back on track

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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.