Our patch of earth: British summertime

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?

Saturday 31 May 2008

British summertime

Rubbish, rubbish, weather.

It rained all bank holiday. Literally. All. Bank. Holiday. Adam said "Don't fret, we'll go to the allotment a couple of evenings this week." Only then it went and rained all week too.

So here I am at home wondering exactly how big the weeds have got, and whether the bindweed has completely taken over the strawberry patch, and that we really, really should get another water butt sorted out because just think of all that water that went to waste.

The sweetcorn is coming up, by the way.

Plus we've got cucumber and red and orange pepper seedlings on the windowsill, as well as butternut squash, acorn and scallopini squash and pumpkin seedlings too, all of which are just starting to poke their heads above the soil. I'm hoping to plant these small plants out in a few weeks but also sow some seeds straight in the ground - a sort of experiment to see which actually does better. If they'll go straight in the ground ok then there doesn't seem much point taking over reams of windowsill space at home to start them off, especially when you have to harden them off outside afterwards as well. It's all a bit too much mollycoddling for me - I'd rather we just bung stuff in the ground and let it fend for itself. Tough love, y'see.

If anyone can give me hints or tips on how squashes grow, that'd be appreciated. The only squash-related thing we grew last year was courgette, and they were bushy plants. I've heard of training squash up supports, but I'm assuming they'd need to be more substantial than your usual bean poles...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: I've planted my squash and pumpkins amongst the sweetcorn. They are supposed to trail along the ground suppressing weeds.
I've found growing up supports is ok until you have to engineer a support for the fruit itself - I gave up on that as they are really heavy.; 1 June 2008 at 18:56
Nic said...: I grew butternut squash up a cane last year...I know, I know, but I got confused and thought it was a cucumber to start with so it was in the greenhouse with all of its cucumber friends....anyway I kept tying it into the cane and then when the squash grew, I popped them in those net bags that you get oranges and things from the supermarkets in and then tied that to the canes. It kind of worked but I think it had vertigo ;)
This year my squash are rambling around on the floor as usual.; 6 June 2008 at 09:32

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Saturday 31 May 2008

British summertime

2 comments: