Is it worth it?

This week I have been mostly clearing weeds and moving raspberry canes, strawberry plants and a redcurrant and blackcurrrant and planting a tree. Maybe not the best month of the year to do this but there is so much to do there that I will have to take the risk.

Finally managed to get the dead branches cut off the plum tree and was grateful for the help with that and also clearing most of the brambles around it.

The area that has been cleared this week will be worked as new beds next Spring. The area that was cleared and planted with potatoes this Spring will be turned into an area for raised beds. These will be planted up with salad etc. Ideally I would like four or five raised beds and would like to combine flowers and veggies. But cannnot see that happening this year. I see people burning bits off wood or pass a skip on the bus and think maybe I could make a raised bed from that? Probably I could make something that would hold the soil (it might not be up to some peoples standards) but even making one will probably take me forever.

I had to admit defeat and that the person who said sorting the perennial weeds from annuals as I cleared the allotment was a waste of time was right and just to clear it all into one heap not. I had thought I could rot down the annuals into a sort of compost and was hoping the bagged up perennials would not take up so much space until I could find someway of disposing of them. It is tempting to dump the rubbish on the unworked plots but I am not willing to do that especially as eventually they reinvade my plot or someone elses.

I think I provided a source of entertainment here this week especially for the dogs who were out for a walk at the time as I walked to the allotment carrying a spade in one hand and a tree in the other. I kept moving just in case they decided to water it before I had planted it, the chery tree that is not the spade.

Even days when I wonder how I will ever get my plot into order, when my arms and legs ache from clearing brambles and weeds I still do not regret signing up for that over grown one. I love being there and it has given me something to look forward to in one of the most difficult years. When I have got it looking good and I have next years harvest of new potatoes and am picking strawberries the thing that will make me sad is that I cannot show or tell my dad about it. Is it worth it? He would have probably asked me, you know something I think it is.