Admitting defeat

So, the time has finally come when I have to admit defeat on my allotment. It’s all rather sad.

Things got so hectic with my course that I couldn’t get down there for three weeks and the weeds are up past my waist. I put a pot of lavender down last time I was there and when I went back this morning I couldn’t find it – I kid you not. I struggled to get from one side to the other. This was the final straw which broke my back as I had been thinking about quitting the allotment for a couple of months. I have collected my tools, brought them home and I need to arrange how I will get the shed home and flat-packed down the side of our home shed.

Part of me is really sad about this, but part of me is much more pragmatic – everyone down on the allotment is either: retired, doesn’t work, only works part-time, or they have spent hundreds on their allotment. The person behind me has spent over £700 on their little patch, a sum which seems completely absurd to me. It requires an awful lot of time to look after an allotment, which I currently would prefer to spend on other aspects of my life. There was also a big mental block to going there – I would be GOING TO THE ALLOTMENT, which meant old jeans, three hours and a lot of aching afterwards. As a result I would only go there if I could spare three hours, rather than popping along for an hour, which I think is what is needed on a daily basis as a minimum, along with a good few hours each day at the weekend.

I also am rather sad that my somewhat idealistic aspect of the community spirit of an allotment didn’t arise. It was a new allotment, so things are being build from scratch, but I really wanted everyone to work together. I think it is far too large for that and possibly because everyone had their patch it didn’t work. I was so upset when I saw people start to fence their bit off – especially when they used the flourescent orange builders netting. It really divided the place up and made it all very individualistic. One day I will work on creating a community in the real world. This is not my first disappointment with community, I lived in one made up of 17 people in a rather strange, rambling abode above a leather shop at the top of Brick Lane in London. A topic for another post.

So, what I am doing with the tools and bits that lots of people gave me for my birthday last year? Well, I have gotten the gardening bug and so I am investing time and energy transforming our garden. When I first moved in with my OH just before I got the allotment I wasn’t comfortable doing things in his garden. Now I feel it is very much our garden and our home, so I am happy to start putting my stamp on the garden! His mum and dad put in some amazing raised beds with a lot of structured (I think the proper word is architectural) plants and so I am making flower beds around the side. I will also be doing a lot of pots as we have a large concreted over bit (nice). I have really got the gardening bug now, something which I must have inherited from my mum, and so I will be continuing to learn and grow. I will be focusing mainly on flowers and herb, especially those which can be used in herbalism.

As for food; I have signed up to Abel and Cole, who deliver local, fresh food to me once a week. This is good as it means I can pretty much avoid going to the supermarket and it will force us to eat better as the food is relatively pricey and I will feel even more guilty about throwing it  away.

The end of a rather small experience for me in allotmenteering, but it has definitely made me into a gardener. Are there any other allotmenteers out there? How do you cope with it?

Spring has truly sprung

I made it down my allotment today – hurrah!

Oh dear – spring has really gotten underway. And how do I know this? Because of the WEEDS! So many of them. Everywhere!

All I could do was to get my trusty hoe and start hacking and then raking. I managed to make a lot of head way in a small amount of time. I decided I wouldn’t do more than a couple of hours, otherwise I would be really sore and stiff tomorrow.

I got my allotment last May and I really didn’t (and don’t) want to spend a lot of money – making it look all ordered and neat. A lot of my neighbours down there seem to have spent a fortune in wood for making boxes, which is great – I love raised beds, they are so neat and tidy, but expensive to make. For me that defeats the object of allotments!

I was really pleased as I moved away all of the weeds – the soil underneath was really rich and well dug. All of the time I spent last summer digging over the disused and rock hard land filled with rubbish and lots of stones was worth it. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some extremely well-rotted horse manure which I dug in last year and it has paid off with some fertile looking soil this year.

I have used some old scaffolding planks to start to put some structure to my beds, I used broken up bits of pallet last year, which looked messy, took HOURS to break up and the soil pushed them back up again.

Using some old logs and a trough of some description I have started to create a wildlife sanctuary – all of the other allotments are quite sterile and totally focused on food production, so I am going to have a log pile, small pond and lots of flowers which are good for bees and other  beneficial  insects. I also plan to grow some flowers to fulfill my love of fresh-cut flowers in the house. This way I don’t need to worry about ‘flower miles’!

