I snatched a couple of hours alone on our first proper sunny, blue sky day this year and really wallowed in the solitude and physical work of turning the rotted manure into the beds. The soil was light and wormy and rich, willingly forked through with no struggle.
It is almost a guilty pleasure to enjoy the basic, feral feeling of getting honestly, wholesomely dirty as much as I do. I do not do the gym, ever, and to work up a sweat with enough warm sunshine to dig in my vest is more than good enough to get my endorphins going! I am so bored by ‘conventional’ excercise. I dont get how people can spend hours of their lives running like hamsters on treadmills.  I easily forget, especially over the winter when getting in the car instead of pushing a buggy around, how good using my muscles makes me feel and clears my mind, when coupled with being in the elements.

The fact that working on the allotment allows me to get filthy in my husbands oversized scruffy hand-me-downs and look my absolute worst is an added bonus. Like not having to wash when at a festival. I feel some small rebellion against society in being sweaty and unfit for presentation. I have always needed to be a bit rebellious. The irony of that feeling coming from working with vegetables and not outrageous youthful behavior is not lost on me. My teenage self would be appalled!

The flowers and blossoms appearing is so reassuring. I feel all will be well again and there is hope for some time when no one has a cold and we do not have to spend so much time putting layers on.

Spring daffs

I found shoots of Garlic that had not been pulled up last year so split the bulbs and put the individual cloves back in. I had hoped to make tidy furrows for the Potatoes to go in and be gradually earthed up from, but as always ran out of precious time to do anything other than tidy up and get the worst of the deep rooted thistles and dock leaves out. it becomes clearer why it seems to be mostly elderly people tending the plots. They have no one to collect from nursery or feed with urgency!

Golden Crocuses

The solitary Rhubarb resident in the plot when we arrived has hopefully sprouted up again. I will really try to make some use of it this year and not just let it rot back. I feel if it is going to keep making the effort to grow it would be rude not to make the effort to eat it!

I never seem to learn to label the seeds I plant. I now cannot remember what the shoots are coming up in the plastic greenhouse!! At least I have learned to note down what I have planted so I can narrow down the possibilities.

Hopeful Rhubarb!

However, the cold dark days do lend themselves to planning and reading up. So while the boys were colouring in Jedis and Tank engines, I borrowed the crayons for this years dream plan.

Plans for the year

Obviously plans are rarely reflected in practice, but I like to have some guide for what we are doing, especially as there are two of us involved. Also putting on paper means I have to think about it constructively and not with the usual guilt of not getting on with it!

Already my plans are failing as I have made the same mistake as every other year, not labeling my seeds. I have no reason to have any confidence in my memory, yet I still believe I will know which seeds are what when they start to sprout. I did explain what we were doing to my assistant, but have little faith in his attention to detail!

Handy help

We planted Cabbage and Onion seeds and Peas and Broad beans in my new plastic greenhouse. Bought at a bargain price as display model, so cannot use the excuse of  no where to propagate. Sewed beans into peat pots that can theoretically go into the ground when ready. Not sure if they are a good thing yet.

Peat pots

However, on my return to the plot last week the ground was soft enough to pull many J. Artichokes out. Delicious roasted long and slow to make vegetable toffees! My eldest son accompanied me and for the first time showed real enthusiasm for digging and helping. A possible gardener in the making or just pleased to have Mum to himself for a change!

After digging in some manure and clearing the last bits from the beds we went for a cuppa and some planning to Vanessa’s.

We made some rough sketches of what to plant where and I invested in some new plastic covered greenhouse shelves. So… time to sew!

It looks beautiful in the snow, there is lots of good food we don’t get in the summer, but I struggle to find any other merits. Winter seems to make everything a bit harder, particularly with toddlers. Getting people into coats, hats, boots, gloves, then needing to go to the loo, forgetting things etc seems to take many hours of the day. This has to be factored into any excursion. Most of which have recently been to the Dr’s, A&E or the paediatric dept of the hosp. We have had a Meningitis scare with the baby and endless coughs and wheezing with the eldest. Dad now has man flu and I even found some time for a sinus infection. This year seems extra mean with it’s spread of germs. Playgroup is like a biology experiment of bacteria spreading.

