essential grounding

Two and a half hours seems so short now that I’m used to working whole days here. It poured with rain when I was about to leave home at lunchtime, so I ended up catching the 3pm bus. Now the sky is turning pink at the end of the day.

I had some help carrying my old doors to the back of my shed where I’m hoping to create a lean-to or cold-frames for hardening-off seedlings come early summer.

I’ve been digging big weeds and buttercups from between the currants and gooseberries, digging is imperative to me at the moment, I’m finding it hard to concentrate on my written research so I’m hoping I’ll be more earthed this evening when
I get home.

positive feedback

Warmer weather is making for easier digging. I’m working around the currant and gooseberry bushes that every year become choked by willow herb, nettles and bindweed. I pruned them the first year so last year they were barren but they now have new budding growth, which I hope will bear fruit abundantly.

I spent some time working together with my wall-building friend to take down a large section of wall that needs to be rebuilt. He is now digging out the foundations that seem to be bottomless.

One of my fellow allotmenteers this morning said that people were commentating (as he puts it) on how much progress has been made in my allotment, which is very encouraging. I think this was said during the council lorry visit this morning, an event that I totally forgot about.

Digging thinking

Sunday 17th February

Yesterday was perfect digging weather, sunny but not hot. The ground had been frosted but had thawed so that weeds and roots almost seemed to help themselves in being lifted out of the earth. I had to pack up earlier than I’d expected and I still had at least an hour’s digging left in me.

Today, I had to spend the morning cooking at home for a dozen guests due to arrive this evening but I escaped as soon as was feasible on the 1pm bus. I expected the same conditions as yesterday as there seemed to be similar warmth from the sun but arrived to find the ground still hard. It’s not impossible to dig but there is about an inch of frozen earth meaning that each fork full has to be broken open and each root eased out. This has put me in mind of how sometimes the most rewarding conversations that take place require a mutual process of coaxing and releasing of memory.

not quite boiling

It’s just taken my kettle nearly half an hour to not quite boil! I am going to take it with me and exchange it for a new one even though there is a tiny flame. It’s 5.20, I didn’t get here until about 4 today but it’s been worth it to dig another few square feet whilst the ground is perfect for digging.

It’s winter again suddenly, grey, dull and cold, but dry so the ground is becoming less slippery to walk on. I’ve had a few comedy moments in the last few weeks due to the muddy conditions underfoot.

domestic distractions

I’m only able to be here for a short spell on this spring-like though breezy day. I brought my lunch and did some digging. This morning I was at home for the plumber whom came to see why our hot water is cold. He was with us two days ago unblocking the sink after it became blocked by our youngest daughter pouring meat fat down it, which wasn’t really her fault, just a gap in her education since I don’t cook that kind of food.

Also this morning I was clearing her bedroom, a task I don’t generally take responsibility for, but she was ‘creeped out’ by the fact that the room was full of crickets that had tried to escape from the impending doom of being fed to her gekko, Evo, which I hasten to add was not bought into our family home but rescued from our eldest daughter’s boyfriend who had reluctantly received it as a birthday present from his university friends and who wanted it to have a better home.

I must go now to my the art group that I run at a nearby college. I was wondering whilst digging about maybe bringing them here one week.

two days of progress

Monday 4th February

Two good long days in a row and I start to feel as though I’m getting somewhere. I’ve made considerable progress with the broad bean beds, one more day’s digging should do it. I’ve realised I can plant more than one crop in each bed as they’re bigger than I’d anticipated so this means I can leave some of the beds to be dug over the summer for winter crops.

I arrived on the 10.20 bus and it’s now 3.45. It has been spring-like weather, sunny all morning and this afternoon and a heavy shower in the middle of the day when I retreated to the shed and typed a planting calendar in the form of an excel document. I always think I’ll be able to remember when things need planting but there are so many details with the number of crops I intend to grow so this should help.

Tuesday 5th February

Sheltering in the shed with my wall-builder as a heavy shower of rain passes over… which it now seems to have.

A very productive day today, planted remaining garlic with some from the coop and some transplants that were coming up in last year’s garlic bed. Planted a bag of daffodil bulbs near to my rose arbour seat. Filled about 20 bags with rubbish and put it near the gate to take to the council lorry on Saturday morning. My wall-building friend has once again made stunning progress and finally, I dug the nettle roots out from a patch against the wall, between the two dead dogs. This is to prepare a position in which to re-site my Victorian bath. my idea is that I can prop a sheet of corrugated plastic against the wall and into the bath to collect rainwater. The patch I've dug is approximately 6 foot by 3 foot and to a random passer by with a vivid imagination could look like a recently filled grave. When I told my wall-building friend this he suggested part burying a mannequins hand, I told him this was not really my style! However, it does tie in with my musings about the bottle I discovered recently in the pigsty! My allotment seems to be rapidly becoming a gardener's version of Cluedo!

Had a friendly conversation this morning with my allotment neighbour who it seems will be spending more weekdays at the allotment than has been his habit until now. The community continues to evolve.

snow day no play followed by productive sunday

I’m here on my own which is rare these days. I’ve been digging my broad bean bed again now that it’s a little drier. I’ve also planted the organic garlic I sent away for and as I suspected I needed twice as much so I took a trip to the nearby garden centre where they didn’t have any. I think I’ll buy some organic garlic from the coop, which I did last year, and plant that.

Yesterday my wall-builder and I came up to the allotment, which was covered in snow, but we didn’t do any work; a mixture of laziness and fragility due to the cold!

On consulting my plan that I drew up on New Year’s Eve I realise there are a few errors. There is at least one less bed than I calculated for in the bottom section so I’ve planted garlic in 3 rows down the middle of one leaving space for a row of beetroot either side. These two crops are noted companions so I thought they might like to share a bed.