Grow Your Own Magazine

Maybe it is time to throw in the trowel? I was told today that my 'efforts' at the allotment are like trying to re-invent the wheel; but that the plot next door to mine was in good order and under control. So I guess that is a vote against my attempts and progress to clear and plant up the unruly patch that I took over in February. To me the potatoes, salad and peas that we have been eating for the last month have been worth the time and work I have put in because it has been something I have...

thyme

How is it I asked myself that I have got soaked in the rain several times this week; yet the soil on my allotment is so dry that it is a struggle to dig up my new potoatoes when I want them?

I keep a little diary/note book journal of what I have planted and harvested from the allotment, and try to work out future planting plans. I also keep a tally of the weight of the potatoes I have harvested so far and try to work out how much the veggies that I bring home would have cost if I...

thyme

Today I have been cutting back brambles ready to dig them out and clear the next patch. Also sowed some sunflower seeds in a couple of bare patches of earth in the hope that they will hold back the emerging weeds, and if they do not then at least I can recognise the sunflower seedlings from the weeds when I weed that patch, in some places I sown them in rows so that I can use the hoe there and in other areas I just scattered the seeds. They will hopefully act as a makeshift green manure until I...

thyme

For some reason talking to the blackbird that visits my allotment does not seem too crazy, but now that I've started speaking to the potatoes, plums and peas I am a bit concerned. Because of the overgrown nature of the uncleared/un-nurtured part of my plot I cannot always see if people are walking past it on the path ( I cleared the middle section first and planted that area up). Not only must I appear crazy to take on this tangled jungle of brambles and weeds now they can hear me talking to...

thyme