27 June 2005
Allotment and social life: an unsustainable combination?
Today we visited the plot for the first time in, ooh, well over a week and found that everything had gone crazy in the sun and rain. Well it would, wouldn’t it?
In spite of our very best intentions a combination of heavy work commitments, a weekend away in Nottingham and then giving into temptation in the form of beer and barbeque at Richard and Sally’s meant that we didn’t get there. It’s something of a pattern, isn’t it?
We did our usual weeding, watering and trimming, but there’s no getting away from the fact that we’re just not giving it enough time. And in spite of the fact that I feel shamefaced and disappointed that we have got much less done this year than I had hoped, I have to say that I am not prepared to cut back on my social life either.
It seems to me that I have the following options:
1) Give up on the allotment in order to devote all spare time to drunken debauchery. No way. I won’t say that it’s not tempting, but we’ve worked far too hard and even I can see that we have made some progress in the time we’ve been there.
2) Encourage my friends to come down to the allotment with us evey evening. Well, this is difficult. There have certainly been offers of assistance and loads of people have said they would be more than happy to take any excess produce off our hands so I could suggest that they earn it, but I know that no-one is really up for a regular commitment. And besides, I would probably be very bossy so I’m pretty sure I would lose my friends sharpish. In which case, perhaps I should…
3) Dump all my current friends and cultivate close emotional links with the other allotmenteers at out site. Well, they’re lovely and all, and even though I have always felt very welcomed and everyone is extremely friendly, I wouldn’t say I’ve really ‘clicked’ with anyone there. Not in a ’stay-up-all-night-discussing-politics /religion /philosophy /families /sexual practices-having-had-one-too-may-margaritas‘ kind of way. If you know what I mean.
4) Find another way. I’m not sure what it is yet, but there must be some way of managing this better. Any ideas would be gratefully recieved.
Filed under: Hard labour — Clare @ 9:45 pm
You could try and make it a low maintenance allotment. Have more permanent plantings, like fruit bushes and asparagus and rhubarb. Or you could plant everything through plastic mulches to cut back on the weeding (a nice top mulch of grass cuttings or similar would hide it from nosey neighbours).
And plenty of people do their allotments in stages, covering the rest until they’ve got one bit under control, then gradually expanding….
(28.06.05 @ 8:25 am)
Exactly like what you said to me, you just have to be realistic. I’m lucky in that first, I have a small plot, and second it’s in my garden. So I don’t have too much hassle to get to it. You’ve done brilliantly to get a full-size space, but it’s vegetable big time. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t fully mantain it just yet - i’m sure you’ll get the balance right at some point. As much as you find it tricky to get there all the time, you clearly love doing it, so just try and enjoy it when you can.
Muppet’s said some great ideas though. Get some fruit bushes, and make the plot work for you. Keep anything that needs careful growing and care in your garden, where you can look after it day by day, and go from there. Slow growers at the allotment and so on.
(28.06.05 @ 1:02 pm)
Many thanks for your support and encouragement. I am trying to be more realistic about my big plans and my timescale. When I think about how different the plot looks compared with when we took it over last August or so then I can see we’ve done masses and I should remember that rather than worry about how it doesn’t yet look as gorgeous and bountiful as I would like. More thoughts on this another time…
(29.06.05 @ 9:11 pm)
Even with only half a plot I sometimes look at it and think I’ve bitten off a big chunk, not necessarily indigestible, but it takes a lot of chewing.
And other times, I look at it and compare it to what I took on and, as a strawb or two slip down my neck, I think ‘WOW! I did this!’.
Try using the allotment just as a place to chill occasionally - I sometimes go up with a couple of mates, a cold bottle of vino or three and a barbie and just sit there doing the late-night-chat thing (and maybe just a little hand weeding). It also means that I can rope them in for a bit of harder manual labour every so often in return.
After nearly two weeks away from the plot, and with the weather we’ve had, I expect to find things somewhat, err, dishevelled when I traipse up there. Oh well, my weeding arm needs the practice I suppose, and I know a couple of mates who could do with the exercise…
(30.06.05 @ 4:09 pm)