Allotment gardening

A dry day off gives me the chance to dash down for another hour at the end of the day with my youngest son to try and carry on with some digging. I dig up some of the weeds, stinging nettles and thistles in the bed where the onions were last year. There are a lot of brambles in this bed and I haven't brought my secateurs. As I cannot get down to the roots, I will have to come back and cut them off as low down as I can manage. I also appear to have lost my gardening gloves so I get stung quite a bit by the nettles. The pile of weeds by the side of the plot is growing very big but at least the end is in sight - almost.

I persuade my dad to come down and help me to continue clearing the last two badly overgrown bits of the plot. I turn my attention to clearing the bed where the onions used to be. It is now a mass of thistles, brambles, stinging nettles and chickweed. It is quite hard going as round the edges there are lots of brambles that seem to go very deep. Dad turns his attention to turning over the bed where the lettuce used to be. He digs it over and then works it to a fine enough tilth for me to be able to sow some more green manure. By rights it should be too cold for it to grow but we are going through quite a mild spell of weather so you never know. As dad says, it's better in the ground than in the shed. By the time we finish the plot is looking neater still.



Dad bags up three bags of rubbish. On the way out, I dig up a few parsnips for him to say thanks for the help. Fairly generous I feel.
In the evening I pop along to my first ever Annual General Meeting of the allotment association. It is pretty mundane stuff but I ask if we can have more regular skips. They only cost £45 and so it is agreed that we can have another one in February. The association is fairly well off - with £8,000 in the bank. The committee members mull over spending some of it on a nice play and picnic area on one of the plots. I agree it would be nice to have somewhere to sit down. But I get the impression it won't happen any time soon.

Amazingly it is another dry day today and I have a day off so I manage to put in a couple of hours at the plot. I continue digging the bed where the pile of sods used to be but I also put a bit of effort into finishing the old lettuce bed and trimming some of the strawberries on the last row that I haven't touched yet. The good news is that my onions are looking really good and the green manure has come up in the two beds where I planted it despite the recent spell of cold weather.



It means that more than half of the plot has stuff growing on it. I have a big pile of weeds growing at the side of the plot but it is looking a lot smarter. I only have two beds at the back that are weed-covered and yet to be touched. On the way out, I pick the rest of the rocket. I also dig up three parsnips for dinner - including a massive two-footer. The remaining parsnips will last well into December.

I have a good couple of hours this morning to get on with disposing of the pile of sods. However, first of all I continue to tidy up the strawberry bed. Then my dad arrives and we crack on with filling up the wheelbarrow and then transferring the earth onto the top of the skip. It is hard going - at one time I even drop the empty wheelbarrow on my dad's head. But eventually we have got rid of most of it. Dad edges the bed a bit so you can see the pathways around it. It looks much better but there is still quite a bit to do. I have found another bramble, buried deep. I fail to dig out the root however - it's just too deep down. At least I managed to make some use of the skip. After picking the kids up from school, we return to the plot to dig up some parsnips. I get four beauties which we eat for dinner. Delicious.

As I drive past the allotments this morning I take a quick peek at the skip that was delivered on Friday. Not surprisingly it is almost full. Later on I find half-an-hour to run down and throw in my five bags of rubbish and then begin the bigger job of knocking down my pile of upturned sods from a year ago when I first cleared the plot and dumping them in the skip. They haven't rotted down as well as I would have hoped and they are also riddled with weeds. My plan is to ring my dad tonight and get him to come down tomorrow and help me transfer most of it to the skip.

I plan to finish weeding the lettuce bed today but when I begin digging I come across a huge bramble. I dig down one foot to try and find the root. No joy. I dig down another foot - still no root. I keep going but it is just too far down for me to get. All this digging has also slowed me up as I haven't got lots of time to spare. I'll have to finish it next day.

My car has to go in for a service today and my dad gives me a lift home after I drop it off. We then both go down to the allotments - me to do a bit more work, him to have a look for the first time in a while. I pick a couple of squashes still growing and give them to dad. I then crack on with clearing the bed where the lettuce was growing. It is surprisingly easy as the ground is soft and I make swift progress - pulling out plenty of weeds - but in the middle of it I find quite a bit of rocket growing and the spinach beet is still thriving. A call from the garage about some complications with the service, cuts my time short. But I've turned over about a third of the lettuce bed and cut off a good handful of rocket for my lunch. If the weather stays dry tomorrow, I should be able to finish the bed which would make the whole plot look good. The site is having a skip delivered on Friday for a week and I have plenty of rubbish to get rid of. The more I can ditch, the better-looking plot I will have.

I dash down to the hut of the Malden and Coombe Horticultural Society to see if I still have time to put an order of seed in through the catalogues there and benefit from a substantial discount. But I am too late. It's a shame and I guess I'll just have to buy my seed from the Organic Gardening Catalogue as I get a discount there through my HDRA membership. That'll teach me to take my eye of the allotment ball.

Some friends come round for dinner and we eat squash, jacket potatoes and carrots - all from the plot. I take great pride when one guest says: "I could live off your carrots." That's a nice confidence boost when I am worrying that the allotment is getting on top of me. I am determined to crack on and grow more good crops next year.

A day off work coincides with a day without rain so I make the most of this God-given opportunity and head down to the plot. I dig over the carrot bed and weed among the parsnips. I then prepare the bed to the finest tilth I can manage and plant a double row of dwarf broad beans. As per usual with me, I'm not sure I've dug my trench deep enough but I cover the bean seeds and hope for the best. I also realise afterwards that I haven't improved the soil in any way since the carrot crop was in there so I'm not holding out much hope for these beans. We shall see. I then turn over the soil on the rest of the bed where the potatoes were and where the tomato plants were and broadcast some green manure seed - Hungarian grazing rye, like last year. It is a bit late in the season but if it grows, it will be a bonus.
I weed among the overwintering salad onions which are growing well and leave it at that. The first half of the plot is now looking much better - ordered and neat. It is the back half that is a real mess.

There is rain in the air but I decide I have to go down to the plot and dig up the rest of the carrots. The ground is thick and cloying but I quickly dig up the remainder of the crop - there are some real beauties too. I also pull up the rest of the tomato plants - there are plenty of rotten tomatoes lying on the ground. I'll have to deal with them another time. The plot is not looking great. The back half is badly overgrown. I bump into Eric - who I haven't seen in ages. I try to excuse the state of my plot by blaming it on the wet weather and to my eternal gratitude he agrees that it has been very weather and that the weeds have taken over even on his well-cared for plot.



It makes me feel better but I am still determined to find the time soon to come down and bring some order to bear. I wash all the carrots and bring home a nice heavy bag.

It suddenly occurs to me that I haven't ordered any seed for next year. I check back at last year's posts and see an entry for November 2 that says time is running out to buy seed through the horticultural society. Blimey. I will have to go down to the hut on Sunday, grab a catalogue and hope I still have time to put my order in. I haven't even planned the plot for next year - that's how far behind I am with things.