I was walking along Fore Street this morning and a man smiled at me and asked me when I was going to be digging again. I recognised him to be one of my allotment neighbours and confessed to not having visited my allotment for some time partly because I had assumed the ground was frozen. He told me that rabbits have eaten most of what is growing there. Our brief conversation reminded me that I had worked through wintery weather in Derbyshire and therefore went up this afternoon equipped with my recharged cordless screwdriver.

I discovered the feathery remains of a fox or cat's Christmas dinner and, as I'd been warned, that rabbits had indeed made a feast of all my cabbage seedlings. I finished constructing a simple 2-bay compost bin from the 5 pallets I'd salvaged some months ago. I then investigated my box of equipment and realised that a kind neighbour (possibly the man I met this morning) had anchored the roofing felt that keeps my tool box dry as well as moving my weeding bucket to support the side of my part-made compost bin.

free artichoke and baby brassicas

Four hours on the plot today allowed me time to begin building my compost area with the palettes I salvaged, a few weeks ago, from a nearby garden centre. However, I hadn't charged the power packs for my electric screwdriver and had to abandon this project for another day.

I took with me ten jerusalem artichoke tubers that I had discovered on a recent trip to St.Martin's - Isles of Scilly, where they were on a little stall with a sign saying 'free'. I was particularly pleased as these were the one crop I had wanted to harvest, before I gave up my previous allotment, but it was the wrong season. I planted these in a row along the North (sea) facing end of my plot as they grow into very tall plants that will serve as a windbreak.

I also took with me a tray of brassica seedlings that I have grown from last year's seed and potted on. I have planted these rather too close together but intend to transplant them when I have dug another bed for them. Rain is forecast so I am trusting they will all be watered in naturally.

on the plot again

a new and long-awaited allotment

Re-locating to Cornwall from Derbyshire in 2008 meant I had to relinquish my allotment and adapt instead to gardening at home. However, on 2nd August I once again took up an allotment tenancy at a newly-founded site here in Cornwall and I have resumed my process of digging. My new plot is a sixth the size of the previous one and one of sixty, marked out by posts with narrow paths between. The overall site was previously arable land on which maize was grown last season. The soil is rich, dark and well-draining. My first task was to mark my boundaries with string and then to gather specimens of the plants currently growing within it. Couch grass is most predominant and I have come to admire it and recognise why Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari single it out for attention in 'A Thousand Plateaus', in their explanation of the term 'rhizome'. I am aware that couch grass will always be with us, a constant reminder of underground resistence.

caterpillared cabbage for lunch?

Some of my cabbages have been almost entirely decimated by caterpillars so I am feeding the cabbages to my hens who enjoy holey cabbages and caterpillars and then produce eggs with richer yolks.

failure or not?

I proudly sieved my homemade compost this spring and used it to sow a variety of seed that had to be started off in the warmth of the house, then hardened-off in the greenhouse. I decided this year for economical reasons to use up seed I already had, rather than buy new. I watched and waited for the seedlings to emerge and develop into the plants described on their packets, however they appear, amongst a variety of weeds, to be tomatoes! Clearly what has happened is that much of the seed I sowed was deplete and the compost I made never became hot enough to kill the seed within it. This resulted in a situation I couldn’t have anticipated, beyond my control. In gardening terms, it would be deemed a failure whereas for me, an artist exploring inter-subjective becoming, it presents an unfolding opportunity for encounter. These tomato plants can be potted up and distributed to friends.

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the garden planting potatoes, sieving home-made compost and sowing seed into it. I began documenting various packets and envelopes of seed given to me by friends and friends of friends over the last few years. I've decided as a positive action in response to being short of cash that I will not buy any more seed this year (I have already bought seed potatoes, garlic, shallots and onion sets) but sow the leftover stock I have from previous years as well as seed I harvested last autumn and that given to me by others.

Today as predicted by the MET Office it is raining and I am glad I planted the potatoes yesterday. I am at my desk looking out at bedraggled chickens and considering Deleuze and Guattari's 'body without organs' (IN: A Thousand Plateaus) and the power of passivity from my recent experiences of working in collaboration with others, in particularly at a conference in Salisbury.

blogging again

I am approaching my last 5 months of PhD research/writing and decided it would be worthwhile to log the process. Heath Bunting's 'Day Planner' has been the inspiration as to how to use time effectively. Unlike most planning, the criteria of Heath's model is subversively everyday. http://www.irational.org/heath/day_plan/

Since it is now Spring and time for sowing and planting the vegetable garden I intend to log my written research process alongside the processes of the garden.

The hens are now laying an egg each a day and having spent the winter digging over and manuring the back garden they are now in the business of removing moss from the front. The picture shows Betty (Blue), Suzi (Gablik) and Sophie (Calle). Luce (Irigaray) must have been busy laying her egg in the ark.