So, the endless visits to the doctor, extended prep time to do anything and a snowy visit to Centerparcs for early Christmas with inlaws (much more fun than expected!) has pushed the allotment the back of the list of things to do.

Of course the early snow has negated some work and the beds still have not been manured, but I did manage to do some final weeding and turning before it settled.

First flurry

The cabbages I had netted from the mice have found a new lease of life. So I am hoping they can contribute to a Christmas feast!

Improved cabbages

Nes can of course plant seeds, which I believe we should be getting on with now in readiness for spring. I planted Sweetpeas a couple of weeks ago in my little coldframe and they already look like they could be potted on. Does this mild autumn suggest another very snowy winter? I bought some heavy duty moonboots for me and the kids in case. Wellies are not the answer in the snow as my blue toes last year proved.

After feeling so smugly indulgent during the summer simply picking the fruits of our labours, I am now feeling begrudgingly pious doing nothing but weeding every visit to the plot. The Couch Grass is particularly aggressive. The ground is still warm enough to pull it easily but there always seems to be more of it!

We must have had a night frost already as the Squash plants left by our brief partners were burned and rotten and the Sweetcorn very dead. I cut them down rather than pulling up the plants as advised so as to seal the remaining Nitrogen in the soil.

Lovely Autumn colours

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!

I am always writing in the past, trying to remember what I have planted and harvested when. I try to write each visit to the plot in my notebook. This has proved to be invaluable as I refer to it to write here, but also to account for what happens throughout the seasons and to remind myself of questions that arise and mistakes that are made. I know many gardeners keep notes and I dont think I will ever grow things without writing ever again! I found it helpful to draw plans of the plot to be clear about what should go where. None of the plans have ever been stuck to however and time has flown as I have hogged the kids crayons to make my plans pretty! It is helping me learn and will hopefully be handy when we come to plant next season.

I have really enjoyed the indulgence over the summer of going to the plot simply to gather vegetable treasures. Even though there are still many jobs to be done, I was happy just to reap our rewards for a few visits.

First harvest

Most of the jobs left Vanessa and I had hoped (really!!?) that our men would do; guttering the shed, moving the pallet compost, creating the deck on top of the sleepers holding the shed up, etc. Despite words of willing intention they have done….none of the jobs! I shall be taking a drill, saw and stuff myself sometime soon. (Now I have written it I have to do it!)

We had both successes and failures with our crops this summer. Our sweetcorn really excited us, as much as corn can, when it flowered but never got fat enough to eat.

Sweetcorn

We did get a few tasty meals and a lot of lessons though.

Salad!

It had jolly tulips in the garden though!

Funky tulips

Of course it has also been really hot and dry and spare moments were spent watering our newly turfed lawn at home.

Hopefully the special tough turf and 3 tons of grit/topsoil will be fine in the small garden that is somehow half swamp, half desert!

Before this minor catastrophe in my life, Vanessa and I managed to plant out the crops we had grown from seed.

I have never grown veg from seeds before and am always amazed when the first leaves start to poke through the soil. I don’t know why I never expect it to work. The miracle of life seems so unlikely! Even the Broad Beans that kept falling out of their pots in the wind or were interfered with by toddler fingers, still forced themselves to grow. Amazing!!

Seedlings

We planted out, Beetroot, Sweetcorn, Courgettes, Green Beans and Carrots as well as some Celeriac and Chard seeds straight in the ground.

We are trying to plant the beds ready for rotation next year, but we keep getting a little confused about what goes where and what is a Legume and what is a Brassica! I constantly refer to my marvelous book – Allotment month by month- by Alan Buckingham. It is in excellent source for someone with no experience. We still have lots of space left too.

When I finally did get a chance to get to the plot and give it some water, I could barely find our precious plants for the weeds and grass that had shot up in the sun.

That grew quickly!

We found a petrol strimmer on Ebay and Vanessa’s helpful brother kindly cleared our paths for us. I weeded as best I could in the baked ground. It took ages so could not get to any other jobs in the allotted child free time!

