allotment becoming... views from a potting shed

Wired

2011-11-06T10:20:00.002Z

One small bird floats from the wire

then a flurry of more, like autumn leaves,

and a final gust taking the remnant but

as though held by elastic

back they swing

to write two more lines

one above the other.

Hens against compost!

2011-09-04T07:37:00.003Z

This morning in an ordinary back garden in Truro, Cornwall, discontent was brewing. Three hens were campaigning that their right to water had been denied them. Their water source, usually within their perimeter fence, had been left within sight but inaccessibly on the other side. The hens protested that the powers-that-be had neglected to provide them their basic poultry rights because of the distracting demands of another local enterprise - the compost heap.

When confronted by our reporter the power-that-be blamed another party for having previously neglected to position the water supply in its usual night-time position the previous evening.

Finding meaning in retrospect

2011-08-22T09:49:00.000Z

I have been busy this summer, too busy to visit my allotment. About a month ago I delivered a second hand hen house with the intention of enabling our daughter, who lives close to the allotment, to look after the hens for us when we are away, at the same time as the hens digging over the plot. Three days ago I called at the plot to see if there was anything to harvest. I fully expected blighted potatoes, rotten onions and broad beans past their prime. I was pleasantly surprised and gathered bagfuls of healthy aforementioned vegetables and some remarkable carrots, the best I have ever grown. The rabbit proof fencing had clearly done its job. As I was leaving I had a brief conversation with one of my allotment neighbours about his glut of courgettes and I said ‘In case you’re wondering, the hen house is our hens’ holiday home’. He replied, ‘It’s certainly had people talking’. This comment of his has stayed with me and I have realised it has relevance to my process both now and in retrospect. Since I delivered the hen house to my plot I have been feeling negligent in terms of maintenance of the plot and also in my lack of neighbourliness. However, I realise, the hen house has been working on my behalf, people have been developing narrative around it, in the form of allotment banter (which, I have learned, is unlike any other kind of conversation) because of its unexplained presence.

In reflecting on the unexpected agency of the hen house I have been reconsidering the similar agency of a caravan I acquired in 2003 with the intention of housing my MA show inside it. I was at that time exploring the notion of ‘infrasense’, a term I used to describe ungraspable, yet affective, sensations occurring as the result of finding oneself in a liminal space. I contacted the university to let them know that I would be bringing the caravan onto site but was told this would not be possible. Since I had nowhere else to store it I decided to take it there anyway and managed to park it up in the disused corner of a car park. I placed a sign in the window stating ‘This is a temporary sculpture’, to allay the institutions fears that it may belong to, or be squatted by, travellers. Some months later I was asked to move it and so I took it to the smaller car park outside the MA department and covered it with a tarpaulin to indicate that it would not be used as a residence. I finally conceded the caravan as housing for my MA work by giving it to someone who was in need of a home and who came and towed it away. In the end the space of my show consisted of a dark corridor through a storeroom that arrived into a liminal space with a light space adjacent to it, throughout all of which I layed turf. I made the caravan’s absence visible in my MA show by yellowing an area of turf the size of the caravan and hanging the key on the wall next to it.

This morning I have been reading again a conference paper, ‘A Dis-operative Turn in Contemporary Art’, delivered in Rio de Janiero in 2001, by Stephen Wright, which he concludes by saying, ‘The creative experiments carried out by contemporary artists merely sketch a horizon, stopping short of fleshing out what lies beyond and thereby setting limits to our imagination. And that, no doubt, is their use value.’ (http://www.apexart.org/conference/Wright.htm)

2010-12-26T21:46:00.003Z

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

2010-11-13T15:54:00.004Z

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

2010-09-29T13:07:00.003Z

a new and long-awaited allotment

2010-09-29T12:41:00.002Z

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?

2010-09-29T12:34:00.003Z

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?

2010-06-26T06:49:00.007Z

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.

2010-03-28T12:49:00.003Z

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

2010-03-27T09:44:00.004Z

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.

first in the ark

2009-08-02T17:19:00.002Z

I’ve introduced the chicks to their new home today. I thought they would enjoy being out on the grass but once they worked out that there was an ark to go into they all made their way up the ladder… Suzi (Sussex) first followed by Betty (Blue) then Silver (Silver Link) and finally, last but not least and surprisingly not first Cuckoo (Cuckoo Maran). When they first arrived Cuckoo was the boldest and definitely top chick, but she seems to have been usurped by Suzi today. Time will tell.

new perspectives

2009-07-31T10:47:00.003Z

I’m back in my shed and with a different view, that of the 6 week old chicken. Yesterday we collected four pullets from a delightful organic farm in Devon and they are living in my shed for a couple of weeks whilst they grow a little stronger and become ready to live outside in their ark.

collaborative rhythm-making

2009-05-03T15:50:00.002Z

A whole weekend of sunshine with rain overnight - ideal for watering in the gardening of the day before. Today I’ve finished planting my 5 new beds. Peas and French beans went in yesterday and today marrows, squashes, pumpkins and courgettes have joined them as companions. There’s a rhythm developing between my digging, sowing, manuring, watering and transplanting. It’s a collaboration between the weather, the seeds becoming plants, the creatures inhabiting the air and the ground and me.

I’m planning to have hens and am gradually making space for them. I decided a strip of grass by the side of the path will make an ideal hen run but this has required the re-transplanting of my ex-allotment fruit that I put in last autumn and the garlic that went in with it. I am now left with four long thin beds full of very good soil so I’ve been shifting to my new vegetable beds. I’m re-filling the holes with the turfs I’d removed and stacked inside my cold-frame. It’s physically demanding work but triply rewarding in providing ground for a hen run, well-filled beds and a soon to be usable cold-frame. Digging out the beds has been an oddly uncanny experience as they resemble a series of small graves… a solemn but reassuringly ordinary reminder of the grief I am still processing.

signs of hope

2008-12-02T10:06:00.002Z

I stepped outside the back door this morning, breakfast toast and Grant Kester (Conversation Pieces) in hand and was greeted by this wondrous rainbow arching over my shed and greenhouse (I hope other people saw it do the same over theirs). Toast eaten and Kester has become a bookrest but I have conversation on my mind. I’ve invited an artist who’s work intrigues me to join me for a conversation here in my shed whilst he’s visiting Cornwall this week. I’m hoping his time allows for this.

Two military aircraft and the cloud have now passed over and the sun is attempting to break through again. I’m going to pot up some bulbs I brought with me from my last garden and position them with another pot of bulbs I’ve rescued under a leaking gutter.

returning from sadness

2008-11-25T17:22:00.005Z

Written from a patch of sunshine at the top end of the garden. The day before our middle daughter’s 22nd birthday (she is in Finland) and 15 days since my father died aged 87.

I’ve been attempting for at least the third time to secure the end of the garden thus inhibiting my dog’s desire to wander. It always feels wrong if I’m in the garden and he’s shut in the house. He’s been a good companion to me during the period of my father dying. He waited patiently in the car for me every time I visited the hospital and adapted to staying in four different friends’ and families’ houses.

I woke up this morning with the urge to plan my crops for next year. This will be very different to my previous growing patterns because of a warmer climate, less space and use of a greenhouse.

It is now the end of the day and a conversation with my neighbour over the hedge that I was cutting resulted in my borrowing a roll of her husband’s chicken wire to secure the end of the garden, on condition that I return it in the spring when he will need it for planting his peas. It is, miraculously, exactly the right length.

back on track

2008-10-31T11:44:00.002Z

Back in my shed, back on broadband and so all up and running. The lesson learned is that transition always takes longer than I anticipate and that trying to rush it is fruitless and frustrating.

In the meantime I’ve spent time deciding which bits of the grass to dig up for a kitchen garden. It’s very different working a garden as opposed to an allotment, there are other people’s needs to consider such as spaces to sit in the sun and the shade and the provision of flowers as well as food. Today I completed digging my first vegetable bed in which to plant some of the garlic I grew on my allotment this year.

I just had to retrieve my dog from the garden of the house behind ours. He has found a way to push through the barrier I’ve made out of the branches I’ve pruned from evergreen trees. I lured him back with some cheese (a delicacy he can never refuse even when it’s wrapped around a tablet he won’t eat any other way) and now he’s locked in the house again, silly dog. We are going to have to buy some more effective fencing, chicken wire probably, which will at least be one step towards keeping hens.

a sense of autumn

2008-10-13T11:01:00.002Z

It’s autumn. I realised this yesterday when I came out to my shed early on, sun shining and blue sky; but the shed was cool. Until now the same conditions would have turned my shed into a little hot house by that time of day.

I am pretty much decided now on where I will have my vegetable beds. I have tried a series of straight rows and square beds by marking them out with string but what seems to be most satisfactory is a sunburst emanating from a quarter circle of grass (for family and dog to sit on.) I have mown the paths, leaving the bed areas un-mown, in order to get a sense of how it will be.

