Let's get dirty

Hello blog!  Nerys and I headed down to the allotment this afternoon for a couple of hours, despite the fact that it was clouding over and looked like the heavens might open at any moment.

 

I weeded the carrots and leeks, and Nerys dug up a new bed.

 

She found some coriander, so I planted it in the former cauliflower bed, since the caulis refused to grow and just died instead. It looked a bit crap by the time we left so I'm not sure whether or not it survived being moved... I fear that spot is going to become The Bed Of Death where plants go to die.

 

Frank and Anna from plot 12 came over to introduce themselves to us.  They confirmed that the big purple things growing down the end are indeed weeds, and then gave us some lettuces and potatoes from their plot - FREE DINNER, WHOO!  They were really friendly and said if we ever need anything we should just go over and talk to them.  The whole place is so lovely, it's got a real community vibe to it which I'm just not used to as a hardened Londoner.  It gives me the warm fuzzies :D

We set about digging up the purple weed.  My god, those things are tough.  It took the two of us a good 25 minutes to get a single one out, and this involved digging a hole at least two feet deep.  The weather decided it was time to laugh in our faces, and we found ourselves up to our armpits in mud, hurling obscenities at a weed whilst it rained cats and dogs.  It was all very messy and hilarious fun, and eventually we pulled out the majority of the root!  TAKE THAT.  Let's just not discuss the fact that there are about ten more of them still to do...

 This photo does not do the hole justice.  If Nerys had fallen into it during this shot, I could've planted her and grown us an army of Welsh gardeners.

The rain of course stopped as soon as the weed was out and we were thoroughly soaked, so we planted the pumpkin Nerys brought with her.

Exciting stuff - we can GROW OUR OWN JACK O'LANTERNS!

This done, we decided to call it a day - and it was lucky we did, because about five minutes after we got into the car it started to absolutely LASH it down.  At least we don't need to worry about the plants needing water!

Lettuce, cauliflower and peas

Mum's guide to planting peas

Yesterday was hot. Really hot. Sunburn and ice lolly hot. The perfect day to spend doing some hard manual labour on the allotment. I fear that I may be the worst kind of fair weather gardener. I don't mind the cold weather but I hate the rain and mud and I fear that the desire to sit in my house and drink tea may well overrule my desire to grow things once it stops being warm and sunny. I hope that the momentum of seeing things growing and my own innate stubbornness will outweigh all that. I should also buy some actual waterproof clothes, this is another example of how much of a city dweller I am. I bought some super cute striped ankle wellies which make me look perky and helpful but I'm not sure they'll actually keep the water out. Perhaps I am overdue a trip to Millets...

It was great to get to the plot yesterday and discover that everything was still alive! We'd been quite lucky with the weather with some heavy rain interspersed with sunshine. I can see, even at this early point, that the main problem with working full time and having an allotment will be the watering. We may have to try and work out a schedule for nipping down after work. I also need to take full advantage of my parents being retired, surely they have nothing better to do than water an allotment?

We arrived to see that the crops we planted last week (beans, carrots and leeks) had not only survived but had grown! The beans seem to have come on the most. The leeks, honestly, looked pretty much the same. The carrots seemed to be wilting in the heat but had certainly grown. I fear they won't do that well as they need fine tilled soil and our soil is really the absolute opposite of that!

Beans!

We decided to do the same approach as last week, with digging another few feet and then planting that. It was HARD. Much much harder going than last week. From what we were digging up it was clear that part of the area had been used as an onion bed. That was not too bad to dig up. The rest of it, however, had obviously either been a path or left fallow for grass. And, my goodness, that was such hard going. Enormous clumps of deep seated grass roots that required brute force to dig them out. We discovered that we really need another fork, trying to turn the earth and get out roots with a spade is pretty ineffective. It was interesting to see the difference in the soil quality and trying to deduce what the previous holder of the plot had used it for. A bit like gardening archaeology! I did start to slightly hate the previous holder as we dug out clump after clump. 

Before

Once we'd dug it all over we had a well deserved break, drinking a lot of water and eating the lovely allergen free snacks N had brought. I took a bit of a walk and looked at some of the other plots. 

