Bliss

Bliss – a whole afternoon at the allotment. Not entirely guilt-free as I had so much to do, but I rationalised it by thinking that I won’t be going back there for a week. I had an ambitious afternoon’s workload. First I spent an embarrassing half hour trying to put up the bamboo cane supports for the top of the bean poles. What a botch – I tied, watched them fall, arranged them in an arch, saw them ping out of their wires as I tried to neaten up the whole structure; couldn’t reach the top of the poles. I pulled them all out, started again, failed and then just gave up. I tied string around the 12 poles and pulled the whole thing a bit taut like a tepee and just got on with real work. The small bamboo curved supports will have to do for something else.

I planted eight sweet pea plants at the base of each middle support, watered them in and wished them luck. A frost is going to do lots of damage there.

Next it was on for a bit of planting in the main beds. I had some rather spindly cabbage plants that weren’t thriving in their jiffy containers – must remember to hold off and not plant those seeds so early next year (I say that every year). But I decided that if I planted them in rows in the ground they can serve as a sort of experiment. They will either romp away or wither. I planted five of them; put a half plastic bottle over the top of each as a cloche, and did the same for four salad seedlings. It’s great to see a bit of action in the rows at last. Each has a piece of green twine pulled taut attached with small sticks to mark out where I have planted. Hopefully soon there will be these perfect rows everywhere.

I have always been aware that there is a temptation to sow too many seeds in one go and have a glut. But I can understand why people do it – you put all the work into raking a perfect row, making the right depth, watering, running the straight string over the area, getting those teensy seeds into your hand, and you just want to sow the lot. But I think I have come up with a solution. I have placed three little green marker sticks down the row, neatly divided into threes. That way even though the whole row is prepared I will stop one third of the way down. And repeat the sowing a few weeks later. Naturally I don’t have enough of those little white labels to mark out when I have planted, so I will have to rely on this diary to make sure I know when I sowed the seeds. (Complete deficit of those white sticks – I search everywhere for them)

I sowed a row of parsnips this way, and some tiny leek seeds. I imagine everything will catch up and this precision will be wasted, but at least I look orderly.

Next it was on to the potato beds – they are growing wonderfully under their fleecy cover. I was secretly delighted to see some bindweed coming up too. They are just the most amazing weed; I couldn’t help but admire them. In the space of one week they are capable of pushing up five inches of strong straight stem with about ten strong leaves, all unfurling and reaching for the light. I crouched very low over the four bindweed plants I found, dug carefully around them and hauled them out. They aren’t even anchored by a long root. Fascinating.

Each row was weeded and then it was no putting it off any longer. I had to get the shovel out of the boot (unused since I did the major weeding of the beds back in February) get the wheelbarrow from under the bean pole supports and get to work shovelling soil into the spaces between the potato rows ready for earthing up. I am incredibly lucky in that I have a huge amount of extra topsoil at the flower bed end of the plot. The previous owners used raised beds, which means that there is about a foot more soil spaced over an area ten feet by fifteen feet and all lovely stuff. I don’t have a clue about the exact volume of the soil, but by shovelling into the wheelbarrow and wheeling it to the potato bed and adding it to the plants (well, just next to them) I achieved a good afternoon’s work. Achingly slow and heavy work (especially as it was a warm afternoon) but I was on a roll. I feel the potatoes are now ready for a lot of nurturing over their growing season.

Next I thought that I ought to give the bottom of the plot under the apple trees their last tidy. Must bring my camera next time as it looks rather good now. I pulled up the last of the ten feet’s worth of carpet, pulled the big weeds and cleared away the tiny brambles that are starting to grow. These are the plants which I had hoped were rose bushes. Oh days of innocence and hope. That was when we first had a look at the long weedy plot and I Had Dreams of rambling roses. Now it’s just cold, harsh slash and burn Sinclair. Yank em out and start again. And besides, they aren’t roses. They’re brambles. So I felt little qualms about digging up the plants and adding them to my only two small bags of rubbish (hidden behind the wheelie bins.)
Then I looked at this last ten feet of land, looked at the huge amount of topsoil sitting right next to it just waiting to be put somewhere. I briefly considered the two solid days I would have to spend on my knees weeding and weeding and turning this not-to-be-used area. And made the cop-out decision. I just started shovelling and covering the whole area with cleared soil. Cheating or what? It was fabulous fun – hot and sweaty, I finally could say that I have a beautiful looking allotment. In just four months I have ‘done’ 20 metres of land (almost 66 feet).

It was getting late; but just as I was considering packing up, David Braeburn and a woman named Charlotte came up. She is taking on the empty site next to me. Perfect timing as I had just pulled my unneeded carpets and was wondering what to do. Chatted a bit with both of them (David wisely advising me to pull off the two seed heads that were forming on the rhubarb. I wondered what on earth they were) and then Charlotte came back to stalk her site with that crazy grin on her face that I remember from my early days. Lucky her. She is a student I think – something you can deduce from that fact that she shares a house with six other people – and very organic. Flowers and herbs I think is what she wants to plant and I’m delighted to have her as a neighbour.

We moved the carpets over to her weedy patch and went on a tour. She has inherited a fantastic Aladdin’s cave of a shed. Full of treasures including a hand push lawn mower which she has kindly agreed to share. That will be great – it needs a service I think, so shall have to look around to find out where one gets such things serviced. And she even managed to have a good chat with our lovely Vietnamese neighbours. They have offered here a box full of Maris piper seed potatoes which is the perfect welcome gift. So now our little area of the huge allotment site is complete. It looks like it’s going to be a very productive year ahead.

Vegetable: Sweet Peas
How many?: 8
How planted?: On bean pole supports
Notes: Middle of the plot

Vegetable: Parsnip F1 Gladiator
How many?: third of a row
How planted?: Into shallow drill
Notes: Bed 2

Vegetable: Leeks Musselburgh
How many?: third of a row
How planted?: Into shallow drill
Notes: Bed 2

Vegetable: Lettuce (mizuna, tom thumb)
How many?: 4
How planted?: Plants. in row
Notes: Bed 3

Vegetable: Cabbage Greyhound
How many?: 5
How planted?: Plants. in row
Notes: Bed 3