Weed Wars

There was a time when I wondered what the difference was between a weed and anything else.
Now I have an allotment the answer is obvious. A weed will grow where you don't want it, a plant won't grow where you do.
Back on the plot in the glorious sunshine this weekend for weeding duty.
The potatoes are coming up nicely, but are surounded by couch grass and bindweed.
After trying a hoe, a spade and a fork I found the best way was to get my hands in the mud and rip out the offending vegetation by the roots.
Hopefully another two or three years of this treatment and they will give up.
The patches we haven't yet given so much attention to are now thriving - though again with weeds.
Among the tall grasses and brambles we are fairly certain there is a substantial growth of raspberries and gooseberries.
I'm itching to get in there with an industrial strimmer, a flamethrower and a rotavator - but the other half has her heart set on cultivating the crop for a year's supply of jam and frozen fruit.
Hmph.
Now the weather has warmed up it looks like we'll need to get up on the plot at least once every couple of days just to keep the weeds in check, let alone getting any more plants and seeds in place.
At least my recent birthday brought in a crop of anti-weed mats, so if we do get the jungle back in check we will at least have a fighting chance of keeping it that way.
We did manage to harvest a good crop of mint and rhubarb this weekend - so it looks like we'll be eating some mint-based fruit crumble dish for the rest of May.
I'd say Heston Blumenthal eat your heart out, but he probably would.

Planting and harvesting

All the potatoes are finally in! It was a hard task, digging through the soil for a fourth time to get out as many of the couch grass roots as possible before replacing them with roots of our own.

There are four rows, two of Lady Balfour and two of salads, so we'll give it a few weeks and see what comes up. No doubt lots of grass, but hopefully we'll be able to keep on top of it.

Now we can move on to the patches either side of the potatoes, which are less clogged, and start getting some seeds in.

The one below will be given over to root veg - parsnips, swedes and carrots. The patch above (where the brambles were) will be mostly given over to a compost bin and green house.

Last night also saw us enjoying the fruit of (other people's) work on the allotment. We had a chicken and leek pie with a leek donated by allotment representative Christine, followed by a rhubard crumble with rhubarb someone else planted on our plot several years ago.

A taste of things to come, hopefully.

Trench warfare

Four months in to our allotment project and we finally managed to get something into the ground.
To be fair, a couple of weeks back we did bury a gooseberry and a raspberry plant, but digging a small hole and dropping in a pot hardly counts.
On Saturday we got serious. Now the ground is clear we are able to actually see the mud, and dig it up.
After clearing away the grass that had started to grow back, I dug a trench. I tried to follow the instructions on the (Endsleigh-bought) pack of organic seed potatoes. 10cm deep, 35cm apart in the trench, each row 75cm apart.
But somehow I seem to have got a little enthusiastic. Climbing out of the first trench was like re-enacting the final scene from Blackadder Goes Forth.
No matter, I put the seed potatoes in their place, and moved on to trench two - using the soil I dug out of that to fill in trench one.
The soil was hard and heavy, full of roots and weeds so it was slow going but we made a family day of it.
The young ones played in a tent further down the plot while the other half and I did the hoeing, digging and burying. Then we all took a turn at the watering.
Before we knew it it was 6pm and we had to head for home, but we aim to get back as soon as possible to get the last two trenches in.
Saturday also saw me wield a machete to hack away the very last of the brambles. That now clears enough room to throw together the pallets and make a compost bin.
And last week we took delivery of a second-hand greenhouse. I say greenhouse, right now it is a pile of indecipherable glass and metal - but hopefully we'll put it together in the next few days.
After that, we have enough seeds to start a second (organic vegetable based) Eden Project and this is the time to get them in the ground.
On the plus side, the fruit trees are all in blossom and the gooseberry we planted seems to be sprouting plenty of green shoots - so fingers crossed for a crop of something later in the year.

Green-ness envy

Back on the plot this weekend and after one huge bonfire and three trips to the tip (two with overloaded trailer) it is finally clear.
The sheer amount of rubbish left on the plot has been weighing us down since we took over the site in December so it feels like a weight is now off our shoulders.
We had to conscript the help of family to borrow a trailer but now all the waste is gone (including a huge amount of glass, a lot of rusted metal, enough carpet for a small hotel and a chemical toilet) it feels like we can get on and plant.
And we have to do it quickly. Walking past all the other plots to ours it is amazing to see how quickly they are sprouting - while ours is a reddy brown mess.
So there is a long way to go, much too long to sit around being jealous of how green everyone else's patch is.
About a third of our plot is about ready for planting. The overgrowth and rubbish are gone. It has been dug over. Now it needs a thorough double dig and then we can get the crops in.
Everyone keeps telling us to use root crops to break up the soil and bring it back into use - so potatoes, carrots and parsnips will feature heavily alongside swede and possibily turnips and beetroot.
We've already got a lot of rapsberries and blackberries on the site and we've planted another raspberry and a gooseberry - so we'll see how they do, alongside the two or three (hard to tell under the growth) established apple trees.
The sheds are also now empty so one of them (the one without the huge whole in the wall) is about to be treated to a padlock so we can keep our tools up there instead of lugging them backwards and forwards.
After a winter of discontent, hopefully spring has now sprung and we can start making a real difference on the plot.

Smoke gets in your eyes

Back on the patch yesterday after the winter (ie, its too darn cold) break, and managed to make a huge dent in the clean-up.
There was a community spring clean organised by the allotment association, so we helped trim back all the overgrowth around the borders and burn the waste, while also burning our own waste and shifting some of the junk dumped at the bottom of our plot.
The others chipped in to help us burn our pile of waste and the whole day had a great community feel.
We all sat down for a lunch of jacket potatoes, chilli and biscuits before tackling the rest of the site in the afternoon.
The bad news is someone seems to have taken our fruitcage - very annoying after we spent so long freeing it up and preparing it for planting.
Others on the plot say they have also had things stolen in the last few days and weeks - including a set of table and chairs.
After years of the site being free from theft they blame the credit crunch for the recent attacks - and they warn it'll get worse when the crops start to come through.
The good news is that the association has been awarded more than £1,000 which will allow them to build a composting toilet on the site - if they can decide where to put it.

Cold comfort farm

Too cold to dig this weekend. Well, for me at least.
The other half spent two hours up on the plot, thinning out the brambles to find the cultivated brambles beneath.

...dig, dig, dig

Digging, digging and more digging