

Garlic doing well - it needs the cold of winter.

Kale and purple sprouting brocolli

Pulp Friction soft fruit cage

The Community Orchard - looking good in its first winter

Mizuna flourishing in the polytunnel

Apples boxed up and ready to take to the Stapleford Food Project

Seeds all ready to go for spring!

 

Dig In's 2020 Part 3 - August to December

 Things aren't back to 'normal' yet but we've been gardening and having a great time none the less. Thanks to everyone and let's look forward to 2021 and spring!

 

 On 1st August we welcomed back our first 'team'! Socially distanced tea breaks are now the thing, but doesn't stop us having a great chat!

 

And at last we got some help with the weeds threatening to overtake the paths!

 

 

Preparing a bed for onions

 

Weeding the raspberries and chopping the weeds for compost

 

 

Carrying on the Sensory Bed renovation after almost a year's gap

 

 

Harvesting tomatoes - one person/household at a time in the polytunnel at the moment

 

 

 

Addressing Henry the Giant's lockdown beard growth - Saturday Team 2 cheerful in the rain - again!

 

More harvesting in the polytunnel - was a great year for tomatoes

 

Rosemary cuttings

Strawberry supremo at work - jam next year??

The Mayor of Stapleford, Councillor Richard MacRae, helping us with the prize-giving for our Virtual Pumpkin Carving Competition

 

 And finally, in December we welcomed back the Pulp Friction volunteers! The yellow bag has two pumpkins and loads of apples in it!

Dig In's 2020 - Part 2 - March to July

I think we all know what happened next... one minute (it seems) we were planting trees at a distance, then we were having an email committee meeting (we hadn't heard of Zoom yet!) - and having to close, for a few weeks, we thought...

 

Dig In, looking so well-weeded in late March. But empty, no volunteers!

 

 

Karen taking a break from planting potatoes as fast as she could. That may be why she ate all the biscuits...

 

 

It was one of the best years for spring veg in the polytunnel, but no vols to eat all the veg! So Karen chopped and bagged and made stir-fry mixes for the local food project in Stapleford.

 

 

Karen also got sowing big time! Alex had had a brilliant idea - we could run a Virtual Veg Show for local families. So Karen made up loads of seed packs, sowed seeds and wrote info sheets.

 

Waiting outside the top entrance of the allotments in early May, with trays of seed packs and plants.

 

 

And here's one of the families who came to get seed packs and plants.

 

 

We had lots of great entries to the Spring Virtual Veg Show. Here's Karen delivering prizes - at a distance!

 

 

As well as Karen, there was the 'Skeleton Crew' of keyholder volunteers who came in singly to help keep things under control. Here's lawnmower and secretary Debbie.

 

 

Community Orchard creator and treasurer Alex. Helen, Kath and David were other Skeleton Crew stalwarts. 

 

 

And Gary from Pulp Friction, in the fruit cage!

 

 

By July things were growing well in the polytunnel......and outside. But we were keen to get our volunteers back - safely. And they were keen to come back too!

 

 

The Dig In Covid-19 sub-committee of Karen, Debbie, Kath and David got advice from Nottingham Growing Network and Social Farms and Gardens. We wrote a Risk Assessment and planned new ways of working. David made a super 'Tippy Tap' for hand washing, crafted lovely loo roll holders, and a nifty hanger for sanitiser outside the compost loo.

 

 

And Karen ordered a whole lot of sanitiser, gloves, paper towels and trugs! We were ready to open again.