Some stuff had grown beautifully and I felt foolishly excited by the transformations of what we had planted.

Courgettes

Peas and beans

However, some  crops had to be sacrificed to those whose land we use. ( That is what I tell myself so as not to be cross!)

Lucky fat critters!

The Jerusalem Artichokes we thought we had cleared have a serious will of their own and have pushed out some spuds even. Next year they will have to be attacked hard to reclaim the space. I love them, but can only eat so many!

Willful Artichokes

I find it really difficult to get to and put in good hours at the allotment with 2 small kids. I have had moments of getting really down and despondent about the whole project because I have to snatch time to do any of it. I am lucky enough to be able to be full time Mum to my boys and I am rarely apart from them. I would not want it any other way.  This also means I cannot afford to pay anyone else to look after them and can only ask so much of  Grandparents.

When I do take them with me most of my precious time is taken up with administering snacks to pacify and refereeing squabbles about watering cans! Often the boys come home wet or covered in mud as I have left them to their own devices. The baby is now old enough to sit on the ground munch grass and trowels-full of earth! This will keep him occupied for some time but is obviously not a good alternative to lunch! I am longing to spend whole days getting really stuck in to all the jobs required, but I am beginning to accept this may not happen for some years. The reality seems to be that we may get a few meals from our efforts this year, but not self sufficiency

just yet.

Yet another snack time!

One of the exciting things about a new patch is seeing what appears as the seasons roll.  As well as the first signs of the potatoes and shallots we planted, our fruit trees came into beautiful bloom.

Apple Blossom

We bought a new shed on sale that shines like a beacon compared to the well weathered huts on the rest of the site. I was very lucky to find a huge water butt with ‘take me’ stuck to it and got a crew of helpers to place them between the little fruit trees. We have yet to get round to the guttering, but it is in on the ground ready!

It has been lovely to watch the space find it’s shape as the hedges grow around it. We are surrounded by the most beautiful Borrage (very good in Pimm;s apparently!)

Lovely Purple Borrage

We ambitiously put in the peas and green beans we had raised from seeds, but the frost got the beans. We are learning to watch the other plots on the site to see what goes in when. We are being much more cautious now with planting out and are keeping the courgettes and sweetcorn well covered in trays in Vanessa’s green house.

I have begun to get the hang of blogging with no little thanks to mytinyplot.co.uk and her great tutorial.

We weeded hard and dug in sheep and horse manure. Kindly and it appears, continually, donated by the wise old farmer across the stream from us.

Work to be done!

The stream also supplies several tanks around the site with crystal clear water that bubbles up from a pipe every time we fill our bucket. It feels like the best possible place to have fund an allotment.

Raspberry canes

We harvested a huge crop of Jerusalem artichokes that had been left behind.  I made yummy soup with some and scrubbed and put others in the oven with a little oil for 45 mins. They come out like vegetable toffee. A bit strange, but really good! We saved some tubers and put them back in the ground at the bottom of the plot where they will not shade anything else if they grow tall.

My Dad started us off with a gift of Raspberry canes and home grown bamboo sticks. Thank you Dad! We put in both summer fruiting and later fruiting varieties. We will be able to supplement these with the wild bushes in the hedgerow behind. Hopefully this will lead to jam and trifles until we can eat no more!

We also put in potatoes, un-chitted on the advice of the seasoned allotmenteer, with some garlic between. We then piled more of the plentiful manure on top of the bed.

We tidied up a bit and  I cut back and burned some of the mass of brambles at the back of the plot. Several hours of this made no difference whatsoever. It is clearly a job for many hands.

I have always been ‘foodie’ and have always cooked and been interested in the provenance of food. The source and quality of what we eat has become more important to me in the last last few years now I am responsible for feeding the next generation. Obviously I have a duty not to feed them in such a way that they would grow up unhealthy and stupid!

Also my eldest boy has severe food allergies. This became an added incentive to learn to grow our own grub. I am hoping my boys will be enthusiastic to learn as well. This is not apparent yet!

Had enough!