The biggest frustration is our lack of broadband internet connectivity which means that I have to negotiate use of other people’s wireless connections in order to check my emails and update my blog.

Relocation

2008-10-07T18:29:00.002Z

Sunday 5th October

Views from a potting shed – part 1:

The one thing that hasn’t changed is that I am able to write my blog in my potting shed. Otherwise everything about my practice is different, new house, garden instead of allotment, new neighbours, different climate and wildlife.

Last allotment visit

2008-10-07T18:24:00.002Z

Tuesday 30th September

It’s all over! Yesterday was my last day – I went equipped with my friend’s dainty spade and secateurs, arrived at 9.15 and was done by 11am in time to collect my youngest daughter and deliver her to a dental appointment (wisdom teething problems). I harvested 2 sweetcorn, 3 courgettes, a few autumn raspberries and a host of runner beans. I added revoltingly slimy compost and activator to the compost heap as I didn’t want to leave this unpleasant task for my successor. Then, I dug summer and autumn raspberry plants, gooseberries and blackcurrants for transplanting and picked purple daisies. This was when I realised I’d finished and that there was no need to return as planned in the afternoon which meant instead I had time to visit my friend who is convalescing after a nasty accident and deliver the raspberry canes she’d asked for as well as daises and raspberries that were all a bit squashed having shared the car boot with my Labrador dog! My last photo was of ‘Tiny’ the black cat who had greeted me on this last visit and also my first and most others in between.

towards the end of the story and the start of another...

2008-10-07T18:13:00.001Z

Saturday 6th September

I’ve worked here from 9.15 until 11.45 this morning with 2 key tasks to complete. I had to take photographs for a book I am collaborating in which involved digging up the horseshoe from under the cowslip as well as including some other imported objects. I also dug my potatoes and seedbed seedlings (leeks and brassicas) and some herbs that I grew from seed last year, to transplant into my new garden. I’ve no shed here now it’s waiting to be re-erected in Cornwall but I still parked my tools and bags on the site where it stood; force of habit I suppose…
… I’m back this afternoon after sharing lunch with my (book) co-collaborator. I’m sitting under my elder/rose arbour on the palette I placed there for this purpose. I’m planning one more visit here at the end of the month to harvest sweetcorn, artichokes and anything else that’s thriving and to finally let go. The rain is coming again- it’s been miraculously dry in spells today after what feels like constant rain for several days, so time to move on now…

bindweed takeover

2008-10-07T18:01:00.003Z

Wednesday 6th August

Came to the allotment today (sun) and yesterday (rain) for the first time in three weeks. I had no idea how quickly everything- particularly weeds- grows at this time of year.

short but sadly sweet

2008-07-11T14:28:00.003Z

I think I've been in denial about my separation from the allotment. I've spent the last 2 weeks planning for our 3 week trip to Cornwall which we embark on today and I've not been coming to the allotment. On the way here I began to feel unsettled and by the time I was walking up the path and into the allotment which greeted me with a plethora of colour - crimson poppies, violet blue borage, delicate pink comfrey and vibrant veridian pot marigold - I felt overwhelmed with sadness at the thought of leaving it all finally at the end of the summer and frustration that I hadn't remembered my camera.

Anyway, I did what I came here to do and planted my curcubits - marrows, pumpkins, courgettes and squash - that hadn't perished thank goodness. I also planted out sweetcorn, aubergine and peppers all of which probably won't come to much but have a better chance in the ground outside than pot-bound and dry in the potting shed.

Then I harvested broad beans and mange-tout peas that are at their peak of fruitfulness and was thoroughly soaked by rain.

I'm now in my shed making a cup of coffee I don't really have time for and remembering that the reason I haven't been is because I knew I'd stay too long and forgo my tax form and other vital tasks in favour of activities like weeding the autumn raspberries that I won't be around to harvest anyway.

The rain has stopped, birds are singing, trees are dripping and the sound of traffic reminds me that I should be driving to my parents to deliver plants and produce prior to our departure later today.

midsummer madness

2008-06-22T16:05:00.001Z

It certainly feels like midsummer here, not because of the weather which is very windy but because of the state of growth. Everything is at least waist height, or so it seems. However, some of the plants that I’d given up on have obviously benefited from the recent rain and are, particularly the tomatoes, looking to have a new lease of life after a parched start. In some other beds seeds are germinating that I sowed months ago and that I had given up on. In my shed the cucurbits seem to have all worked this year after a disaster last year and this will be my first job when I come here again, to get them out and into the ground.

It is odd knowing that some of the produce I’ve sown and nurtured will be someone else’s banquet but so long as it doesn’t go to waste this is not a bad thing. I have decided to move my shed to my new garden in Cornwall and to hand over the allotment at the end of September. I am beginning to detach from it already as I’ve had a report to write but now I’m back it has hooked me in again and I have to say I am calmer than I’ve been for some time.

gale-force glazing

2008-05-26T15:56:00.001Z

It’s Bank Holiday Monday and I have decided to spend most of the day at the allotment rather than at the nearby college that my partner works at where there is a Festival with thousands of people attending. I have dutifully done some gardening there in preparation, given some people bed and breakfast and baked a cake for the college committee so I don’t feel too guilty.

It is extremely windy here today. I opened the door of my shed and one of the big panes of glass began flapping, my glazing skills leave a great deal to be desired. I rushed outside with a hammer and some tacks and have managed to salvage the situation before the glass blew right out as was the fate of its predecessor.

I haven’t been here for a couple of weeks apart from calling to water seedlings and harvest rhubarb and herbs so there is much to be done. My neighbour who I’ve planted beans for hailed me and asked if I’ve been away in Cornwall. He summoned me to ‘come and see your handy-work’. Most of the bean seeds I planted are now visible and looking strong despite the dry, windy and frosty weather, so he is happy.

Saturday 31st May

Consulted with allotment neighbour and decided to plant out half my tomatoes, chillies, basil, fennel and coriander seedlings. I weeded rocket beds and plan to plant lettuce in 2nd rocket bed in the gaps and brassicas next to the fennel thus leaving my seedbed free for squashes when they’re ready. Finished digging runner bean bed, 2 rowsx8canes- 2 seeds per cane, my own seed from 2 years ago and homemade compost. Re-sowed French beans, only one each of blue and red survived. Sowed more peas, Norli, where older seeds failed to germinate.

the process of letting go gradually

2008-05-13T10:30:00.001Z

Monday 5th May

On Saturday I told one of the allotmenteers that I will be handing over my allotment tenancy mid August. Yesterday one of my friends called for a cup of tea and asked about it – it seems a group of her friends, living nearby, on hearing that we’re leaving, would like to take it on. I’m asking myself why this feels uncomfortable and I’m thinking it’s because letting go is a painful though necessary process.

The pair of robins that usually appear when I’m digging are inspecting the patch I’ve just turned over and there’s a big fat bee sucking on my blackcurrant flowers.

I’d planned to be here all day yesterday but it rained incessantly all day, as a result today is moist and misty but warm, very warm in comparison to recent weather – there was a frost last week.

Letting go seems to be my current theme, the hardest of all being the death of my friend in Cornwall. However, the burial we organised in the corner of a friend’s field, in an adapted crate was I think what he’d have wanted. The only real expense was the cost of the Death Certificate, everything else was DIY, even to my friend collecting him from the mortuary in her landrover. Filling in the grave after he was placed into it by his friends was a profound priviledge.

Sunday 11th May

5pm – I’ve not been here long, it’s such a hot day I thought I wouldn’t survive digging through it. Now there is shade where I am digging for my runner bean bed. The ground is extremely dry though and hard, we could do with some rain.

A robin has just realised it’s my tea break and has dropped into where I’ve been digging for its usual snack.

After consulting with various neighbours, allotment and otherwise, I went to see the allotment landlord to talk about my handing over the plot. We discussed it being divided and I gave him the names of some of the people who’ve expressed an interest. He said he has more of a list than usual, which he puts down to people being concerned about the rising cost of food. He suggested I don’t hand over until 29th September as this marks the half-year of my tenancy and that since my rent is paid until March I’d be entitled to keep it until then and thus benefit from the harvest. He also suggested I could mark out a section to keep until it’s convenient to move out. This had me thinking and I’m going to suggest that the plot is divided into three and that I keep the middle third for the time being, justified by two daughters and my parents being nearby and whom I will be regularly visiting. I will then relinquish it if or when it becomes burdensome. If my landlord agrees to this proposition I will keep my shed here after all.

