This is the diary of a new allotment holder. I got it in May 2008 but just piddled around last year without a proper plan. 2009 is the start of the plan so today I walked off a hangover (late night risotto , too much wine and a
Mescaleros disco in my friend's front room) and arrived at three. "I though you'd emigrated" said Brian who is there everyday like the gatekeeper to our little
eden. "Have you got your leeks in yet?"He advises me to plant
musselburgh and tips me off to the fact that although Wilkinson's seeds are cheap you only get 10 seeds in a packet. Brian is the oracle of the allotment. Last summer he gave me seeds and broad beans, cabbages and sprouts to grow. He showed me how to dig and fixed my hose pipe and
leant me a ladder (I broke the three bottoms rungs just by standing on them) to pick my pears and showed me how to make a pear picking/catching /shaking tool for the highest pears which betrayed his scrumping past.
On the way to my allotment I notice that everyone does seem to have their leeks in. I decide to spend Sunday night ordering
seedsand getting on with my plan.
Stir the compost which is like mucky apple stew. Decide to move the raspberries and to build a fence. I dig up my spinach plants which have gone all brown ans slimy and pull up some tiny
turnipsfor tea and admire a fractal cauliflower that has managed to
survive sustained pigeon attack.
I chose this plot because it had 2 apples trees and a pear tree and I foresaw super hammock use potential, but the main reason was because the shed reminds me of
Dungeness and those upside down boat hull sheds on
Lindisfarne.
I'mnot afraid to admit it
that i'm a shed fan.
The plot could do with an old teardrop green caravan too so I'm looking on
Ebay for one. I can't work out how to get it to my plot though. Would it have to be carried and held up high by some strong people or maybe I could build a high platform on a shopping
trolley to move it down the narrow paths between allotments. Hmm. The plot could also do
with a greenhouse
made of old windows....so greenhouse construction is also on my plan.
The shed is constructed from old railway sleepers and is covered in black tar paper. Its got a sloping roof which leaks and the door is falling off, so its an old soggy black shed, wobbly and a bit loose at the seams, but Susan loved him. It came with a free birds nest inside.
After a bit of
diggingI go home to
read Lawrence D. Hills Month by Month Organic Gardening. AHe says a good job for
January is to collect old empty tin cans, cut off the bottom, soak off the label and paint them black ready to place over carrots after thinning. According to Mr Hills the carrot fly "comes in low like a cruise missile ready to lay its eggs on the leaves near the ground, but the tin can baffles it".
Goodnight
