01 - 31 January

28 January 2023

First working visit to the plot

I’d not got around to pruning back our apple hedge on plot 42 so as it was a decent January afternoon I thought I’d get this job done. I also took the opportunity to cut back an elder bush on plot 30 which was starting to get alarmingly large.

Left for another year they would have been a problem of making sure branched didn’t fall on the greenhouses behind. The only problem now is what to do with all the prunings. At the moment my intention is to try to have a bonfire before the growing season at the allotment begins in late March. The last time the elder was cut back the prunings were cut into smallish pieces and left around the base of the tree to compost. That worked well so this will be my option if I don’t get the prunings burnt on a bonfire over the next few weeks.