Monday 19th May

There’s reading and writing to be done, let alone sorting and clearing for our move in August. So I’m here just to touch base, water the in-shed seedlings and my neighbours, discuss this morning’s frost with the man I’ve planted runner beans for and document photographically what’s been going on here. So, it’s quite an objective, detached response today.

rethinking the plan

2008-05-02T16:52:00.001Z

Time to reconsider my planting plan. I have just finished digging a bed that I intended for peas. However, I am very behind with my digging due to four visits to Cornwall since Easter. I think I am going to plant less of each crop and then use each bed for at least two crops instead of one. So, my pea bed can double as peas and French beans perhaps, or peas and sweetcorn.

My sweet peas seem to have been a complete disaster, not one germinated. So, I’m thinking instead of having something edible growing up the fence, I’m not sure what just yet, possibly climbing courgettes.

"plant a potato for me"

2008-04-04T12:37:00.000Z

The friend I planted potatoes with last week sent a text last night saying ‘plant a potato for me’. I took this to mean the same thing as ‘say a prayer’ or ‘light a candle’, but in my context. Oddly, I’d just been thinking whilst hanging my washing that I really should have all the beds I’ve dug planted by now. So, I came here today to do just that which also meant planting up my newly dug annual herbs’ bed. This includes parsley, coriander, rocket, both cultivated and wild, dill and chervil. Some of these seeds are not too fresh so may not germinate, we will see.

This evening we are travelling to Cornwall and I am hoping to visit some of the people who also knew and loved my friend from the woods.

disorientated by grief

2008-04-03T16:45:00.000Z

I have entirely lost track of time since Saturday when we lost an hour. We had just turned out our lights at home in solidarity with a global energy saving action for the hour between 8 and 9 when the phone rang. It was someone telling me that one of my most treasured friends had been found dead 3 hours earlier. This made sense of my restlessness that day. I had been here at the allotment and just couldn’t settle to digging even though the sun was shining, so I cleaned out my shed instead. Then the weather became increasingly dismal, dark threatening clouds accompanied by a cold wind. I packed up early and went home to sit by a log fire.

This particular friend had spent the last twenty years of his life living outside of four walls with increasingly little. This was his aim in fact, to live with nothing. He had no income, no running water (just a stream within walking distance), no electricity, no heating apart from a wood stove fashioned out of an old gas bottle, no clothes whenever possible and he cooked on a fire outside. He lived on what he could salvage from other people’s scraps and supermarket skips and the occasional goodwill of some people who respected his lifestyle. For some of these years he was accompanied in this mission by a partner with whom he shared an intense and loving relationship which resulted in three children all born in their tiny bender (makeshift home).

This friend will be sadly missed by many people who encountered him, maybe lived alongside him for a while or just, like me, visited him by way of retreat. In these moments of remembering one thing’s for sure, there will always be laughter.

When I saw him last I was describing my project here on the allotment to him. He had absolutely no problem understanding what I am doing here and the concept of ‘becoming’. I owe so much to him.

dodging the weather

2008-03-29T14:22:00.000Z

The MET office seem to be spot on at the moment, rain all day yesterday and brilliant sunshine this morning followed by rain for the next few days. So, I came over early today to work while I can. Sure enough after a gloriously sunny start to the day it’s now late morning and clouding over. Yesterday’s downpour meant that digging has been a less than satisfactory experience so I decided to clear up my shed. I’ve been in the habit of storing my found objects just outside my shed and I’m realising that, these being the one part of my allotment activity that I will eventually take with me, I should be taking more care of them since they, unlike my tools are irreplaceable. So I now have them carefully stored under my potting bench next to the box containing objects I unearthed during the digging of my previous vegetable plot in Newlyn, Cornwall.

On Thursday a friend and I planted potatoes; Orla, white earlies which we’ve put in next to my broad beans that are beginning to make an appearance and Verity, a white with pink eyes of which I have twice as many as I’ve provided space for. I’m considering digging yet another potato bed for my Desiree, reds, which still need to go in and in the meantime planting the rest of my Verity in the Desiree bed. I wonder what a psychoanalyst would make of that? Two years ago I realised once I’d done it that I’d planted Amour and Desiree in the same bed!

an invitation for me and another for you

2008-03-26T17:58:00.003Z

I’ve been digging along the wall between my shed and my shady seat. The intention is to create a flat path, since the previous one has always been sloping and slippery, and also a bed for perennial herbs. I grew sage, thyme rosemary and tarragon last year and now want the bed they are in for a seedbed. Whilst I was digging I came across, as usual, a number of objects that had found their way into the ground accidentally. I have developed a way of using these found objects as a means to collaborative story telling in the context of an art audience. - http://www.laurawild.org.uk/BLOC%20Assembly.html - I am wondering if it may be possible to do the same thing within my blog via the comments box? If you would like to try this please click on ‘comments’ below and continue the story that I will begin there.

I arrived in time for my lunch today. Yesterday my bungalow neighbour had mimed ‘come and have soup tomorrow’ and said ‘about quarter to one?’, so despite a busy morning this was an invitation I didn’t want to pass by. He called me in last week too and sat me at his kitchen table from which there is a view of my fruit beds through the window.

I’m just about to pack up and go home. My back is feeling the lack of digging replaced by long car journeys for five days around Easter weekend. I picked some daffodils for a neighbour who always stops to chat on her way up the lane (she once gave me a bundle of netting for my fruit bushes). She was talking about needing a sprung rake to get the moss out of her lawn, so I’ve lent her mine as I rarely use it.

relaxing into the process

2008-03-19T19:32:00.001Z

Tuesday 18th March

The trouble with an overview is that it magnifies the enormity of an already enormous task and can cause me to feel exhausted at the thought of all there is to be done…

This is what I’ve been thinking whilst digging just now. I spent much of last week planning where beds will be and which need to be dug first for the earliest crops. At first it helped me realise just how much I have already achieved but now I am feeling swamped by how much there is to do and I have found myself starting bits of digging in several places which just seems to turn up the pressure.

I guess it is no coincidence that I have, alongside this allotment activity, been working on a plan/timetable for the completion of my PhD. What a daunting task! I need another kind of strategy to make it all seem manageable.

The other realisation I had whilst digging and pondering all this is that whilst grand plans are necessary to a degree their essence is in fact contradictory, if not detrimental, to my methodology as a whole which is that of becoming, allowing, responding to etc. etc. So, having written the plan for my research and drawn up the plans for my beds on the allotment I now need to relax into the process again and focus on the task at hand, whether this be digging the next few feet or reading, mulling over and writing about the next few pages of philosophy.

re-carpeting

2008-03-14T09:03:00.008Z

Thursday 13th March

Very productive day today, no rain! I’ve cleared the pile of wood, well actually I’ve moved the twiggy bits to a part of the allotment that I won’t be planting this spring. I’ve also finished clearing out the pigsty, lined it with carpet underlay that I gleaned from a neighbours cast-offs and then cut the remaining logs to fit and stored them in there to season for the wood stove next winter.

I’ve cut back brambles and other weeds from the wild end of the plot, near to where the wall is being repaired and moved the carpet that was under the woodpile over there as a base for all the stone and rubble to be moved onto. My theory is that then the weeds then won’t grow through the stones and it also means that I can clear the bed for my marrows, squashes and courgettes.

I started to dig my third potato bed and have dug about a third of it including digging out a sycamore tree root that had established itself there.

To break up the strenuous work I paced out where my beds will be and marked them with sticks and string. It’s 5pm now and I arrived here at 10.30am, it definitely works well being here for a good few hours at a time.

The bungalow man who’s bean bed I’m working on has ordered another bottle of wine for me, he says he’ll have it ready for me tomorrow. “Say nothing” was his command!

happy hedgehog day

2008-03-11T19:47:00.004Z

Spring must be here because the hibernating hedgehog has woken and wandered off. I’m so happy that it has survived winter in the environs of my allotment.

I have planted sweet peas along the wire fence that I repaired. I have provided each seed with a raspberry cane to climb up. I have less seed than I should have for the length of bed, so I’ve planted one at each cane instead of the recommended two and hope they will all be productive.

My bungalow neighbour has asked me to buy him some canes to grow beans up. The neighbour who lets me use her bonfire stopped for a chat and was saying that she hadn’t heard if she was able to have the allotment she’s applied for. I suggested she ring and remind them about it. Sure enough, a little later she hailed me to say “I’ve got it!” I am so happy for her and congratulated her as enthusiastically as if she had just given birth to a third child!

beoming fruitful

2008-03-11T10:27:00.000Z

Sunday 9th March

Arrived soon after nine this morning. It’s now after four. I’ve achieved loads here today. I finished the currant bed, digging and transplanting from other area into it. I planted my shallots. Then I fixed posts and wire for summer raspberries to be supported by. This alerted me to other fruit needs, so I weeded the strawberry bed and transplanted the baby gooseberry bushes so that they are better spaced. Then I fed raspberries, gooseberries and strawberries with my own compost and rhubarb with the last of the extremely well-rotted manure after which I continued to dig my onion bed but realised that I’m tired, so I’ve stopped for tea and cake!

