Spanner in the works

I overdid it at the allotment this week and now have tendonitis in my wrist :o(
Doctors orders are rest and absolutely no digging, heavy lifting etc. for 2 weeks which is a bit of a pain because I need to clear the site in time for the rotavation.
I was so tempted to just work through the pain and get the site cleared but got scared by the Doctor saying that the next treatment they'd offer would be steroid injections - ouch.
I can only hope now that the council drags their feet with getting the work done so that I have a chance of getting as much done as I can.

Rotavation Motivation

We had a very interesting day at the allotment today. For starters we found a hammer and an empty quail shell that had been thrown on to our plot which caused a bit of a mystery.

The swede seedlings have all been eaten unfortunately and not enough remains of them for me to work out what got them, there aren't any slug/snail trails.

The tree that towers over the front part of the allotment has showered the entire area we have cleared with sycamore helicopters which is slightly demotivating and the combination of sunshine and showers over the last week has meant that there are a lot of new weeds popping up, mostly dandelion which is odd because there were hardly any before!

The large area that I used chemicals on has died down so I've been clearing as much of that as I can. I didn't spray as evenly as I'd thought so a lot of it still had to be pulled quite hard.

I've been finding the most bizarre things whilst clearing that we didn't even see when the weeds were full height - a fork with no handle, a bucket full of broken glass, bricks - enough to build another shed if I wanted to!

We took our first break at 10.30am and two men popped their heads over the gate and started asking questions. I thought this to be quite odd as I had no idea who they were and they didn't bother to introduce themselves but instead chose to make jokes about how we were slacking off - cheeky sods, we'd been there since 9! It turns out that they have been contracted by the council to clear some of the plots because people are turning them down as they're too overgrown. I stood there open mouthed for a while, listening, as one of the men told me that if I'd kicked up a stink I could have had the plot cleared for me for free!!!! I lost my motivation for a while after hearing this news, I felt like I was breaking my back for nothing but then I thought about what I'm learning and the exercise I'm getting, how I can show off when we compare a photo of two weeks ago to one next summer and be proud of ourselves. I was also pretty pleased with myself that I've stuck with it - a hardcore allotment holder - when others have refused to carry on until the council sorts it for them. I also have a bigger than average plot (insert smug face!).

So I carried on working, pleased with myself.

I cleared 6 garden refuse sacks with dead buttercups, dock, blackberry branches and other things I couldn't identify and as I put the last bag in the skip I bumped into "the boss", Ronnie. We said hello and then he shook his head and said "look here.." and I thought I must be in big trouble for filling half the skip :o/ then he proceeded to inform me about the situation with the council paying for clearing sites and said that mine wasn't included but that if I cleared my plot of large rocks and wood etc then he'll send the man in to rotavate my plot anyway - hurrah!!! I am very pleased about that as when I've been clearing the weeds towards the middle and back of the allotment I've found that the ground is VERY uneven leaving some places boggy.

After a picnic lunch I set about clearing bricks and planks and all sorts of things in preparation for the rotavating which was heavy work. My ipod was my friend during this, angry music worked well, and I cleared quite a lot whilst contemplating whether I was going to have weird tan lines where my gardening gloves were so that I'd end up with brown arms and white hands.

Cameron has been busying himself by digging a big hole - for jumping up and down in at first - and then he wants to put together a time capsule and bury it. Sounds like a good plan to me so I left him to get on with it, apart from times when I was asked to stand next to him so he could gauge how far down he had dug.

On the way out of the allotment, making our way to the shop for a well earned ice-cream, we bumped into someone from a nearby plot who spent a good 5 minutes praising us and telling us how well we are doing - music to my ears! It's really great to hear that people think we are doing a good job, especially as I'm quite shy about my gardening inexperience - I always expect people are murmuring "she'll never last" to each other after we go past!

A Slack Week

We have had such a busy week this week that we've only managed to get up to the allotment twice - shameful!

On Monday we cleared a lot of weeds (back left corner of the front part) and were very proud of ourselves. Tuesday through to Friday I was in agony from my bum to my ankles!

Today we went back and I raked all the stones I could and dug up all the roots from the area we cleared on the Monday. It was tough work and the roots were the thickness of my thumb.

I extended the patch we had already prepared, dug the whole thing over with some organic compost and planted some pumpkin seedlings. Only three but I read that they need quite a lot of space.

My Dad popped up to have a look at what we've been doing and offered to help a bit after he comes back from his holiday in the middle of July. That's very nice of him, I had assumed he would want to stay as far away as possible! He didn't stay long so next I dug over a long strip to plant the swede seedlings. I figured that as they are root vegetables I would need to dig the ground quite deep so I went down about a foot and a half - this was the most time consuming job today and my back is sore! 4 hours later I dug in some organic compost and we planted the swede seedlings and marked off the area so we don't stand on them by accident.