The allotment as a whole seems to be divided into two halves, one on each side of the main path from the gate. Those on the left are very well tended and well used with sheds and trees and every addition you could wish for. Our BFF Terry has his (many) plots here and I wonder if everyone who really knows what they're doing and has their whole life to dedicate to it has gathered round him. The other side (our side, natch) is much shabbier with a lot of vacant plots. There are some exceptions, Baffled Maria from last week is on our side and her plot is going great guns. Terry did say to us something along the lines of everyone wants to be on his side, that's the good side etc. He was joking but it does seem partially true. So now, obviously, our aim is not only to grow vegetables but to stop this awful left right plot war and bring unity and joy to all. 

Between the three of us we had lots and lots of seeds, more than would fit into the area we'd prepared. We decided to go for lettuces, cauliflower and peas. We did two rows of each. 

The end result 

Phew. I was very hot, very tired and very dirty by the time we'd finished. I ache much less today though, considering how hard going the digging was. This is clearly a sign that I am fast approaching my peak physical fitness and will have buff Madonna arms able to dig up whole trees by next week. 

We spoke to two more people, more friends! We met a lady and her pre teen daughter, their plot is near ours and they seemed nice - and they had good hats which is now A Thing given the heat and our awesome hat selection we had going on. We did instantly forget her name but she seemed nice. The big social event of the weekend though was meeting Our Second BFF Debbie. She may take over from Terry as he wasn't there and she seems more on our wavelength. She came past our plot to the compost heap. We started chatting. She has a plot which needs a LOT of work, it has tons of old carpet under the soil so is hard digging. She's doing it on her own and she has a 7 month old boy. Massive props to her for taking on such a task with a small baby! We watched her (very cute) baby while she took stuff to and from the compost heap. She seemed really lovely and she said she'd be there most weekends and maybe we could have some beers together in the future. Hurrah for lovely people. I think our next session may need some extra people as we've reached the area of the plot with huge well seated plants. They will have big roots that will need a lot of digging, we'll certainly need more forks and some brute force for those. 

So it begins...

I started a blog to keep track of our achievements and failures and so that everyone else can laugh at our inability to know what we're doing. And maybe offer helpful tips! I am Marguerite and I'll be mostly writing it but the 'Core Team' of Marie and Mum (aka Madeleine) will also contribute, along with anyone else who feels like it.

We have an allotment! Hurrah! After being on a waiting list for three years (three!) I finally got assigned an allotment. Cue much rejoicing. I went to look at it yesterday with The Core Team. It's really convenient for us all, it's about the mid point of a triangle between our three houses. We were welcomed by the world's most friendly and enthusiastic man called Terry who told us everything we could ever have wanted to know about the allotments, the people on them, what to plant and more. We were offered a choice of about seven plots by the council. The one we went for in the end was one which had been offered as a ten rod plot (read about wtf a rod is here (nothing if not forever a researcher)). However, we thought, and our new BFF Terry agreed, that it was better to ask the council to split it in half and take a five rod plot. Ten rods is WAY too big for us. The half plot seems perfect. It has an apple tree on it which he said produces fantastic apples. It also has rhubarb, raspberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. It also has a shed which will be a huge help. We don't have a car between us and so the thought of lugging equipment back and forth on a bike or the train was a bit daunting. But this way we can just lock it all away! We also really need to get some folding chairs and a kettle so we can sit and drink tea and look at our achievements. It's near the water supply and the rubbish tip. The plot had only been left unworked for a couple of months meaning what is there is mostly 'surface growth' and won't be that hard to dig.

So, what next? We need to make some plans for what we'd like to grow. All the advice seems to point towards clearing a metre at a time and working that rather than trying to uncover the whole lot at once. Someone else recommended that we have a book and draw what we plant every season so we can effectively rotate the crops and not leech the soil.
We hope to have a Dig For Victory day on Saturday May 10th if anyone is around and would like to help us. Also, if you have any gardening equipment and/or seeds you'd like to contribute to this venture they'd all be very gratefully received!