Under the weather

2008-03-03T18:51:00.000Z

It feels like weeks since I was last digging. In fact it is only 4 days. In the meantime I have been under the weather in more ways than one. The gales at the weekend, following the earthquake last Wednesday, were astonishing, I called on Sunday to check my shed was still in one piece after losing a window last winter. This morning we woke up to a blizzard but it had all gone by mid-morning giving way to a beautifully sunny, though cold, day. I can now see dark clouds looming and wonder if there’s more snow on its way.

Just inspected the hibernating hedgehog because I could see that some of it’s moss covering had been moved. There was a hole at one side of the mound that I peered into - I saw spines so carefully covered it with another generous helping of moss. I hope it is still alive in there.

There was a stall on the market this morning selling seed potatoes and onion sets, so I bought a bag of Desiree, since I can’t find Pomeroy anywhere, and a small bag of shallots that I will need to find a corner for.

transplanting

2008-03-03T18:49:00.001Z

Monday 25th February

Started work at 10am, it’s now 3.30pm, made a decision to move gooseberries to edge of path and transplant other blackcurrants to the bed I’m working on. It’s coming along nicely but at least another day’s work still to do.

essential grounding

2008-02-24T19:35:00.003Z

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

2008-02-23T20:13:00.003Z

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

2008-02-18T18:26:00.001Z

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

2008-02-15T22:46:00.001Z

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

2008-02-06T21:44:00.000Z

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

2008-02-05T21:46:00.000Z

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

2008-02-03T19:37:00.000Z

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.

tales from a pigsty

2008-01-22T20:25:00.001Z

I have a huge pile of branches that I pruned off the elders and plum trees. It resembles a bonfire but will never be one because of the no-bonfire-rule here. It is in fact kinder to the environment to season it for the wood stove next winter anyway, so I am preparing a place to store it. There is a wonderful redundant pigsty on my plot. I have already, with the help of my husband, cleared out the far end of it as a receptacle for farmyard manure, which I’m hoping the local farmer will deliver into it. The original door end of the pigsty, I am finding, was used for dumping stone and rubbish over the years. The stone is what we need at present, so that’s good and the rubbish is excellent material for the imagination. I do wonder how much we have been conditioned by literature and the media. Would I, pre- Agatha Christie and ‘Z-cars’, on discovering a bottle containing a clear liquid, immediately have thought that it could have contained poison and been hidden there after a terrible crime being committed by its owner?

reawakening

2008-01-20T19:39:00.000Z

It’s not even February and things are starting to wake up already. Suddenly things feel to be alive and emerging from dormancy. It’s hard to describe quite why since there aren’t many actual changes, it’s just a general feeling. I imagine all the rain we’ve been having is a contributing factor but the temperatures have been higher than they usually are at this time of year. I wonder what will happen when we have the inevitable (I assume!) snow and ice in February and March.

I’ve been making the compost heap out of kitchen vegetable waste, green allotment waste and activator that I have accumulated since before Christmas. It’s a job that’s easier to do in warmer weather so I thought I’d grab the opportunity, besides the soil is too clarty (not sure if I’ve invented this word?!) for digging today.

I’ve been looking at the central path and I’ve realised that it curves along the top of the ridge about half way down the allotment. This explains why I always seem to be confused when I try to work with plans that I’ve drawn up. Back to the drawing board…

winter toadland

2008-01-19T23:32:00.001Z

Wall-building day, following several days of very heavy rain so slip-sliding conditions under foot. A mutual friend joined us for coffee, lunch and conversation.

I investigated a lumpy bit of ground under the blackcurrant and honeysuckle in my wild area. Under the moss there was old lino and under that was a pile of stone for wall building. I began to move these stones over to where we are repairing the wall but stopped when I was surprised by one of the stones moving. It was of course a toad which sloped off further into the remaining pile of stones, I threw on some moss and have decided to leave well alone until spring.

stone reclamation

2008-01-13T19:35:00.000Z

The gap in my blogging rather than meaning I haven’t been here indicates instead that I have been absorbed in what I’m doing here.

I have continued to dig for my broad bean bed but this is difficult when it is wet as I’ve discovered the lower section takes longer to drain and the soil stays wet and sticky. Also, the need for more stone for wall-building has led me to recover stone from around the plot, principally alongside the wall. This is an area that every summer becomes impassable because of brambles, nettles and willowherb. In searching for stone I have been digging out these roots and in the process revealing a considerable area containing wonderfully rich soil. I am thinking of planting my peas and lettuce along here as they will have some shade from the wall during the full heat of summer days. What I must definitely avoid is perennial anything as the roots of these are what has caused my wall to fall down, we think. Nasturtiums may be a good option.

One of my allotment neighbours came up with a good plan yesterday when I discovered my very weathered beanpoles under last years’ overgrowth. I had tried to bring them into my shed for protection but they are longer than it. He suggested hanging them from hooks onto the back of my shed. This was the first thing I did this morning.

As I suspected, when I decided to pause in my digging to take photos, the rain has now begun. I will persevere and hope it is blown over by the wind that arrived with it.

the story unfolds

2008-01-03T15:16:00.001Z

Awoke to snow falling and thought the ground would be too hard to dig today but arrived to find it perfect for digging, not too wet or dry and not frozen.

My 21-year-old fledgling arrived safely in Finland last night to
-7degC and snow underfoot and this is just the start of the Finnish winter, it could go as cold as -30!

I’m sitting in my shed today and am looking at a selection of images of me, some holding birds closely to my chest and others resting my head on my arms, one curled up asleep and another whispering secrets to a friend. These are redundant etching plates, the editions complete, the work of a friend in St.Ives. When we lived there she and I exchanged my modelling for tuition in and use of her printmaking studio. When I visited her just before Christmas she was wondering how to recycle this plate metal and I asked if I could have it for my allotment to be used in some way, probably practically, to edge a path or something. She said it would weather well, particularly the copper. Now the plates are in my shed I realise how appropriate these images are for my situation here expressing relaxation, contemplation, oneness with nature and last but not by any means least the sharing of confidences, hopes, dreams and the becoming of shared stories.

another little bird in flight

2008-01-02T17:17:00.000Z

Arrived here about 2.45 for the last bit of daylight after delivering our middle daughter to Manchester airport destined for 5 months in Finland. I needed to be here to get myself grounded after an emotional ‘au revoir’.

The Met office is forcasting sub-zero temperatures soon so I’m digging urgently. I have begun to define the top edge of my broad bean beds, which has meant clearing the bank of michaelmas daisy roots. In doing this I have discovered the cowslips that have delighted me two springs in a row. I therefore dug these, cleared their roots of bindweed and replaced them more or less where I found them since I’m assuming they are self-sown and therefore like where they are. Whilst shaking the soil out of one of these plants I found a tiny horse shoe that I decided to replant under the said cowslip and to conduct some research into folk lore as to whether this may have been deliberately placed thus by a previous occupant.

Tonight I am planning to continue reading Levinas’ philosophy of ‘the face’ as my reading this morning has caused me to wonder if there is some relevance for my meetings with people here at the allotment.

Wondering if my little bird has alighted in Copenhagen yet, the first leg of her flight to Finland

anxious robin

2008-01-01T14:50:00.000Z

I’ve been clearing behind my neighbour’s fence where there are several shrubs winding themselves together; honeysuckle, something evergreen and brambles to ensure an almost impervious cocktail. I’ve come across 3 nests, which when I returned to photograph what I’ve been doing, I saw a robin looking somewhat perturbed. I’m assuming I’ve uncovered last years’ birthing place. I hope I haven’t made it homeless!

I was very pleasantly interrupted in what I was doing by a friend who lives up the lane arriving with a cup of her husband’s homemade winter vegetable soup, containing some of my artichokes.

Last night on the run-up to midnight I was hatching my plan for the layout of beds and sowing for the coming year. I also managed to place my seed order on-line just before the end of 2007, a job well done.

housekeeping

2007-12-31T13:41:00.003Z

Arrived at the break of day, not in order to be heroic but because I was delivering a daughter to a train at 8.10am. It’s now 12.08 and I soon have to collect her from the station.

Firstly today I completed digging to the 4th post, which means roughly 48 feet of the bottom section now dug. Then I wrapped 3 lots of prunings in a blanket and dragged them up to a neighbour’s bonfire site, by which time the blanket was ragged and I knew how it felt. This has liberated the main path again, as far as I’ve dug. I’ve also generally cleared up, emptied old plant pots and stored them and wheelbarrowed the weeds I’ve dug over to the compost heap. I’m conscious that I have a friend/collaborator coming here on Friday to engage in walking my paths with me and for this task the paths need to be clear.

