After climbing in Spain

Back after what seemed like a long time climbing in Spain. I was rushing like mad this morning because I was dying to get up to the allotment for a few hours (I had groceries to buy and lots of work on the science journal to do) I must confess that plans for the garden was all I thought about for most of the holidays. Great thing to do when you are belaying your husband on a difficult rock climb – will I plant the radish now or wait another week?

Such verdant growth greeted me when I went up. The rhubarb in a week has put on a foot of growth; the apple trees have buds; the grape hyacinths and daffs are out (and white ones too, that’s a bonus; I find the yellow ones too perfectly bland.

Weeds yes, some pushing up in the beds, but less than I feared. I thought the place would be positively carpeted with the things.

But the most exciting thing was the sight of the skip. And only half full. I knew what my first job would be. On with some grungy clothes, out with the wheelbarrow and lug things to the skip. It’s about 200 metres from my pile of rubbish to the car park where the huge metal bin is positioned. And I think I did 11 trips. I gave up counting as it was such an asinine thing to do. Some of the bags were so full that I positively struggled to get them up over the high sides of the huge bin. Luckily Oswaldo came to my rescue on some of the heaviest.

And I was spared carrying the last load as I was intercepted by the Irish plot holder Mick. (I asked Oswaldo his name – and he shuddered with fear and mentioned his name sotto vocce. I’m glad to know that other people are a bit scared of him. He is the arbiter of the rules in the area.) And naturally I Have Transgressed. I was putting things in the skip that could have been burnt. I was hauling some rotten carpets in the wheelbarrow past his plot at the time. The carpet sprouts another carpet of weeds that have grown through the rotting material. Luckily as I was explaining why I was dumping it, he was unable to tug away at the grass that was the offending matter. I grovelled and played rather stupid and was let off with one of those ‘well nobody saw you put the grass in, so you are in the clear.’ What a relief. I would hate to be in the bad books for crimes against orderliness.

But what orderliness there is now at my plot. Gone are those bags and bags of mess, the wheelie bin full of dead carpet and plastic. Now I just have to do a small job of burning the last of the mess and rearranging the carpets so that the last strip of weeds don’t grow through.

Actually one of the other surprises was the neighbours plot. Over the Easter weekend someone has turned it from a waste field to a brown churned up plot. I did think that they had put a hundred Boy Scouts to work, but then realised that they took to it with a rotovator. How strange that is – it just digs in the weeds. But my goodness, the area is done in one weekend what took me a month. But Mick has tutted over it. Just look at that place in two weeks time. All the bind weed which has been cut up by the blades will sprout a hundred times more than before. Having been on the gardening game at this allotment for about 30 years I get the feeling he has seen all this misplaced, rushed enthusiasm before.

Am I tarred with that same brush? He did approve of my hand weeding my beds – so I may be spared his scorn. Sarah asked me if I am accepted by the old timers at the allotment. I don’t think so. Especially as on Sunday I plan to put up the sweet pea pergola (it is also the support for the beans) and they are going to gag with the girlie-ness of the whole structure. And it will throw a bit of shade on the potatoes which is probably anathema to them. But they do like to visit me. So I guess that’s something.

Once I had done my rubbish clearing (skip now almost full, eek), it was time to minutely inspect growth. The shallots are romping away. So too are the onions and garlic. Most of the broad beans are thriving. Some of the ones that suffered from the cold promptly died. But I have only lost three plants out of about 16 so that’s fine. I must remember to push some seeds in the rows where the gaps are.

I planted the lilies in the other pot plunged in the bed. Had to water like mad first. The taps are finally turned on and I need to move the water closer to the source of garden. I think I will bring lots of plastic bottles and do a bit of to-ing and fro-ing from the distant water butt and try and fill up my wheelie bin. That way my watering can be more spontaneous than plodding and tedious. I wonder if there is a rule against that?

Next I had to see if there potatoes were growing. And managed to have yet another one of those embarrassing garden moments. What on earth does earthing up the potatoes mean? I could see that at least two plants in each row are up and romping away. But do you earth up and cover the plants entirely, or partly? I just had no clue. So I looked over my shoulder to see that no one was watching, then scratched up the soil and mounded in around the plants. And when I finished, well, quite frankly, they looked like little cat funeral plots. Since coming home and inspecting the photographs of the Encyclopaedia of Gardening carefully, I have realised that they need mounding up around the plants, but not covering them. So that will be a Saturday task. Undoing the amateur job of the trip before.

I only had a few hours to do my work as I have another trip tomorrow – to Paris for three days of a Science journal annual meeting. So I felt frustrated that I had so little time. I have the sweet peas to put in and lots and lots of flower seeds to get in. There are the cabbage and kale plants to get in the ground. Carrots and leeks to sow, grass to cut along the edges. More major work on the flower beds And my work on the climate change project looks like it will be taking off. Egad, I will have two part time jobs that will take up more time than I want because all I want to do is grow flowers and veg.

Vegetable: Stargazer Lily
How many?: 8
How planted?: In pot, then into bed
Notes: Bed 3

Vegetable: Feltham First Peas
How many?: 6
How planted?: Directly into the soil
Notes: Bed 4