honkjazz - The Allotment Part 16

Saturday, 20th September
Well now. Things had got in a terrible state of disrepair down here. As we mentioned previously the weather and our schedules had played a big part in keeping us away from the plot for a fair while. Certainly long enough for the weeds and grass to get up to knee-height in places. So Herb and I had allocated this weekend to have a bit of a sort out. And thats what we did. In full effect!
I kicked things off by arriving at the plot at about 11am and filling my car with the bags of weeds and the old dumpy-bag. This lot had been sat there doing nothing for ages so it was a nice first job to get done. I took them all to the recycling centre (managing to give the dumpy bag away to a very appreciative couple in the process - so the cycle continues) and on the way back popped into Large-DIY-Chain-Store-With-Brightly-Colored-Advertising (damn you and your brightly colored advertising!) to chat about sheds. Specifically the chances of getting our dirty hands on some damaged stock. According to your man there they do sometimes have damaged stock and there might be a couple of weather damaged sheds up for grabs in the next couple of weeks. More on the shed business later as developments have....er..........developed. Whatever.
So the last stop on the journey was at Harry & Sue's small-holding for some pig poo. Luckily Harry was there so I didn't have to be clambering over gates like a bearded, sh*t-caked cat burgler. That was very satisfying that was. Filling the sacks that twenty minutes ago had been full of weeds with lovely pig muck. Another cycle continues.
So getting back to the plot I started by tidying up that whole area. And here it is looking rather lovely.
So that was the first lot done. Next job was to cut the weeds back around the edges and in between the plots. Because this is job is a killer on the back I would cut around a bed and then weed the living daylights out of it before moving on to another area. Herb joined me at lunchtime and wepassed the day weeding and cutting and weeding and cutting. My favorite piece of work was the broccoli/cabbage plot which was so overgrown that you couldn't really see the vegetables for the weeds. It took me about three



hours but after hoiking the smaller broccoli plants out of the ground and weeding the bed (much easier than trying to weed around them) it looked smashing. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how this bed develops as I am a big fan of the broccoli. Innit.

So that was a very fine Saturday indeed.




Sunday, 21st September
Today we really went to work on the plot. Herb was weeding the plots that have been recently vacated by onions, carrots and potatoes and I carried on with the trimming. Between us we thrashed the place and it was good.
So we headed up to the recycling centre and bought an essential piece of furniure.

So it has now taken on a great little atmosphere. Its neater and tidier and we can have a sit down on our bench and discuss our plans. Which are complex but good. I'll let H go into the finer points of them but basically we've got to figure out what we can plant over the next few months to keep the cycle going.
We also need to build some stuff and get the shed sorted.
And thats it.
Not too much to think about then.
........sigh....... Oh, we also took some fresh vegetables away with us. Carrots, beans and cabbages. Nice huh?
I'll leave you with a picture of the plot as we left it on the Sunday evening.