Allotment Jobs for January

Digging and clearing the beds.

Now is a good time to make ready your plot. However, before you start you'll need to check the conditions of the ground, especially following a cold or wet spell of weather.

If the ground is dry enough, winter is a great time for digging - but keep off any soil that is frozen or waterlogged.

The recommended method of digging is in neat trenchs, which should be as deep and as wide as the spade, turning the soil onto the side as you go, you may have a prefered method, be sure to break up large clods of soil.

You'll want to put back lost nutrients from last seasons growing, do this by adding home-made compost, leaf mould or manure to the trench, or use bags of green waste bought from the council.

Fork compost into the soil, breaking up the base of the trench to improve the drainage beneath. Repeat this, working your way down the bed, avoid walking on freshly dug ground. Finally turn topsoil from each trench into the previous one.

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