4th
February 2006
Having cleared all of the ground the next step was to start rough digging
the plot. My girlfriend, Susanna, came up to help out as well. It was
all good fun as the three of us dug for victory. It all took a lot longer
than we thought. The ground was really compacted and full of bramble roots.
There was a satisfying creaking as you lifted up the bramble roots with
your spade and the final crunch as you got it out and threw it on what
would eventually be one of many bonfires.
Tim and I bought 14lbs of Arran Pilot early potatoes, some onion sets and shallots for when we eventually clear the ground. We bought these from Gordon, who looks after the allotment shop, just a few metres away from our plot. By the end of the day, after being visited by Tim's girlfriend, Michelle, we packed up having dug around one-fifth of the ground. Not much but it was a start!
Tim was feeling pretty ill today but that didn't stop him from making a appearance at the allotment. He'd been looking forward to it all week. Suey came up to the allotment with at first and we made a bonfire which went out pretty soon after we'd lit it. We continued to dig the ground, little by little. The ground was still littered with bramble roots and really hard to dig. The ground had just been compacted so much over the years. Tim turned up, looking a little worse for wear but still put in a solid days work. We managed to get quite a bit done and we marked out the plot in 7.5 metre lengths so that we knew how far we were progressing with each shovelful. We had nearly got to the halfway point... but not quite.
I went to the allotment fairly late and Tim was already there. We continued to dig the ground, picking out more and more bramble roots until we had yet another bonfire sized pile. Each time we dig we seem to have the most ridiculous pile of roots. We usually managed to fill four sack fulls of roots and weeds each time we dig out a quarter of the plot.
One of the disconcerting things was that although we had removed the brambles there was still an awful lots of other roots and weeds laying in the soil. By the end of the day we had managed to get closer to the three-quarters mark. We had also bought 21 lbs (10kg) of maincrop spuds in the way of desirees. I was concerned that we would have no room left on the plot for any other veg. Were we just growing spuds? Tim didn't think so and he was, of course, correct.
As you can probably see, we drew ever closer to the plum tree.