In an endeavour to add some extra oompf to my lotions and potions (hmm, I haven’t told you about them, have I? I guess I should do a post on my homemade beauty products) I am going on an introduction to herbal medicine next Saturday, which I am really looking forward to. As such I am leaving space on my allotment for growing some herbs too – I have got seeds for the top 10 herbs James Wong recommends in his book Grow your own drugs and these will be going in as soon as possible.

My allotment for me makes me feel slightly conflicted. I am such a control freak in everyday life and extremely organised and a very strong part of me wants to make it very neat and tidy. But another part of me wants it to be messy and chaotic, so working down there is a real change from the rest of my life. Whatever happens I must get down there more often, working outdoors is such a fantastic feeling and really energises me. Although I have to say now, having had a swim, done some baking and it being eight hours later I am not feeling very energetic. Oh well, I should sleep well tonight!

For those of you who are in spring how are you doing with the weeds?

Autumn is coming

This week it has felt like the seasons have changed from summer to autumn. Of course the end of August is officially the end of autumn, however it is never normally so clearly delineated.

There has been a tang in the air, a certain smell which differs from that of summer. And I love it. I joyfully announced to my OH that it was nearly time for gloves and scarves and hats, thick jumpers and stews. He looked at me as if I was some what mad.

One of the main reasons I love living in England (and I am not at all patriotic) is the seasons and the clear distinctions between them. I enjoy the contrasts, seeing the difference in the landscape around us and the way we as humans respond to them.

The changing of the seasons always makes me stop and appreciate the nature that surrounds us, even in our towns.

It means the manic production of my allotment is going to slow down and give me to time to think a bit about what I am actually doing with it all (I will share my ideas soon), try and get some spring crops as well as plan for next years main season. As I got my plot so late in the season I didn’t really get a chance to plan – I didn’t have the space to plant things anyway, but as I have nearly finished digging half of my plot I am in a better position.

A major thing for me is that I go to University next week, which I am very excited about. I graduated 9 years ago, so it is good to be going back to study, especially as it is enabling me to do what I have always wanted to do (teach). So the changing of seasons is allowing change in my life to.

What does the change of seasons mean for you?

New Allotmenteer

First of all thank you to Eileen from Consumption Rebellion for her warm welcome. Eileen’s blog is one that greatly inspires me, mainly as she is so generous in showing her journey from someone who doesn’t consider themselves creative to one that does. I will be posting at some  point on chocolate, go and look at her posts on this subject. Thanks also to Verdant1, however you didnt sign in to make your comment so I cant find your blog! Please send it to me so I can start reading your blog. She is also starting out blogging. Its wonderful to have these comments so early on, its really encouraging.

In May this year my local council opened up a new allotment site. As I had complained to the council about being 10th on one list and not being able to get onto another list, they contacted me when they opened up this new site.

As a result I got a whole plot to myself. I was very excited and undaunted by the work. And work it is! Apparently this was a plot in the past – over 5 years ago. As such I had a plot of solid earth, with lots of weeds and worst of allapproximately half the plot was covered in brambles.

Well, I say *was* – *is* covered in brambles is the truth.

However I have been making slow, but steady process on my whole plot. I am hindered by wanting to spend as little money as possible on my plot. I get quite daunted when I look around and see how other people’s look. But then I remind myself that they either have an entire team of people, or they are spending a lot of money on it. When I say ‘team’ I am in no way exaggerating, one plot is looked after by about 8 people who seem to work on it in shifts, their plot is much more productive than mine is!

Since this is the first time in my life I have actually been looking to settle down and have a calmer life than I have in the past I have never had a garden before or anywhere to grow anything. I am very new to gardening and growing food and so I am on a very steep learning curve.

I decided to look at this year as a learning process, primarily as we started quite late in the season and I had no seedlings grown, let alone dug everything over. As the landhasn’t been used for a very long time it is very compacted and hard. Certain parts of my plot are so hard I have to chip the dirt away in my beds, which makes it slow going.

But, although I thought I would enjoy the process and it would be hard work I had completely underestimated how amazing I would find it. I realise this might sound a little strange, but the process of planting a tiny little seed, which then grow into a seedling (sometimes it seems like this happens overnight), which then develops into a plant, which then starts flowering and then giving fruits which I can eat and the plant when it has spent its energy can be composted back down to provide nutrients for the next lot of plants, I find utterly magical. Nature is utterly fantastic!

I will be posting photos with my mistakes and successes soon!