Time to go…

pre-planning

2007-12-30T14:29:00.000Z

It’s so mild today that I’m able to sit on the palette under the elder/rose arbour, my usual position for drinking coffee, writing and contemplating during the hot summer months as the elder provides consistent shade. I’m here alone today which has become unusual, I’m digging, of course… almost a third of the way along the bottom section and path that runs along the edge of the upper section. This is all entirely virgin territory as far as I’m concerned, apart from the artichoke and rhubarb that I planted up against the wall last summer. So, when it comes to a plan for planting, anything goes really.

I am going to have to address this issue of planning pretty soon as I should probably already have made my seed order, planted garlic and be ready to soon put in broad beans. I’m going to designate a seedbed this year so I can be prepared with brassicas for next winter. I haven’t yet managed this very successfully, just the few straggly cabbages that are in front of me where I’m sitting here and that smell as though they’re starting to rot.

sprouts and friendship

2007-12-29T18:16:00.000Z

Nearly called off wall-building today because I’ve a nasty cold but woke up to a sunny and bright morning and decided the fresh air would do me good. It has. I’ve been digging while my friend’s been building. I’m now sitting in the shed waiting for the kettle to boil for coffee for the two of us and one of the other allotmenteers who’s turned up for a chat and to harvest some of his sprouts.

I wonder how much of this cold I’m suffering from is to do with being stuck inside over Christmas, I think my body is acclimatised nowadays to being outside for a considerable part of most days. A short dog walk isn’t the same as a few hours digging.

I’ve been looking at the plan on my studio wall at home over the Christmas week and realising that I am way behind with my digging plan, however I hadn’t expected to be getting my wall rebuilt which has been a serendipitous experience in the thing itself and in the building of a new friendship.

Christmas cheer

2007-12-22T23:15:00.001Z

Another wall-building Saturday, for my wall-building friend that is, I’ve been sieving compost with a view to filling my home-made plant pots which together with a packet of seed will be my Christmas presents this year.

I’ve dug the last of my parsnips and some Jerusalem artichoke for Christmas feasting and sawed up the last of my seasoned wood for the wood stove.

It’s 4.05 and the light is just starting to fade giving way to a beautiful almost-full moon.

the day after the night before

2007-12-15T21:01:00.000Z

Wheelbarrow and soil are both back where they belong after their performance last night at BLOCassembly. Moments after returning the soil I spotted a robin taking a worm out of it, which seemed to me to round off the cycle nicely.

Wall building again today hindered by frost which glues the stones together giving an illusion of more stability than is actually there. However, if I waited until warmer conditions prevailed I’d then have plant growth to contend with.

I realised the other day that I haven’t been alone on the allotment for maybe 2 weeks. My work has become peopled recently. So far this feels OK but I’m surprised at being comfortable with it, I would have expected to be needing time here by myself.

preparation for an event

2007-12-14T14:47:00.001Z

Just calling here for spade and trowel. It is my event at a gallery in Sheffield tonight, I am taking a barrow of soil with objects I’ve dug out of the ground here during the last 18 months. This will, I hope, be the starting point for the becoming of a narrative rather like the one that took place here early on the morning of 1st June.

The images show the hole where I’ve removed earth from to be used in my event tonight and the ice that I knocked out of a plastic bowl 4 days ago and which has not yet melted!

sub zero back-ache

2007-12-11T18:52:00.000Z

It’s very cold today, 1pm and the ground is still frozen. I woke up this morning with back-ache and realised I wouldn’t be much use with the wall-building we’d scheduled. My friendly wall-builder is sympathetic having had a similar complaint just last week so I’m taking things steady, 2nd coating the gate and posts with wood preserver and first coating the 2 sides of my shed that had been exposed to the sun’s drying rays this morning.

gate progress

2007-12-04T14:29:00.001Z

Rain stopped play for the last 2 days, this morning is overcast but dry, just, so I’ve brought my gate back here from home where it’s been drying out in our hall at the same time as tripping people up and generally being in the way. I have now preserved the wood, both the gate and its posts. I was intending to do the same to my shed but I think it’ll better to wait for a sunny day.

I have half an hour now before I need to leave so I’ll move some stone in preparation for wall-building, rumour has it that my wall-builder is moving about again.

sick note

2007-12-01T17:16:00.000Z

After a stormy night it’s a mostly mild and bright day. Usually, nowadays, Saturdays are wall-building days but my consultant/colleague in this task has hurt his back and is in a lot of pain so the soup we usually consume for our lunch in the shed I instead delivered to him as recovery food. The other half of the pan-full is for our middle daughter who’s ill in bed at home. I hope it helps to make them both better.

This morning at a Christmas bazaar I saw a friend who lives up the lane from the allotment, she was commenting to her husband that she’d witnessed a scene she considered highly incongruous this week. She was referring to me sitting outside my shed with my laptop on my knee. Her husband, a farmer/ builder gave this some consideration and commented on the bringing together of work with a peaceful environment.

improvised matting

2007-11-29T12:25:00.000Z

I’m sitting somewhat awkwardly on a concrete breezeblock in front of my shed, one of the same blocks that I discovered had previously been a set of steps. I have weeded in front of my shed to make space for them resulting in an even muddier path than the one I’ve been sliding about on for the last few wet weeks. Now instead of slipping I have boots encrusted in mud, so, I’ve decided to remedy this by making a mat of sorts out of skeletal yet substantial michaelmas daisy stalks. My theory is that whereas gravel or wood chippings just add to muddy boots creating a pebbledash effect, these stalks should stay in place better, we’ll see.

Now that I have a wall-builder on board there are certain jobs that need to be done before he is here again on Saturday so why, I wonder, am I doing a job that I’ve put off now for over a year? I wonder if I am feeling the need to reclaim my reflexive methods of working, or perhaps I just don’t like being told what to do!

semiotic tangle

2007-11-27T17:46:00.000Z

4.23pm. I’ve been digging for about an hour, as the rain increased the light decreased. I’ve found what I think must have been concrete steps leading from the higher to lower level. Probably because of this having been a pretty permanent structure (until now) the nettle roots are some of the most impervious I’ve come across, they had woven themselves through a wire basket that had been buried there causing it to become at one with them, passively losing its original meaning.

This morning I was reading an essay about language and meaning, I feel rather like the wire basket when I read about semiotics, the concepts seem to tangle up my thoughts rather than liberating them. So, frustrated and slightly cabin-crazy from being in the house most of the day I decided to dig the remaining daylight hours. I intend to persist in the reading of philosophy alongside my allotment processes to discover whether one may begin to throw light on the other and vice versa.

preparation for a birthday

2007-11-23T19:55:00.000Z

No digging yet today. It’s our middle daughter’s 21st this weekend so I started by sawing and filling my car boot with logs for the fire. Then I harvested what I could find, a few remaining potatoes, some small straggly carrots, 2 magnificent parsnips, three lacy cabbages and several Jerusalem artichoke. I even found some rocket and chicory that had survived the ice and frost as well as mint, thyme and sage.

The council lorry is coming early tomorrow morning so I’ve been sorting some rubbish at the same time as clarifying the space around the wall that my friend and I are spending the next few Saturday afternoon’s repairing. I can’t get used to seeing my images as though through a mirror. It is the result of taking pictures straight into my computer using its Photo Booth mode. Maybe I should take them through Photoshop and reverse them?

dark too soon

2007-11-19T17:14:00.000Z

Sitting here in my shed in the dark, just as well that my laptop has an illuminated keyboard. I’ve taken a photo of myself that looks like something from hallowe’en!

It’s only 4.39 and it is now so dark I couldn’t see what I was digging and had to stop. It rained all day yesterday and I didn’t get here until later today as it started wet so the ground is pretty saturated. I started digging the lower section and became frustrated by it all being heavy and sticky so I did some pruning up by the wall that we are repairing, me and my wall-building friend. Since then I’ve been digging along the wall, which is much lighter and not as wet as the lower section. I’ve been digging out nettle and willow-herb roots and finding the most perfect soil. I think I’ll use this section for a seedbed and then plant pumpkins and marrows along it.

ordinary transformation

2007-11-15T18:24:00.000Z

As I was sawing just now I came across an elder branch that had one polished bark-less side where it had clearly rested and rubbed against another branch influencing its growth into an irregular, twisted shape. I was reminded of a dear friend who worked and subsequently died in an accident on a scrap yard near to where I used to live. He used to save these sorts of branches to show me and he’d then carve and transform them into creatures that were suggested by the knots and twists in the branch or root. He would do the same with discarded metal using welding. As I was contemplating him and the influence he has clearly had on my current art practice I gazed up to the cloudless blue sky to see two planes drawing a heavenly kiss above me.

talking paths

2007-11-14T16:46:00.000Z

I brought some more people to the allotment today, it seems to be something I’m doing lately. I made them cups of tea and coffee and we talked about peace and quiet as well as paths and how best to maintain them. One of the people who I’d never met before is a countryside conservation volunteer.. Tiny the cat came to meet them too.

