I am still catching up with myself and writing about the summer even though the leaves are falling. I feel I am always chasing my tail in life so why should my blog be any different?!
As Vanessa and I struggled to find time and energy for the plot this year we agreed to let an old friend of Vanessa’s and his Thai wife use the beds we had not got around to planting. She was from a farm and grew a lot in Thailand. They really got stuck in and planted all sorts of things we had not thought about. Melon, Pumpkin, Chillies and lots of herbs. Sharing anything (as toddlers remind us) is tricky, especially something we had put love and time into. Our new partners got a bit vigorous putting their stamp on the plot, by clearing all the grass on the paths and edging the beds. This sounds good and is a job that needed doing, but not at the expense of our wild Strawberries and planted Shallots. Also we were left with muddy paths and a huge heap of green waste dumped in an unhelpful spot. They excitedly covered everything with fresh manure!
New boarders
I sound very moany! Obviously the plot looked really tidy in this photo when our partners had done their work and what they did was not unhelpful, but we quickly realized the partnership was not going to work. Both Vanessa and I felt the plot was our place to learn and experiment and someone else doing the digging and growing would not leave us as much space to do that as we had to start with. Our friends found their own allotment soon after all this work so all worked out. And we have a bed full of stuff too.
We are now starting to clear the crops that have finished. Trying to remember to leave the roots of the plants that will fix nitrogen in the soil; corn, beans and courgettes. We dug up all our potatoes and a lot of stubborn Jeruselem Artichokes we thought we had got last year.
Potato crop
On the whole we have done pretty well from our first season, considering how little time we have put in. We should have done all sorts of things for the winter that, of course, we have not got around to. Vanessa is now hugely pregnant so will be concentrating on other things for the next few months! I will endevour to prepare the plot for the spring. Still none of the ‘mens’ jobs have been done so I will not want for tasks.
Some of the well established plots around us give us many goals to aim for!
Something to aspire to!
