Winter 2026

The start of autumn has been unseasonably warm this year, and after some much-needed rain the weeds are excitedly growing again at pace. So, with some help from a friend, we pulled all the weeds in about a day from the cultivated part of our plot. Excitingly, the weeds are beginning to change. Where we’ve previously had endless bindweed we’re now seeing Oxalis instead. Oxalis is a bit like a giant shamrock, but underground it forms tight clumps of a dozen or so pale/white bulbs. It’s known as a pervasive weed on allotments, just as bindweed and Cooch grass, but it’s far, far easier to deal with and less likely to strangle or dry out other plants. To me: I prefer this weed than others!

We obviously do not want them just coming straight back though, so we’re going to have a go at some no-dig method. We scrounged around some local businesses for cardboard, and Iceland turned out to be the best. A boot full of supermarket crisp boxes later and we’re good to go. We’ve covered the whole plot in cardboard and used a heavy layer of bark chippings around the blackberry bushes. Once the solar work is fully done and our drive is back under control I’ll order a pallet of well-rotted manure.

It’s more expensive than buying it from a local farmer, but without a van or trailer, and with our allotment right down the far end of the field, we can’t really get manure delivered in any other way. We’ll have a pallet of 60x50L bags popped on the end of our drive and ferry the remainder back/forth with my partner’s Renault Clio.

I’m hoping it can be done in 5 trips, which will probably be a hard afternoon of work, but just one afternoon.

We’re giving up on the fruit bushes, sadly, but I’m going to replace them with a row of slightly better positioned roses which I’ll order bare-root in November. I’ll pick shrub roses which are good for cutting, and ones with a nice strong scent. I think cut roses might be among the best !/$ things we could grow, with a bunch of flowers costing at least £5, often £10, a few roses will pay dividends. More importantly though, I like roses.