The light’s dropping now and as a result the midges are waking up and getting hungry, I can feel them biting… always an indicator that it’s time to be going home. It’s only 4.07, the days seem very short now.

spontaneous actions and reactions

2007-11-13T21:14:00.000Z

Tuesday 13th November 2007

I’m trying a new way of recording what happens here on the allotment by bringing my laptop with me and typing straight into it and also recording video and images directly into it. I’m interested to see if this allows for a fresher, more direct communication.

It was wet this morning so I decided not to dig and instead when I wandered into the local hardware shop at the end of my dog walk this morning to buy acrylic primer, I came out having acquired 25kg of galvanised wire and the hooks needed to create the fence between me and my bungalow neighbour. I feel slightly guilty spending money so spontaneously and without consultation but it does seem to be not only the best possible solution but also the cheapest. It took me all of an hour to install and the result is an almost invisible boundary… what could be better. It also means I can grow things like sweet peas up it that (as my friend said who I was telling when she walked by) ‘will benefit everyone’. Whilst I was fixing the fence some men came to fit a new clothes drier for my bungalow neighbour on the other side. There was some confusion because I think they thought I lived there and came to talk to me about the washing line, which misled them and ultimately upset my neighbour, and all goes to show how important the fence really is.

Since then I’ve been continuing my mission to prune the elder trees whilst the ground isn’t full of crops that would be crushed by falling branches. The sun is shining on the edge again, it’s such a glorious time of year.

frozen wonderland

2007-11-13T21:09:00.000Z

Monday 12th November 2007

It’s a frozen wonderland here this morning, which is rapidly being dispersed by brilliant sunshine. It’s now 9degC in my shed but ice instead of water under plant pots is evidence of several degrees below zero overnight. A bit of log-sawing whilst the kettle boils soon acclimatises my body to these chilly conditions.

I’ve been thinking whilst digging of my friend in London who’s husband died last night – hoping she’ll eventually find solace in the digging of her allotment.

Came back after lunch and decided to cut back the elder over my writing/thinking palette. In so doing I discovered that the rambling rose which had seemed inconsequential is in fact a monster. Decided to weave it around the remainder of the elder thus creating what I hope will become a shady rose arbour next summer. Halfway through this job my phone rang… it was my research supervisor ringing for a pre-arranged telephone session at 2pm intended to be on my home phone! We’ve re-scheduled for 4pm.

boundaries and stories

2007-11-13T21:08:00.000Z

Friday 9th November 2007

Two separate streams of thought today whilst digging…

Firstly and most prominently about boundaries, safety, vulnerability and different people’s perceptions of these issues. A friend is coming to repair my dry stone walls (boundary walls) tomorrow which is why this is on my mind.

The other thinking has been about an event I’m presenting at a gallery in December in which I’m hoping that things I’ve found in the ground will transform into stories found in the audience.

fencing preparation

2007-10-31T19:55:00.000Z

I’ve just realised having written this date that it’s hallowe’en.

I’ve finished uprooting a pernicious rhizome that was dominating the boundary between me and one of the bungalows, it reminded me of a battle I had with bamboo in my last plot.

I’m trying to think of a friendly type of fence and have decided that whatever I use will have sweet peas growing up it. I’m wondering about 2ply, twisted garden wire threaded through the existing concrete posts’ holes for the horizontals and then raspberry canes or bamboo woven into the wire twists to create verticals.

neighbourly interventions

2007-10-25T07:12:00.000Z

Wednesday 24th October

It was an outwardly eventful day yesterday. The bungalow man presented me with a bottle of wine, “It’s not much, would of cost me more if I’d ‘ad to pay someone. You’ll do it again next year won’t you?” I dug his bean patch on Saturday afternoon. He came out to chat to me a couple of times that day and to show me his new jacket, still bearing its label, that he was going to be wearing to a formal dinner that night. The next day he told me, “I had my photo took w’i’t dicky-bow, I’ll show you when it comes back.” And also how he’d had a disturbed night through indigestion. Over the next few days I’ve heard several recitations of this story to passing neighbours, hard not to since his hearing difficulties cause him to shout. I’m really enjoying this friendship developing.

Also yesterday, the woman who used to have my allotment made her way in to tell me her neighbour, up the lane, has thrown out a carpet and underlay, she’d have a word for me if I’m interested. She also pointed to a gooseberry bush I’ve liberated from weeds and says it has lovely sweet fruit if you can keep the birds off it. I told her I have a whole row of its babies (self-rooted). It’s just occurred to me that I could have a table in my gateway of surplus fruit bushes for path-users to help themselves to.

Not long after this the owner of the carpet (it turns out) and her little boys, stopped to talk about the no-bonfire rule and offered use of her bonfire site up the top of the lane as an alternative way of disposing of burnable waste. She took me up to see it.

goodwill beyond price

2007-10-17T20:49:00.000Z

I think my plan to consistently clear and dig a section per week is building up my stamina. I seem to be achieving more than I expect each time and I’m realising I must have had some anxiety about how I could ever cultivate the whole plot which now seems at least possible. I’ve just thought that if I get on with tree-pruning I could dispose of the debris in a local bonfire night ritual.

I still have 18x12 feet and 6x4 feet to dig this week, plus the bungalow man has asked me to winter-dig his bean patch, when I’ve time – ha! I’ve decided it will probably take me an hour and will create countless hours of goodwill and will therefore be time well spent.

not-so-poor housekeeping

2007-10-08T09:40:00.000Z

Friday 5th October

I’m uncovering the pile of roots that I dug out prior to planting artichokes in the Spring, this seemingly poor house-keeping has actually meant that I can now easily shake off the earth and they have begun the composting process.

I love this time of year – golden, warm not hot and crisp bright mornings, mostly.

Just noticed two cock pheasants skulking away between my pumpkins, I wonder what there is here to interest them.

rediscovered fragments

2007-10-08T09:38:00.001Z

Thursday 4th October

I’ve resolved to dig 12foot strips at a time in the lower area, gradually working my way to the entrance. Tightened up the scythe and it works well on Golden Rod which it turns out is the rhizome who’s identity I was unsure of in the Spring.

I’ve cleared the lean-to at home this week and re-discovered a box of fragments that I dug out of the last plot I cultivated (in Cornwall), I’ve brought them here to sort out and possibly integrate into this current plot. I’ve just found the discarded empty tube of oil paint that I like to believe contained some of the pigment in Harold Harvey’s ‘Blue Door’. I found it close to where he must have painted from, in front of his house. Perhaps I’ll send it to the Penlee House Museum which is home to the Newlyn School collection.

2 hours (including a 15 minute break) and I’ve dug about 40 (6x7) square feet.

more time

2007-10-03T20:51:00.000Z

Wednesday 3rd October

I’ve been scything a bit (I bought a scythe today) it seemed to tackle nettles and thistles better than shears but the blade soon came loose and I lost patience with it. So, I’ve returned to the digging I started yesterday. It’s very slow progress and since I have roughly 7,500 square feet of allotment the fact that it’s taken me about an hour to dig 15 is a little daunting. Just as well I’m not looking for a well-manicured plot. What it does show me though is that I need to be here more often and for longer.

An hour later and now I’ve dug 25 square feet today.

boundary concerns

2007-10-03T20:45:00.000Z

Tuesday 2nd October

I’ve just dug out some pre-historic nettle roots… Tiny the cat has climbed onto my lap and is head-butting my writing hand… Cat’s bored now, gone to peruse the neighbouring allotment. The ancient nettles I’ve been tackling are at the furthest, lower corner of the allotment, close to my rhubarb and Jerusalem artichoke and encroaching into my bungalow-neighbour’s lawn along with thistles, teazles and bindweed. while I was working more over his side of the non-existent wire fence than my own I realised that I seem to be concerned with boundaries. I’m thinking that rather than working from the middle to the edge (and never getting there), I could work in reverse to establish good boundaries. By ‘good’ I mean friendly whilst clearly present. I’ve been upset this year by one of my neighbour’s ill-considered boundary matters and this has convinced me to take note of reasonable requests and act on them as soon as possible. This will include pruning my damson tree that disturbs a neighbours view of the hills as well as cutting back the trees and nettles from my side of the main path so that the allotmenteer who mows the path can get in closer to the wall.

rained off

2007-09-30T13:02:00.001Z

Saturday 29th September - midday

It’s drizzly today, not ideal allotment weather. I’ve climbed into the damson tree and sawed off two big branches – exhausting work, holding on with one hand and sawing with the other. I’ll finish the job another day when I have the right saw, a stepladder and assistance!

I had a friend here yesterday – we harvested, cooked and ate a two-course meal whilst conducting a conversation about our mutual concerns. I recorded this conversation on my laptop and it will, I hope, be the first of many interactions of this kind towards my research project.

