10 May 2007
Plans afoot
It’s true that I have been busy recently, busy enough to teach the local bees a thing or two. And although this has meant that I haven’t had time to visit the plot and do what needs to be done (finish preparing the bean bed, weed all over, tidy up mess and try to make it look halfway respectable – that kind of thing) that doesn’t mean that it has been out of my thoughts. But there is a problem.
Remember those heretical thoughts I talked about? It seems that I can ignore my conscience no longer. I have lost my faith – the allotment faith, that is – and I am about to start a vegetable-growing reformation in my life. I am nailing my thesis to the door. Here I stand I can do no other.
We are giving up the allotment. We will hang onto it until the next year’s rent is due (October) because we have garlic and potatoes and other things in the ground that we want to harvest. Over the summer we will remodel our teeny garden, removing almost all our weedy, overgrown lawn (great for cats – a nightmare for mowing) and preparing a maze of raised beds at one end that will form our new vegetable garden. The Pumpkin Potager, if you will. I will continue to blog (just in case anyone is interested!), but clearly there will have to be some changes here too.
If I’m honest, I feel a little sheepish giving up on the allotment, but realistically I have to admit that it’s just too big for us. Or rather, it’s too big for us given that I like to spend so very much time doing other leisure activities. I love getting my hands dirty and growing things, can’t live without it, but I also need to allow a lot of space in my life for music and holidays and Italian and just doing things with friends. Perhaps if my working life – which I also love – wasn’t so time-consuming this wouldn’t be a problem. But it is, and something’s got to go.
The problem now is that although we’re keeping the allotment for another few months, in my head I’ve already said goodbye to it. And it’s even more difficult to motivate yourself to weed a patch that no longer feels as though it is your own! So, watch out for multiple shame-faced posts about the neglected state of the allotment as the bindweed runs riot, our crops succumb to the attacks of slugs and blackfly and mice, and I get through yet another year without having grown a single brassica.
Business as usual, then.
Filed under: Review & plan — Clare @ 3:22 pm
If you’ve got areas with no crops growing in them, then you could consider planting them up with green manures so that they look after themselves and only need digging over once the new tenant arrives.
(10.05.07 @ 5:18 pm)
My other half won’t let me get an allotment, because she reckons she’ll never see me. In my more honest moments I know I’d be really slack about looking after one too. But I have a veg patch now in our front garden. I’m aiming eventually to make it attractive and productive, but this year is very much a learning experience.
Which is a long-winded way of saying I understand your problem!
(10.05.07 @ 5:40 pm)
Have dipped into your allotment blog from time to time, I understand how you feel. I used to want to be self sufficient and grow ‘everything’ possible. Then I came across a book called Square foot gardening. Now I can grow a bit of this and a bit of that which satisfies totally my need to dip my hands into the soil but not take on ‘too’ much. I have a few small beds in my garden now and I grow 1 corgette, 10 tomatoes, a small row here and there of beans or peas or mange tout, a few lettuce and few radish etc. It is enough for me to manage and enough to satisfy my growing needs. I fully recommend it.
Square Foot gardening by Mel Bartholomew.
(10.05.07 @ 7:38 pm)
It’s the end of era, folks. But the beginning of another, of course. It is a shame, but we (well, OK, mainly she) cannot manage to maintain that darned plot any longer, when there’s so much beer to be drunk… I mean, other wholesome activities to indulge in.
At least there’ll be fewer “Gosh, I’ve not been down the plot for months” blog posts.
And I love that picture of our beautiful cat! That’s what Web sites are for!
(10.05.07 @ 7:45 pm)
Muppet – The non-cultivated parts of the plot are currently under black plastic, though I intend to plant my pumpkins and squash through it this year. Hopefully that should keep it in not too bad condition for whoever inherits!
Martian77 – Sounds as though you are being far more sensible than I ever manage! And don’t worry about long-winded, you might have noticed that I’m pretty long-winded myself. Just wait until I harvest my broad beans!
Karen – I am familiar with the book. Although I haven’t got it, I did buy it as a present for a friend last year and some of the thinking is definitely incorporated into our potager plans.
Assistant bloke – I don’t think you’ll be quite so pleased when we’re paying my brother to do all that hard labour lifting the turf. Especially as he’ll be the one drinking the beer.
(10.05.07 @ 7:54 pm)
I completely understand how you feel. I know that however much I am enjoying our allotment that if I actually had a house with a garden I would turn it over to veggies in an instant and give up the plot. There’s so many thinks I don’t bother like lettuces or lettuce-y things that I don’t even bother with (after one failed attempt) because I know full well I wont be going to the plot often enough to make the most of them.
Sounds like a good plan to me…
(11.05.07 @ 7:27 am)
I salute you, Pumping One. It’s a brave decision and one I recognise – my sis took on a plot and found that her work and life left her little time for it which led to pressure and guilt which almost ruined her love of growing. So she gave it up and just grows what she needs in her garden – she is infinitely happier now.
Being a clever Burro, I learnt from her journey and just started with the garden. Hard work, but I’m doing it at my speed, to my rules and with no “WEED ME!� notices left stuck to my shed.
You’ve done the right thing mate – balance is so important to keep happy and motivated.
Dr Burro
(11.05.07 @ 7:57 am)
Frankie Baby – I know. It would have made much more sense to have stuck with the garden in the first place, but our garden is so small that back then we couldn’t imagine having enough space to grow vegetables and to keep some pretty space for socialising. I think our garden design skills have developed – something to do with necessity being the mother of invention I think!
Burro Boy – Sage words, indeed. I’ll keep working on the balance thing. You keep working on avoiding calling me ‘Pumpkin One’.
(11.05.07 @ 8:50 am)
I did… re-read, oh Pumpmeister
(11.05.07 @ 9:21 am)
I grow veg in my garden, and have often longed for an allotment to get the all-knowing advice from the lifelong gardener on the next plot … but I know I’d never keep it properly, as I can barely manage the garden, there are always so many distractions.
So there will still be plenty to write about, it’ll be different, that’s all. And I have come to the conclusion that the most beautiful plants are fruit and veg – the garden never comes up the same twice, as it does with shrubs and herbaceous plants!
Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com
(11.05.07 @ 9:21 am)
Burro – See, I have such an aversion to the Pumping name, I can’t even bring myself to type it!!!
Joanna – I certainly agree that veg can make some pretty lovely eye candy as well as being satisfying to grow. But I do need space for daffodils and fucshia and clematis and bamboo as well. And somewhere to sip maragritas with friends, obviously.
(11.05.07 @ 9:25 am)