Allotment gardening

My dad comes round to help me get on with the job of clearing the rubbish from the compost bins. One slight problem is that I have just bought a new car. My 10-year-old Fiat Punto would have been perfect for ferrying bags of rubbish to the dump but I am not so keen on using my new-ish Ford Focus. I guess I will have to bite the bullet because I can't see any way of persuading my dad to use his newer Jag. While he gets on with bagging up some of the rubbish I knock down the remainder of the compost pile from the old compost bins. There are a few brambles growing through it but work is fairly swift. I knock the old compost onto the neighbouring bed so that I have at least two bits of the allotment with fairly good soil. Once I've finished I go and help my dad empty the other compost bins. We decide to take all the contents out of one to check there is no more rubbish further down. As I am forking the contents out into the neighbouring bin, something moves and catches my eye. It is a bloody big rat which scampers round the sides of the box. My dad tries to spear it with a fork but it appears to be long gone. Fortunately the bagging up of rubbish is done. After lining my new car boot with a plastic sheet I take about six bags to the dump. Rain is forecast for the afternoon but I cover the remaining eight bags or so with bits of carpet in the hope of keeping the rain off and sparing my boot as much mess as possible.

I have joined the Henry Doubleday Research Association - who promote the virtues of organic gardening. It was they who suggested the use of green manure and who are not advocates of digging over the earth and then leaving it bare. That suits me fine. As part of my membership, I get free entry into various gardens including RHS Wisley which isn't far from my home. As they have got an allotment garden there, I take my family along for an afternoon out. Obviously the allotment is pretty sparse but it still gives me a decent idea of what mine could look like - rows of lettuces, squashes, pumpkins, cabbages, brussels all catch the eye. I even have a quick poke around in their compost bins. They are much like mine except mine are full of rubbish - hopefully that will change over the next couple of days.

I haven't seen the allotment for more than a week but I now have a week off work. The first two days are going to be taken up with decorating at home but I then hope to spend a couple of days at the allotment clearing the rubbish out of the compost bins and clearing the last couple of untouched areas. I then plan to plant some onion sets. Hope it's not too late. I have a quick look round - no sign of any green manure yet but it's supposed to take a couple of weeks to show.

My mum and dad come down while I am at work and sow all the rye grass seed that arrived. There isn't quite enough for the whole area I cleared but it is more or less covered. They put boards around the little corner that didn't get any - and they stick a bay tree and something else in that squared-off area. That doesn't fit in with my plans for the plot so I can't see them staying too long. But I am grateful for the job they have done on the seed because I can't see that I will be able to get down to the allotment until next Monday because of work commitments and a trip to see my in-laws in mid-Wales.

My wife e-mails me at work to let me know the seed has arrived. She also tells my parents. They say they will come and broadcast all the ryegrass seed on Tuesday. Fingers crossed it will work.

The seed hasn't arrived yet. I am worried that the frost will come before I get a chance to get the seed down - particularly as I am working a lot next week. I water the main part of the allotment in the hope that the seed will come tomorrow, as my dad has agreed to sow it. I notice that the chap working the plot next to mine is turning his over properly. Having done the same as I did to strip off the top layer of turf, he is now digging down two spade's depths and turning over great big clods. It must be back breaking work - but should I be doing the same???????

My dad comes down to give me a hand sowing the green manure. He shows me the finer techniques of using a Dutch hoe and we prepare the ground. Then we broadcast the seed (scatter to my way of thinking) and cover it as best we can with earth and some bits of netting rescued from my compost bins. However, I then discover a hitch. Because I am terrible at maths, I have seriously miscalulated the amount of seed needed to cover the plot. I thought the largest segment of my allotment, which is 17m by 5m, was about 15m squared instead of the actual figure of 85. I have therfore broadcast much too thinly and have to dash home to order lots more seed. Hope it comes before the frosts.

I buy some horse manure from Homebase and put it down on one of the two-and-a-half metre wide beds. It doesn't go very far but I do my best to dig it into the surface. I'm going to need a lot more manure if I want to cover the three smaller beds.

The green manure seed has arrived. I trot down to the allotment to do a bit more work on getting things ready. Some grass and thistles are growing back through in places - I chop them out as best I can but lack of any real rain means the ground is still really heavy and I can't get every last root out. Will I pay the price next year for not digging the earth over more thoroughly??

Acting on advice from my uncle who is a keen organic gardener, I buy some green manure from The Organic Gardening Catalogue. My plan is to plant it in the main bed to improve the soil and keep the weeds down.

My dad comes to have a look at how work on the allotment is going. As I said the last time he saw it all that we had done was strim down the grass and cut back most of the brambles. The change since then is a big one. He is suitably impressed. I still have to get rid of the raised bed where the compost bins were and turn over the ground under the carpeted area but that's all. Then I will have to think about what to do next.

Another couple of hours and I finish clearing the bit of the plot in front of the shed. There was a huge bramble root that my four-year-old son thought looked like a dragon. My target of clearing the whole plot by the end of October is looking feasible at last. The ground underneath the carpeted area is still to tough to touch but a few more days and there should be some give in it. My dad is coming back from a three-week holiday soon - last time he saw the plot it was covered in grass and brambles and still had rotting compost bins in the middle and a huge amount of rubbish piled up. What a difference he is going to see.

Today I make a bit of a labour-saving discovery. The piece of land at the back of the plot is carpeted! The whole lot. There's no way you would ever guess this as the carpet is covered in grass and brambles - just like every other bit of the plot was. But I found the edge and with a super-human effort pulled it up. The earth underneath is like cement - if I hit it with the mattock little chips fly everywhere. I peel it back in the hope that the weather will make it a bit easier to break up. Things are beginning to look up.

Haven't been down to the plot for four days and I clear up bits of grass and thistles that are growing back on the main plot. It is now time to start work on another plot, bordered by two pathways just in front of the shed. It is about two-and-a-half metres long by five metres wide. There is no grass here as this is where the brambles were. I start work again with the mattock - there are some big bramble roots, some real monsters. After a couple of hours about half of this bed is turned over and cleared of brambles. What is left is a three metre by three metre bit at the back of the allotment, next to the shed and another bit of two-and-a-half metres between two pathways where the previous holder had another set of compost bins.