Signs of life

At the moment, I mostly go to the allotment only to dump bags of vegetable peelings in the compost bin, the wormery at home being full. I made one of these visits on Friday morning and was delighted and amazed to see that the broad beans have germinated, and little green shoots are appearing. Quite magical on a wet November morning. Now to find out whether they need netting to keep off the birds.

New structures and seeds

Over the last couple of weekends I have managed to add some new structures to the plot.

On a sunny Saturday, I put together a wooden compost box from the easiest kit in the world - it just slots together to form a square frame. Although slightly askew, I'm sure it will do the job very well - the odd angle gives it the appropriate homespun allotment look, perhaps. I also took lots of rubbish to the tip so the plot looked slightly less desolate. On the way in I admired a neighbour's huge collection of fallen leaves; he was careful to tell me that the ones on his plot were his, although there would be some for general use left near the allotment hut later on. I considered myself warned.


Last Sunday, on a filthy wet morning that was my only chance for a while to get started, I put together a couple of the Link-a-Board raised bed kits, dug over the ground where they were to go and installed them. They are also incredibly easy to put together and peg into the ground. I felt like a cheat with these kits, but the digging was authentic hard work. Once my two beds were ready I was enthusiastic, despite the weather, to put in something that might one day produce a crop; so I sowed broad beans. I think the variety was Aquadulce, but I can't be sure: the packet was washed away in the rain ...

I have four more square metre kits to put together and intend to plant garlic and some green manure in November, while keeping an eye out for the perennial weeds that don't seem to have an off season.

Earth

A wet spell while I was away means that the weeds - and especially the nettles - have returned with interest. However, the black plastic mulch has stayed in place - at least under there the weeds won't be getting any worse.

Over the last couple of weeks I've bagged up rubbish and managed to clear three patches of actual earth, each about a square metre, that I hope to make into small raised beds. The earth, once the grass and clover have been scraped off, is fairly loamy with lots of stones and lumps of chalk, but very compacted and needs a lot of organic material digging in. It doesn't seem to drain that well - I dug a small hole and poured in water which sat there for some time - but hopefully making raised beds will improve that. I'm about to order a compost heap frame and raised bed kits. The allotment DIY ethos says you should make these yourself out of pallets that you magically find lying about - but my time-poor ethos says it's easier to buy this sort of thing than struggle with tasks for which you have no aptitude.

Harvest of nettle roots

Back to the plot yesterday to put down more black plastic. I was pleased to find last week's efforts still in place, as it's so windy up there; several puddles have formed in the plastic which should also help to hold it down. I also spotted a water-boatman sculling about in one of them.

I bought a new rake, which was much better for pulling out all the dried grass and weeds left by the strimming, and cleared a lot of dead material from the plot. I also pulled out a vast amount of finger-thick nettle roots by hand; these have formed a network immediately below the surface of the soil. They come up easily enough, but invariably snap, leaving more than enough behind for a fresh crop of nettles. The nettle end of the allotment is very hummocky, but the soil seems in good condition under the weeds - I think the largest hummock must have been the compost heap in the past.

I got two more big sheets of plastic down, and scavenged around the plot for heavy things to weight them to the ground, as well as pinning them. Hopefully they'll stay in place for the two weeks I'll be away on holiday. When I get back I need to deal with a huge heap of weeds - to the tip, I think, along with the rubbish from the shed.

At last

Finally, the plot has been strimmed! I went yesterday armed with shears, fully expecting to be cutting down the nettles by hand, and found the council had been there before me. So I was able to start clearing up. My first harvest was a large quantity of broken glass, some half-rotten garden fleece, bits of hardboard and rusted lager cans.

I managed to rake out quite a lot of dried grass and weeds, and have put them in one corner where I plan to have the compost heap. The end of the allotment furthest from the shed looks the most promising place for first digging - there are fewer nettles there and it is fairly level.

Having cleared the worst from the middle part of the plot, I put down one of the pieces of black polythene. I'd naively thought I could weight it down with stones - much too windy for that on the hillside, so I had to get metal staples to peg it down. It still seemed likely to blow away, so I found some heavy pieces of wood and a couple of bricks to lay on top of it. I need to do this twice more, and then wait until next spring before I begin to work that half of the plot.

Now that the nettles are gone, the full horror of the shed is visible. It is full of rusted old junk, but less sinister now it stands on open ground. Somebody will have to be found to remove it, as it's too big a job for me alone.

I also met more neighbours yesterday, and their dog George. They were pleased to see me - another weapon in their armoury to combat weeds. They also showed me the proper boundaries of the plot, which is smaller than I thought - something of a relief.

Next jobs are building a compost heap; making a plan for the beds; then beginning to dig.

Still waiting ...

I went up to the allotment after work today to see whether the council had been to work their strimmer magic - but no such luck. My efforts at labelling the allotment with its plot number - using a flower pot with a stick through it as a sign - had also gone awry, as the pot had been knocked over. There are some offcuts of wood hanging around at home, so I will try to sort out something else over the weekend.

The delay is frustrating; I would have had time this weekend to rake up clippings and put down my black polythene mulch, maybe to start a compost heap. Now it will all have to wait. The allotment organiser warned me not to wear myself out working on the plot - there's no chance of that at the moment.

Beginning

Today was earmarked for strimming. I'd really hoped to clear the whole plot, but an hour's efforts managed to get rid of around a third of the long grass. I was slightly thwarted by the hired strimmer and my incompetence with it; the motor cut out if presented with anything more substantial than a blade of grass, and I only had the muscle power to start it successfully two or three times. An allotment neighbour took pity on me and started it for me once, but after an hour of wrestling with it I'd had enough. Plan B is to get the council to strim the rest; I need to get them to take away the shed in any case.



I did get the chance to get better acquainted with my plot. It's quite uneven, which I think might put paid to my plans for raised beds, and towards the back the ground slopes very steeply away. There is a patch of brambles here, which I will keep for the fruit, but I think a good way of using this part of the pot might be to plant lavender, rosemary and similarly shrubby herbs. I spotted this pretty flower, while exploring; I wonder if it's an early purple orchid (Orchis mascula); the flower head is very like the picture in my wild flowers guide, but the leaves don't look quite right. I will go up to move it out of strimming range in a few days.

I begin to see why everyone has told me the allotment will get me fit. I ache profoundly from my rather feeble efforts with the strimmer today. What will the digging do to me?


The site is looking very pretty at the moment. A lot of people have flowers as well as plants, and one plot has a large area given over entirely to flowers. There's a practical point to this, I suppose, as it attracts pollinating insects, but I like the way it softens and brightens what could be a very plain, pragmatic place. Growing flowers for cutting on my plot would save me about as much money as growing vegetables will - more food for thought.

As it is

After two years on the waiting list, I have finally been lucky enough to get my own allotment. It's a half-plot or six rods; I'm enjoying the new allotment vocabulary coming my way. It is fairly neglected, with waist-high nettles and a decrepit shed lurking in the corner.

The site is on the side of a hill in Moulsecoomb, Brighton. Not quite a seaside allotment, then, although it is only a couple of miles inland. Many of the plots on the site are quite steep, but this one is fairly level which will be an advantage, I hope.

The first job, next weekend, is to strim the whole plot. Then I'll get rid of the decaying, and slightly sinister, shed. After that I have a great deal of digging ahead of me.