The seedlings came from eBay as I didn't have time to grow them from scratch because we got the allotment quite late. I have a few things growing on the kitchen windowsill for when we clear some more ground.
Here's a pic of how we are doing

Plot thoughts 24/7

So I caught myself thinking about something rather obscure today. I was standing in the shower, picking bits of leaf, twig and weed roots out of my hair this afternoon, contemplating whether or not condoms are biodegradable :o/
Now, before you jump to conclusions, let me tell you that there has been no "hanky panky" on the allotment, not since we took it over anyway, but today I dug up 5 condom wrappers and I'm wondering if whoever has had so much fun on our allotment was as careless with the used condoms as with the wrappers (although obviously not careless about contraception!). I'm really dreading one of us digging up a used condom.
These are not natural thoughts but this one is an extreme example of how the allotment, and thoughts of it, are consuming pretty much all my time (at least, that is, when I'm not thinking about bento boxes). I'm exhausting myself by going over every and any eventuality that might occur on the allotment. Aspie-ness well and truly on show here!


Cameron was in a catatonic mood this morning, not wanting to visit the allotment and having a sulk about it despite the fact that we had yesterday off to let some of my injuries and hand blisters heal a bit. We got the chairs out and sat down, had a chat and set a time limit on how long we would spend there so that it didn't seem "forever", and with the added incentive of a Kinder chocolate stick thingy Cameron found a burst of energy and we got loads done. It was a fantastic couple of hours.
We cleared some more of the ground that I'd cut the nettles down from. 16 buckets of weed roots, sticks and non-compostable stuff went to the skip. I was raking, pulling up weed roots and filling buckets and Cameron was helping and taking them to the skip as soon as they were full, sometimes two at a time - what a trooper! We cleared the top of a big piece of corrugated iron and picked it up to find snail city underneath, but more importantly, some more clear ground that we can dig over - yay! It's almost in line with the bit we've already dug too, how crafty is that?!

If you compare this photo to the one a couple of posts ago it shows how much we have achieved today, it's quite impressive for a few hours work.
We plonked the corrugated iron on some more weeds so that hopefully, in time that area will be cleared too.

A good day today and I came away without any new blisters, grazes or other allotment related injuries - bonus.
I'm looking forward to going up tomorrow morning, we are bound to meet some of neighbours properly on a Saturday morning. There have been a few people lurking around with maps like we were a week ago so I think there will be some more people starting from scratch too.

Shed Adoration

The picture, below, of our shed has been requested for a flickr group called "Just sheds". I had no idea that people were that into sheds but apparently they are and I'm very flattered to have been invited to show our shed there. If sheds are your thing or you fancy a nosy, head on over to Just Sheds and check them out.

Getting Started

Corr gardening is hard work isn't it?! We have been faffing about with pots in the back garden for a few years and thought we understood but I hadn't realised how very different it is!
We have been making a start over the last few days although the heat has been a factor in how long we've stuck at it.
So, what have we been doing? We now have our own lock on the access gate. We have been clearing as much rubbish as we can from the plot. It's amazing what you find in these places - we even dug up a key today!
We have cleared a huge area which was overgrown with nettles. This was not as easy a job as I had first thought and we still need to dig out the roots. I was being quite vain and trying to get the job done in a sleeveless top. thinking I could get a bit of a tan while I worked, but this turned out to be a very bad idea - my arms were covered in stings - note to self: wear something long sleeved next time you tackle nettles! You can see the area we cleared in the pic below. The nettle patch was from where I was stood whilst taking the picture, right the way back to behind the chairs.



We have also done a bit of digging. I read that it's important, for morale more than anything, to work on the best quality bit (ha!) of your allotment and get something growing as soon as possible. So we marked out a yard ish sized patch that had been under plastic sheeting and started to dig over the ground. It is very dry, I'm not sure if that is good or bad for digging but we made a start anyway. There was a lot of crap in the soil, broken glass, nails, a door hinge, a key - it was like unlucky dip! Here is a pic of Cameron trying to break the clumps of soil up a bit for me - he's really enjoying getting to use the tools (the only thing I haven't set him loose with yet is the bypass lopper thingy but he's chomping at the bit to have a go).



I made the difficult decision to use chemicals for a one off time to try and get my plot under control. The guy that runs the day-to-day stuff of the allotments (Ronnie) recommended this method. I know they aren't good and I had hoped to work as organically as possible but it is a huge plot and there is only one of me and a limit to how much I can do. The weeds are 95% perennial and I'm pretty overwhelmed with the sheer amount of them. I sprayed the chems on today and marked off the area with twine so that Cameron won't go wandering amongst it until it's clear. I felt so guilty the entire time I did it and once the ground is clear I hope to work as naturally as possible.

Hello!

I have set up this new blog to chronicle our journey on our new allotment plot so that I can go into a bit more detail about our gardening antics.
For those who don't read our journey at the Home Baked Education blog, we have recently rented an allotment plot for the first time. It is in quite a bad condition and is going to require a lot of work. Our only gardening experience comes from growing a few veggies, herbs and flowers in buckets and boxes in our tiny little yard at home so we are almost complete beginners - this will certainly be an interesting experience for better or worse!
Here is the plot as we found it, Cameron is stood about half way/two thirds of the way down



We are very lucky that there is a shed already on the site for us that is in pretty good condition despite it's rustic appearance



I hope you will enjoy following us as we venture into the unknown and hopefully grow something other than weeds :o)