Another friend, who was going to call here today for coffee, has seen the rain and called on my mobile to invite me for lunch instead.

wildlife encounters

2007-09-22T18:53:00.000Z

I’ve just watched a pair of ‘cabbage white’ butterflies mate on a raspberry leaf. One flattened itself out and projected its tail into the air while the other hovered above making contact a few times then flying away. The (presumably) female one then gathered herself and fluttered off over my head, greeny-white against the sky.

I brought with me today a dustbin full of compostable material. When I lifted off the cover from the compost a mouse scurried away. I do love these wildlife encounters.

There are pinky-mauve daisies in flower with a whole host of bees on them. One of my more eccentric friends worries about mobile phone radiation disturbing the flight-path of bees, he tells me that Einstein said ‘when the bees die, we die’, he obviously has little to worry about here!

Sitting in my shed for a moment, ‘Tiny’ came in to explore.

Absent-minded pondering

2007-09-12T22:46:00.001Z

I do seem to be becoming absent-minded - just started pouring boiling water into an empty coffee filter then heard myself self-reprimanding out loud. I know I talk to myself quite a bit these days, often when I'm walking in the park where having the dog with me provides an excuse, or at least I like to think it does.

I have a resistance to anyone telling me how to contemplate or meditate. I used to put my resistance down to my mother, a yoga teacher, trying to make me 'salute the sun' in a morning when I was a teenager. In fact I think it's more to do with knowing or having known at a very young age, inherently, how to do these things without someone else's instruction but it having slipped out of focus. I was alone a lot as a child and lived pretty much in my own world of daydreams. I used to make things, dens and shelters, intimate environments in which to practice the art of daydreaming.

As I’m sitting here quietly I’ve been joined by what I now see to be a female blackbird that is rustling about in the peas in front of me. So, this is the visitor who’s been emptying some of my pea pods. It’s gratifying to think that I’m providing a meal for others as well as myself.

I’ve lopped several big branches off one of my elders to encourage it to grow closer to the ground so I can reach its flowers and fruit. I broke up the branches and twigs and added them to the pile that I have created as a small wildlife shelter.

It’s now overcast and a proliferation of midges have appeared so I’m beating a hasty retreat!

if in doubt ... make compost

2007-09-09T21:56:00.000Z

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do here today but since I’ve brought with me a backlog of compostable kitchen waste and activator from home I decided to investigate my compost bins. To my delight I discovered perfectly rotted compost, enough to fill seven bags.

Now I realise why gardeners write about sieving compost – I‘ve found a variety of objects that have survived the alchemical process including sticks, elastic bands, mango and avocado pips, bottle lids and plastic labels, but the rest is brown and crumbly as described in the aforementioned gardening books.

Jam therapy

2007-09-09T10:36:00.000Z

Saturday 8th September

6pm - I’m coming back down to earth gradually. Picking fruit (plums, damsons, elderberries and autumn raspberries) and making jam for the first time, has helped. Also eating peas and rocket straight from the plant. It’s a glorious evening, golden light after an overcast day. However, this time of day at this time of year the gnats make their presence felt so I’m heading for home.

Absence

2007-09-09T10:33:00.000Z

August 27th Bank Holiday Monday

Gorgeous sunny day, I’d expected many fellow allotmenteers but I seem to be alone which suits me well today.

An indication of the state of my allotment is that I’ve just discovered bindweed winding its way around a chilli pepper plant INSIDE my shed. The miracle is that my seedlings are still alive despite no watering for a fortnight, the result of so little sunshine this summer since the hot and early Spring.

The thought of all there is to do makes me tired – I’ve definitely lost the plot this summer, it has run away from me, become a free agent. However it does present me with the possibility of not exactly a blank canvas but a fresh start since my sowings for winter haven’t materialised.

My heart has been elsewhere – firstly because of the unexpected, yet joyous, re-opening of doors for us as a family in Cornwall and then the opposite, the tragic death of two of our dearest friends also in Cornwall. For these reasons we have spent most of the summer there resulting in the neglect of my allotment.

Such sadness… the allotment epitomises it all, things dying down now at the end of the summer and so much to deal with. Yet beyond that, somewhere, the hope of new beginnings springing from the old, but I feel it could be a long cold winter.

Show prep

2007-09-09T10:32:00.001Z

Tuesday 31st July

Bakewell Show tomorrow so I’ve come to collect possible exhibits. I’m not expecting or wanting prizes but I am enjoying the thought of allowing my collaborative partner (the allotment) the opportunity to show off. I’ve brought the list of categories to see what could fit the bill. I thought I may have beetroot but they seem to have either not developed or rotted in the ground. My peas may not be quite mature enough but I may enter them anyway as they have novelty blue pods, perhaps today’s sunshine could be what they need and I could harvest them at dawn tomorrow for the 7.15 deadline.

On my return

2007-09-09T10:28:00.000Z

Saturday 28th July

I’ve been away for two weeks, just harvested peas, broad beans, onions, garlic, rocket and blackcurrants. Last year I daren’t leave it, this year I needed a break and whilst away the allotment blurred out of focus, no watering anxieties – the heavens have taken care of that this year.

welcome home

2007-07-07T08:04:00.000Z

Friday 6th July

Great harvest just in time for a feast tonight with my partner home after a week away and 2 of 3 daughters. I feel like a hunter-gatherer.

Finally planted my cucurbit seedlings, climbers in amongst the barren currants and gooseberries and the rest between the soon to be harvested garlic. Also planted out sunflowers providing an edge to the main path.

liberation deliberation

2007-07-05T16:58:00.000Z

It’s clouding over again after a hot and sunny start. I’m continuing where I left off yesterday, I suppose you could call it weeding - although this always conjures up a picture of kneeling at the edge of a flower border pulling out freshly germinated weedlings (which maybe says more about my family than anything) – my kind of weeding involves pulling up willowherb, nettles, thistles all about shoulder height and some creeping stuff, that must have been the inspiration behind Velcro, together with columbine binding it all together. However, apart from creating hard to dispose of enormous piles of debris, there is an amazing sense of liberation because it means I can start to walk around my allotment again and, more importantly, the plants can experience the light of day. I had no idea how many nearly-ripe blackcurrants there are.

What I think was a kestral just flew over clutching prey in its talons.

grasping nettles

2007-07-05T06:50:00.000Z

4th July 2007

I’ve spent the last 2 days at home waiting for a significant pause in the rain, unrequitedly. I decided last night to come here this morning regardless of the weather and it seems to have been a good decision – only one brief shower in 3 hours – despite a glowering sky.

I’m very conscious of my neighbours since my plot has turned into a wilderness, a wonderful, fruiting, flowering wilderness but from outside I realise it communicates a total lack of control. This, of course, isn’t a great concern to me but I appreciate I am unusual in my approach to gardening. So, I decided during a fit of paranoia earlier to engage in some community-building and delivered broad beans and raspberries as well as sunflower and tomato plants to my bungalow neighbours. This gesture has been very well received.

As well as this I’ve been ‘grasping nettles’ - a therapeutic activity – and filling one of the 3 sections of my compost bin. Now I’m wondering where to plant my cucurbits (marrow, pumpkin, squash) and brassicas (kale, turnip, brocolli) seedlings. There’s digging to be done!

I’m wondering how my rhubarb is but visiting it would involve negotiating a spiky, impenetrable jungle of thistle, nettle and teazle and will have to wait for another day.

Just had a friendly visit from one of the recipients of my harvest earlier who’d come to thank me again and see what I’m up to. I showed her round as far as is possible and asked her to tell me if anything my side of her fence ever causes her a problem. She assured me she’s very easy going. “if you enjoy it that’s everything”, was her comment on my preference for digging rather than rotovating

3pm – Just made some coffee and snacked on broad beans- it’s a long time since breakfast – thunder is rumbling (as well as my stomach) and rain seems more determined than earlier today. It’s time to go home.

unaided progress

2007-07-05T06:45:00.000Z

28th June 2007

I’ve felt I’ve been absent for months and on returning this seems to be evident. One of the advantages, however, of working with living media (as opposed to paint/canvas etc.) is that it continues the process of creativity without me…

…a blackbird carrying a lump of white bread as big as its head just flew into a patch of nettles and bindweed to the left of me and now to my right there’s a young bird in my potato bed being fed by its parent…

…I’m quite sure my allotment neighbours must all despair at my lack of desire for control within my plot, but they can’t deny its fruitfulness. When I remember a couple of months ago I was waxing lyrical about how I would miss the wildness if I ever eventually manage to control it, the chances of this ever becoming an issue are laughably microscopic.

Anyway, for the first time this year (apart from a few radish) I am harvesting – broad beans, endive, chicory and more radish

dead or alive?

