Our patch of earth: Six Nations slacking

How it began...

So, we’d spent time walking past our local allotments, getting more and more interested in the mysterious things that other people were growing and the ingenious uses that people had found for stuff that non-allotmenteers would probably term ‘junk’.

In March 2007, we spoke to our council, and discovered that our local allotments aren’t council owned - it turns out they’re held in trust. So, we decided to find the secretary. We spoke to Mike and Louise who were really welcoming and enthusiastic, then eventually tracked down Alan the secretary and, a few weeks later, we chose a plot with a little blue shed, a water butt, a small bench, and a patch of oregano.

We dug. It was April, and for those of you who remember April 07, it was hot, hot, hot. The ground was like rock. Adam was having to jump onto the fork to get it into the soil. But we persevered – this was our new veggie patch! We had plans for a herb garden over there, and some rows of beans over here, a compost heap at the back and flowers planted down the edges… until, one week in, a little old Italian lady turned up and claimed the plot was hers. Wah! Much confusion ensued, until we decided we’d rather not have the hassle and uncertainty, and much less be known as the new guys who kicked a little old lady off her plot. Gracious, no.

So we found a new spot. South facing, with rhubarb, gooseberry bushes (I didn’t know they were spiky!), a damson tree (which we thought were plums to start with – till mum made Damson gin and we recognised the fruit) and the Biggest Strawberry Patch In The World.

Twas overgrown, tis true, but much better than plot number 1. Hurrah for little old Italian ladies!

And two sheds! His and Hers, obviously, mainly because mine isn’t quite tall enough for Adam to stand upright in. So, mine has the tea and coffee making facilities, small gas stove, radio, seed packets on nails and an assortment of gardening gloves, while Adam’s has all the manly things – tools, wooden crates, useful bits of wood, tangled netting and carefully wound up bits of wire.

So the digging had to begin, again. After assessing the plot, with some useful hints and random-plant-identifying by Mike, we headed home to get forks and other digging equipment. Ten minutes later we returned to our overgrown plot to hear a strange buzzing noise, and find Mike strimming all the thigh-high weeds with his petrol strimmer! Thanks Mike! A good start to our compost heap… (Add 'build compost heap' to the To Do list.)

And then, half an hour later, as we’re just beginning to curse the sun for being too hot and the earth for being too hard, around the corner of our sheds comes our saviours Mike, Louise and their mate Ali, on white stallions, (no, not really) all brandishing forks and ready to help us dig, till we’d dug the same amount we’d done on plot no.1. Bless ‘em.

And then it was all go! Nine months later, 2008 seems promising. We've read many, many more books, got more ideas and got much more ambitious. And we've actually grown stuff which tasted gooooood. It could still all go horribly wrong, but even if it does I can guarantee we'll still get some tasty fruit and veg from between the weeds, all for a few pence, and a bit of blood, sweat and tears... (well, hopefully not the blood or the tears... just good ol' elbow grease.)

And a bit of help from our friends and family. Any time, chaps - you're very welcome! We'll get the kettle on...

Sounds fun, eh?

Sunday 3 February 2008

Six Nations slacking

Only one trip to the allotment this weekend. I blame the rugby for keeping us entertained all day Saturday.

First things first... Potato Chitting Update!
Compare this to last week's pic - thou shalt be amazed.

Planted a row of broad beans today. It's a confusing matter, actually. The books we've got all say to either plant broad beans in August or September to overwinter for a spring crop, or plant them in spring for a summer crop. But our wise old allotment neighbours assure us that right now is the time to sow them, straight into the ground. And who are we to argue? Anyway, we've done one double row, and will do another in a couple of weeks, and another row a couple of weeks after that, and see what happens. I was going to take a picture, but broad beans, once they're buried underneath a layer of soil (no matter how skilfully it's been raked to a fine tilth) really isn't that exciting to look at.

A bag of beans was only 60p from the oh-so-cheap allotment shop, so even if nothing comes up the only thing we'll be missing out on is a bit of plot space, which I guess we can bung something else into in a couple of months. We also bought some mange tout today - Oregon Sugar Pod. Same variety as we had last year cos they were so tasty.

The garlic is all coming up nicely, the new cloves are just starting to poke their little green spikes above the soil, but no sign yet of the shallots and onion sets we planted last week. Also weeded the cabbages and turnips today. Beheaded one cabbage plant, but it wasn't my fault because it had grown with a wiggly stem which got in the way of the hoe.

Didn't spend quite as long down on the plot today because oooh, it was windy and, oooh, the wind was freezing. Siberian, in fact. But it was a good time to try out my new gardening gloves, which sport a natty yellow and black colour combination, with three layers (count them!) for waterproofing, thermal insulation and something else, I forget. Toasty hands, I had.

2 comments:

Vlad the Inhaler said...: Well ya wouldn't think that allotmenting could sound such fun!
But...if you need to plant a spud to grow a spud, whence came the first spud?; 5 February 2008 at 21:34
Diana said...: There is something about planting SOMETHING!! on Good Friday. Can't remember what it is, may be sweet peas, not it's something to eat! 'Cause that was the first day off chaps had had in the past to their summer sowing. I have you as a "Blog to look at," on my blog!! Love ya' D-Down-Under xx; 6 February 2008 at 02:44

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Sunday 3 February 2008

Six Nations slacking

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