Welcome to our plot!

I'm Hazel, and in Nov 2006 my friend Jane and I took on a half plot at Hill Allotments, Sutton Coldfield - we want the satisfaction of growing and eating our own fruit and veg, and to improve our diet (and fitness!).

This is the story of what happened next...........

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Falling In Love Again

Anyone from Mars who happened across a whole bunch of gardeners' blogs this Spring will have wondered why on earth any of us in the UK continue with a so-called pleasure giving hobby, due to the fact that there is not one amongst us, I don't think, who hasn't found the weather this Spring extremely trying.

Even the hardy hobbit who pretty much lives outside in the elements has sounded less than enthusiastic - and who can blame her with well over a foot of rain falling on her Cumbrian idyll this year so far?

Any trips that I have had to the Hill over the past three months have been either in the rain; or not in the rain until I've been there for two minutes when it has started.  The enthusiasm is dented because the days have not been warm, the nights less so.  Anything that I have planted out has been eaten by slugs or snails (I'm on my fifth try at carrots, the third of french beans); the only things to thrive have been the weeds (and teh peas, oddly).

And yet.

It has been dry since Friday, sunny over the weekend - and glorious today.  The tomatoes in the courtyard have put on three inches in as many days; and at the Hill, the courgettes are finally big enough to withstand slug attack, the re-sown french beans are up, and the peas are going wild.

Last week I'd heard that there was a lovely pile of chippings up by the store shed.  I'd love to thank the unknown donor as these are exactly what I want to refresh the paths (although I might argue that I would have been saved a great deal of effort and a number of hours yesterday pushing the damn wheelbarrow up and down the Hill if they had been dropped off somewhat nearer the plot).

So the paths look fabulous, the beds are weeded, a start has been made on the 'messy corner', and I ate a punnet full of raspberries tonight (after some rudimentary carpentry to mend the collapsing frame); and came home the first of the peas; some wonderful broad beans and new potatoes, warm from the soil.


That's why I do it.

4 comments:

  1. When you've finished romancing' and waxin' lyrical about all this damn sunshine you've had, could you put the calculator away? Sheesh, there I was, feeling rested after a half reasonable night's sleep trying to ignore the fact that it has rained all night AGAIN and what is the first thing I read?

    The results of you getting clever with the adding up button and letting me know how much blessed precipitation we've had in the Shire this year.

    I didn't know that and I really didn't want to. Infernal child. Not ever letting you near newly painted walls with a box of crayons :}

    BTW, it would be churlish of me not to compliment you on how neat & tidy your plot looks.

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  2. PS: you noticed I just said it would be churlish to not compliment you . . . I didn't actually do it {pfnar, pfnar, pfnar as Flummery might say}

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  3. That's looking great! It's only just recently been dry enough underfoot to get onto my plot for some major weeding. Boy it looks good when you've finished! (Fnar, fnar!)

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  4. Just think of all the watering you haven't had to do! 8-)

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