Going Back to My Roots

All four of us have been at the allotment this weekend: Both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

The plan was to get rid of the remaining brambles, and keep on the clearing. By the end of Sunday the old rhubarb area had been dug over twice, and half of it was double dug. We then covered it over with black plastic.


Which way are we going?


A sackful of roots off to the "tip".





David dealing with the roots of brambles.


Here we have dug a small trench to mark our boundary. You can see the stumps from out neigbours hedge on the left.



This is the first time we've been able to see all our plot from the Western boundary. This is all ours!


Silver wedding presents!!

Not much to show.

A few hard hours grafting this afternoon, removing rhubarb roots and bramble roots. It's not too easily to see the impact, but I'm sure it will show at some point.

Dan and family (on the other part of the plot) were there today,and made a good attack on the hedge.

No photos today.

We've bean digging!

Today we've done a lot of digging. There was a pile of growth that contained many roots, weeds and rhubarb. Barbara worked hard to clear this.


I continued double digging a 25x6 foot strip, raking and leveling, then sowing broad beans.

Digging

Today was a digging day.

On a sunny autumn day after work, I managed to double dig quite a large patch. There were a lot of roots in it, so after a frost it will need another dig ready for the broad beans.



And now the Movie!

Hard Labour

Today Andrew and I spent four and a half hours hard physical graft on the allotment.

The first task was to clear the area along the fence. We uncovered loads of half disintegrating plastic bin liners, and yet more metal poles and tubes, which I'm sure will be useful next year. The old panel was put down to make a piece of decking, but as our feet went through it we decided to use it against the steel fence instead. Oh, and we spotted some trains as well.



As you can see, the chairs we discovered earlier in the week became useful today.




Here you can see down the plot looking west. The bushes mark the end of our half.
I guess we have cleared the top growth from about one third of the area now, but non has been properly dug yet.

The really hard bits today were:

• removing the brambles I cut on Thursday
• digging out the roots from one of the trees and a few of the brambles
• drinking tea.

I'd like to get a few seeds in next week, but there is a lot of digging to do before that is possible.

Finally, here am I, bitten by insects but pleased with a good week's progress.

Thrashing the brambles!

Only an hour on the allotment this evening, but I wanted to attack the brambles. It's a big job, so I was quite pleased to have cut away most of the top growth.


Here we are (above) only half way through the slashing. Below shows the change once I've done the whole "hedge".


Part way through, I realised that something had made a den inside the brambles, probably a fox. Then all of sudden a vixen appeared, and cool as a cat (fox) strolled round and sprayed the rhubarb! By the time a had got my phone out again to take a photo she had got bored and disappeared through to the railway. Here you can see her tail going through the fence next to the compost heap.



Back soon.

Quick after work clear up!

Well, it was nearly dark and was taken on a mobile phone, but here is a view in the opposite direction to yesterday.

Today's archeological finds were a bread tray and a large tarpaulin (old car or bike cover?). Both were valuable in moving huge piles of cut brambles and debris. Oh yes, and another tree has gone. Not bad for an hour's labour!

The Agony and Ecstacy.

Today the hard work started. The first task was to see where the plot really was, and where the boundaries were. It was so overgrown it is not an easy task.

The session started to feel more like archeology as the more we dug the more plastic, corrugated iron and pipe work we found... and a chair. The guys who have taken over the other half of the plot said they thought you only got an allotment by filling dead mens' shoes. They then found a pair of boots buried.

Anyway, we soon cleared a corner and using the scrap iron sheet we created a compost, and attacked the surrounding area. Down came most of a tree, and we discovered rhubarb, horseradish, and a few potatoes.

Almost three hours later, there is some evidence of progress... and a lot of stiff muscles.


The compost area. This was completely covered in brambles and bindweed when we started.


All this area was overgrown. There was a tree wrapped in bindweed next what is now the compost. You can just see the trunk still left. We hope it's an apple tree, but we'll wait to see if it grows again.


Having cleared this area, we've covered most of it over again.


Finally, we reaped what we didn't sow. Rhubarb for tea? Pity we're not having any roast beef to go with the horseradish!

The New Allotment

It seemed like a good idea at the time to put our names on a waiting list for an allotment. A year on and a phone call out of the blue said we could have one.

Well, here it is:


Rather a lot of work to do, and it's only half a plot!

Produce.

A little late in posting, but here is a photo of some produce!