Allotment gardening

I spend a couple of hours weeding among the lettuce and the strawberries. There are so many thistles and the like that it is hard-going. I make some headway but it will take another couple of days to get on top of things.

I haven't been down to the plot for a few days and it has rained a lot in the meantime. When I finally get a glimpse of the plot I am in for a shock. Weeds have sprung up like wildfire. If you didn't know better, you'd think I was growing thistles. You can hardly see my strawberry plants and lettuce for weeds. It's going to take a bit of work to get it cleared. On the plus side, my early potatoes are really coming on. The haulms (see, I know the terminology) are getting quite high now and I am going to have to think about earthing them up soonish.

I finish weeding the onions to the best of my abilities. The rhubarb still isn't exactly setting the world on fire but most of the other crops look good. I need to weed the bed where the parsnips and carrots are growing but as I can't tell which is which at the moment I think I leave it until things become a bit more obvious. I meet some new plot holders who are starting to clear a tiny bit of their new overgrown plot with a pair of shears. I reminds me of how I started and how far I've come. The woman comes over and admires my plot - singling out my potato plants for particular praise - which have really grown and are looking good. I thank her and go home feeling good about things.

I begin to tackle the weeds around the onions. There are loads of them. My wife lends a hand pulling up bits of grass, nettles, thistles and any other weed you can imagine. An hour later, two-thirds of the onion bed is weeded. I will try and finish it tomorrow.

I spend a few hours down at my plot and plant my maincrop of King Edwards. I also weed around the peas and beans and strawberries, cut the grass round the edges of my beds and sow another line of Tom Thumb lettuce - three weeks after my first offering. I also brush the paths and planks so that my few square metres are looking a bit better. I still need to spend some time weeding round the onions but that can wait till later in the week. When I get home I sow my courgette and squash seeds in the greenhouse. I've only got them and the tomatoes left to put in. Not bad if I do say so myself.

I trot down to the allotment to see if the crops have enjoyed all this rain. And they have. The newer strawberry plants are all greening up, the potatoes are coming through the earthed up hills - I can even see the two rows of lettuce beginning to appear. The rhubarb still isn't great but you can't have everything. There are a lot of weeds once again. Tomorrow I will weed, sow another row of lettuce and plant my maincrop of potatoes. In my greenhouse at home there are even some tomato seedlings beginning to appear. I've got to be happy with that.

After last night's mammoth operation, you can guess what happened today can't you. It hoses it down with rain - all night and all day long. Great. Could have saved myself a bit of work.

I hatched a plan with my wife to solve the lack of water problem. She would fill up as many plastic bottles with water as she could while I was at work and leave them in the boot of the car. Then when I got home (after an 11-hour shift) I would drive down and tip the contents over the driest of the crops. We put the plan into action and of course when I get to the plot the water is back on. It takes me ages to sort out the new hose I have bought and have trouble fitting the connectors. In the meantime I empty the water bottles on the strawberries and rhubarb. I finally get the hose working and put the sprinkler on for about 15 minutes while I put the bottles back in the car. By this time it is bloody freezing and when I get home I am very cold but glad to have got some water to my plants.

I take my two sons down to the plot just to have a look at how things are going. It is a hot day and we stop off to buy ice creams on the way. The allotments are as busy as I've ever seen them as it is the Easter holidays. My latest additions to the strawberry beds are struggling and the rhubarb crowns don't look great either. The ground is very dry and I ask one of the plot holders, who I think is on the management committee, when the water is coming back on. She tells me that the man with the key to turn the supply back on has gone on holiday and forgotten about his fellow plot holders. Meanwhile my plants are parched and I'm not sure what to do about it. The weeds don't seem to mind the lack of water. I pull as many up as I can and then head for home trying to work out how to get some water to my thirsty crops.

It's been a few days since I last visited the plot but, in the meantime, my three rhubarb crowns have arrived along with my long-overdue 20 strawberry plants. I take them down to the plot and am surprised to see how many weeds have reappeared. Thistles have sprung up everywhere. I clear as much as I can and then stick in the 10 Cambridge strawberries and the 10 Elsanta plants. My wife then joins me and helps with the hoeing between the peas and beans and the onions. I then plant the three Champagne rhubarb crowns - which are pretty pathetic looking things I have to say. One of them has no green crown bit on it at all. I hope they perk up in the same way my first batch of strawberry plants did. I then try to get rid of more of the weeds between the onions - by no means easy as there are so many weeds intertwined with the onions and I don't want to risk damaging them. I need to come back and clear away the piles of weeds and sweep the paths. I am determined that my plot should look nice and be well kept.