dodging the weather

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.