2007-06-10T23:24:00.000Z

I’ve just weeded, thinned and transplanted my red and green cabbages – a satisfying task as I was ambivalent about their germination only a few weeks ago. I’m hoping the same will happen with my squashes, pumpkins and courgettes that all seem to be reluctant to hatch.

I could be feeling despondent about the amount there is to do so now is the time to remind myself of why I’m here and to enjoy the wildness, its unpredictability and the fine line between success and failure. In other words to practice what I preach!

I certainly seem to be encouraging nature, so many birds and yes, a ladybird feeding on the black-fly that arrived on just a few of my broad beans.

The cabbages I transplanted seem to be playing dead, I’m hoping it’s just temporary shock. My rocket has failed to germinate and I’ve only one small coriander plant – so – I’ve sprinkled vast quantities of seed I harvested 2 years ago and watered them in, hoping some of these will take instead.

strawberry thief

2007-06-09T21:47:00.001Z

Arrived here about 3.30, I’m tired partly due to the hot, muggy weather but mainly as I’ve been working solidly on my written research followed by website construction. I’ve realised in writing this that my hands are trembling, probably too much computer contact. So, I’m sitting down with a cup of instant soup and some freshly pulled radishes that are the only immediately edible food here at the moment.

The strawberries are doing well but I see the ripe ones have been lunch to another visitor.

all too brief update

2007-06-06T20:45:00.000Z

It’s 8pm and this is a short visit to water in-shed and also tomatoes and celeriac that are very dry. I’ve been in my studio for the last 5 days writing and I’ve lost touch with the weather – so much change in so few days – these wonderful poppies I’ve been waiting for and my indoor French bean sowing, 100% more successful than the outdoor attempt. Now I’m being called away…

early morning live art

2007-06-01T21:48:00.000Z

Now 10am – arrived here at 7.15 driving through low-level bright mist. The sun is now properly breaking through.

Middle daughter arrived just after me as planned with two friends from her live art group at university as well as her tutor a film-maker and a photographer (above are some of his images).

After tea, cake and chat we decided on a whispered-guided-tour becoming story-to-camera followed by making string and tea from nettles. Everyone left again after more cake to go with the nettle tea at 9.15 to be back at university for 10am.

Sitting in my shed thinking it all over and a sparrow just flew in, realised its mistake when it hit the wall and flew straight out again and into the nearby elder. Also just saw a wren - so small – foraging for something in the straw mulch under my broad beans then flying away with its prize.

potato fright

2007-05-31T15:35:00.000Z

Oh no! I think my potatoes have blight. I was over-eager and ordered all my seeds, onion sets and seed potatoes in January. The box containing all these I put in my studio and forgot about for a fortnight. The seed potatoes, seduced by central heating and the dark containment of the box, began to sprout far too early. When I remembered I remedied this and thought I’d saved them but now I may be paying for my neglect…

…Just spoke to my allotment neighbour who tells me there was a frost two days ago - so it’s not blight after all and hopefully only minimal frost damage – hooray! I earthed up most of my potatoes last time I was here, perhaps I’m becoming more intuitive than I’d realised.

what to do on a rainy day

2007-05-26T17:19:00.000Z

Sowing seed this afternoon has seemed very playful, particularly some of the extraordinary pumkin seed that fell into my hand as I shook them out of their packet. I took to my shed during a shower of rain and caught up with my sowing and re-potting. French beans haven’t germinated outside so I’m trying again inside.

ordinary aesthetics

2007-05-26T10:01:00.002Z

Arrived straight from a tent at 7.30am – Council lorry day. Jobs done, I’m gasping for a coffee. A pair of swans just flew over… and now back again… I always wonder at the sound of their powerful wings in flight.

This may be a habit worth developing – first coffee of the day at the allotment. I’m sitting by my pea and cabbage seedlings that I watered 2 days ago – they’ve shot up – should come on leaps and bounds after this weekends predicted downpour.

I was chatting with a neighbour earlier who was saying he always takes a breath of honeysuckle on his way to and from work. This is a huge and straggling bush situated in my wild area that overhangs the wall and hence the adjacent path. I’m guessing it is home to a whole host of wildlife as well as being redemptive to a sensibility that looks for the aesthetic in the ordinary. (bell hooks, Art on My Mind: visual politics, 1995).

death of a hedgehog

2007-05-24T22:26:00.000Z

I feel so sad and responsible for the death of this beautiful hedgehog. I hope the stones that I have now provided as a ladder will prevent any more accidents of this kind.

Potato progress for Dave

2007-05-22T18:30:00.001Z

Orla - first early, Desiree - first maincrop, Verity - late maincrop.

After speaking with my friend Jane about a quandary I find myself in she suggested, in the style of my research, that I ‘dig on it’ to discover what emerges from the process of doing instead of thinking, so here I am.

I stopped to take a rest from digging and stood back 2 paces from my fork. A robin flew and perched on it, dropped down to pick up a worm then flew off to my wild corner. A strange little grating squeak alerted me to turn and focus on a small, fat, brown bird with wide-open beak… the recipient of the afore-mentioned worm.

I let my kettle boil too long and my shed now smells like a sauna.

It’s a new moon I can see it even though it’s only 3pm, it’s beckoning to me to do some planting.

Scilly mnemonic

2007-05-20T21:12:00.001Z

I heard a familiar sound whilst digging today and looked up to see a helicopter circling overhead and reappearing at regular intervals, sightseeing flights I think. I was reminded of living in Newlyn, Cornwall and seeing the Scilly helicopter flying over to the islands and back, like a bee to its hive, day in day out. During our penultimate year there this sight triggered a repetitive emotion. Our then 18-year-old was working on Tresco, which though only about 20 miles away involved a prohibitively expensive flight or sea voyage. Having taken the job and departed all within a brief period of 7 days our first offspring quite literally flew the nest.

At this time I had negotiated with a neighbour the use of some land behind our house and was digging up the most insidious rhizome I’ve ever encountered - bamboo. This was when I ‘discovered’ digging in all its glories. The patch I was working had obviously been used as a rubbish tip. I dug up some strange metal objects that may have originated from the harbour below, also some tiles from an Edwardian fireplace and my most intriguing find a discarded empty tube of oil paint. The land I was working was just in front of a house occupied in the last century by one of the more famous artists of the Newlyn School. I want to believe that the contents of this object are now seen and admired by many, perhaps in the painting ‘Blue Door’ that Harvey must have painted from about the spot at which I discovered the redundant tube.

Here, today, on my allotment poppies are popping.

after the rain

2007-05-15T20:08:00.000Z

Early afternoon, warm and dry but still overcast. Once it finally started raining last week it did it steadily for several days, almost filling the water butts and waking up the dozing seeds. All of a sudden germination is happening – carrots, lettuce, endive, chicory, peas and cabbage both red and green – everything reaching for the sky. I’ve discovered that what I thought was comfrey and transplanted in the corners of my bean and potato bed are foxglove. Fruits are swelling, some gooseberries almost fully grown – I’m guessing the goldfinch gang will be first to know when they’re ripe.
I dreamed last night that one of my neighbours had rotovated the bottom part of my allotment behind their bungalow and was using the space for hanging out their washing. I think this must be separation anxiety on my part as I’ve been at home writing the last few days.
There are a whole gathering of poppies bowed and swelling in amidst my raspberry canes.
I’ve plans to rig up a poly-lean-to behind my shed to acclimatise my young tomatos and to collect the rain.
I must now be a qualified gardener, a robin just perched on my fork.

digging for deep thoughts

2007-05-10T22:33:00.000Z

Rain has softened the ground making digging an even more pleasurable activity. As I dug up a dock, levering it up with my fork, it made the oddest hollow cracking sound as though it were somehow connected to an underground tunnel. I also found a bone and, as always, wondered if it belonged to many more in the same bit of ground.

I’m digging thick yellow nettle roots that creep along just under the surface. These were, I remember, under a piece of old carpet that I presume was covering a compost heap. The nettles obviously found there way there and made themselves at home. Last year as I was cutting back the brambles (that entirely consumed my allotment when I took it on) I piled the fronds on top of this carpet on top of the nettles on top of the compost on top of earth. The pile of brambles remained there rotting with new brambles and nettles growing up through them, that is until March this year when for my birthday present (my request) we hired a chipper and made this pile and others into sacks of chippings on one of the wettest weekends of the year. So, this area I am digging has not seen the light of day for many a year until now, which adds to my curiosity at what may be lurking in it.

The light is growing warmer and subdued as the sun sinks, birds are singing out the day, swallows and blackbirds in pairs, honeysuckle giving off its scent in response to the evening.

Like animals, birds and insects I love the wildness there still is here – however much I want to use the space to grow more food I wonder if I’ll like it when or if (being more realistic) it eventually becomes organised and tidy here.

The sky is now pink and violet, light is falling fast, I’ll have to pack up and leave soon.