16 May 2005
Onwards and upwards
On our last visit to the allotment we made a pact.
Our session there yesterday was initially disheartening. Everyone has clearly been working very hard while we’ve only been able to make sporadic trips. All the other plots are neat and full of veggie promise. Even the vacant plots have all been cleared and mown. And then there’s ours, with our higgledy-piggledy haphasard paths and beds, not to mention the green manure covering more than half the plot which is growing ever taller.
I felt beaten and broken. I had so wanted to have the patch under control, full of delish produce and looking pretty too but yesterday that seemed like a near-impossible dream. I felt ashamed and useless. There nearly were tears. Owen, who is much more hard-working as well as more pragmatic than me sensibly got stuck in to what needed doing and suggested I did too.
So we started working, and in doing so we looked more closely.
The jostaberry is starting to develop some fruit. At least we think it’s a jostaberry. Reg told me it was a gooseberry. He’s the site secretary and has been tending his plot for many years, continuing even through some very severe health problems. Matt said it was a blackcurrant. Matt was a newbie on the site last year and seems to have disappeared. Granted, as he’s by far the least experienced of the two it seems more likely that Reg is right. But Matt said he’d had ‘the biggest blackcurrants I’ve ever seen’ from the bush and I’m fairly sure that he could tell if he was eating something green or something purple. So, maybe jostas…
Our potatoes suffered in the frosts last week (ah, mtp - it’s not as sheltered down there as I thought!). Though it turns out that everyone else had trouble with this too. So, I did as I was advised by Ben (who now has a very attractive-looking greenhouse up on one of his plots) to cut off the scorched bits and earth them up, which I duly did. It remains to be seen whether or not they recover, but I’m trying to stay hopeful.
Our onions look fabulous! They’re doing really well. As are the few broad beans that I planted back in the day. Some encouragement!
Owen cut a swathe through the green manure. This is a back-breaking job as he’s having to use shears to do it. Actually, it doesn’t break the back as much as it develops the forearms. He’s certainly getting some kind of workout, but might end up looking like Popeye at this rate.
At the end of three hours we had made a very definite difference and had agreed together some form of mutual encouragement, motivation, nagging, hectoring, whatever you want to call it. We will be visiting the site more frequently, but for short spells from now on.
And if that fails, my Dad’s here at the weekend so we’ll get him digging for us.
Filed under: Hard labour — Clare @ 8:42 am
I find that if I stay down the plot for mor than a couple of hours I end up having lots of tea breaks and looking more than I’m working! If I go down with a plan and get on with it I usually accomplish enough in 2 hours to make me happy so I go away ready to make the next plan! I also am trying to make sure that I am planting new stuff at least once a week, that makes is feel even more like I’m making progress! Good work spending 3 hours working, I’d have fallen over!
As for the worms, lots and lots and lots of newspaper mixed in along with some calcified seaweed and you might just save them. If it gets too soggy the drown and the newspaper helps dry it out, my bin must have about 5 issues of the Independent in it by now!
Keep chugging along!
Anna
(16.05.05 @ 10:50 am)
Thanks for the worm tips. I have been mixing in a lot of shredded paper and torn up loo roll tubes, but I think I need to venture into the lower echelons which are still a bit soggy. Ew.
Also, you must remember, when I say 3 hours working, I don’t mean non-stop. We are pretty leisurely, even when feeling under pressure! Just come back from an hour and half today. It’s about to rain, but I might pop back briefly later on. First I need a bacon butty to keep the chugging going!
(16.05.05 @ 11:25 am)
Don’t get disheartened!! We have quite a few plots on our site that are immaculate - not a weed to be seen, perfectly dug beds full of ‘organic material’ (horse poo), and dead-straight rows of vegetables, and not a single blade of grass out of alignment on the closely-mown paths. These plots belong to retired people who must spend all day every day down there working away, and have probably taken years, if not decades, to get their plots into that state. The rest of us manage as best we can, battling against pernicious weeds with little spare time away from jobs, families and ‘life’. If we tried to get our plots looking perfect, we’d never have time to plant anything! Plots (mine included) that are by no means weed-free, have wonky beds and overgrown areas still produce delicious vegetables and wonderful flowers!
(17.05.05 @ 1:27 pm)
Clive - Thanks for your words of encouragement. There is certainly a lot to juggle and (as with so many things in my life) I need to be more realistic about what can be achieved and let myself get there in time. Let’s face it, the food still tastes good even if it comes from a disorganised plot!
As an aside, I was initally a bit thrown by your post. My Dad’s name is Clive so I initially thought he must have posted a comment, so you talking about plots on your site made me scratch my head! Very confusing.
(19.05.05 @ 10:29 am)