Saturday 12th January 2008

Tim and I had already sat the 5th January out due to really bad weather. It had been raining non-stop recently and there was just no way we could dig the ground. We would have risked damaging the soil structure in such wet conditions. We decided to come up to the plot anyway, equipped with a large flask of tea. Tim, Roger (the site secretary) and I joined Nigel in his greenhouse as we watched the rain piddling down. It was nice to catch up with our fellow allotmenteers in the new year.

The rain began to slow a little and we took a look around the plot. It was all looking very waterlogged. The rain had been extremely heavy and eerily un-British. There were puddles of water sitting on top of the earth and I just began to wonder whether it was ever going to end. Tim and I left at around 12pm and hoped for good weather next week.

 

  
                       
 
                                             
  Saturday 19th January 2008

During the week I had the ingenius idea of actually protecting the earth from the deluge of rainwater. The area we wanted to dig was for the fruit cage and it was a little waterlogged, so after a trip to the local DIY store, I came up to the plot with a roll of thick plastic. Tim wasn't up today because he was being lazy; that or he had some DIY work to do, I forget. I cleared the area of all the rubbishy nonsense that was laying around and emptied the wheelbarrow filled with water and weeds. It was quite amazing just how much it had rained recently, just from looking at the water that had collected in the wheelbarrow and the water in the blue barrel. It just goes to show how much water can be saved from a 6' x 4' shed roof with a drainpipe in a matter of a couple of weeks.

After clearing the area, I unrolled the plastic and cut it to size. It was quite a task doing it by yourself because it's just like trying to unfold a massive bed sheet. I had managed to get one corner and then I had to run and do the other corner, by which time the original corner had become mis-shapen. Aarrghh!

                       
 
                                             

It also took a bit longer because I decided to have a half hour chat with Nigel about this whole gardening lark and to catch up about the chickens. I then got back to the hard graft, which involved me putting weights on the plastic so that it wouldn't blow away.

In some respects I thought that this was a plan that couldn't go wrong. However, I then began to think that the water that I was repelling by using the plastic had to go somewhere. The plot wasn't exactly sloping downhill so would the water just sit on top of the plastic? Would it just seep back underneath? Would it work at all? Oh goodness me!
                                             
 
                                             
 
                                             
Saturday 26th January 2008

Tim and I got up to the plot today and had the plan to dig the bottom section of the second plot, just north of the shed. We thought that we could do this fairly simply because we'd managed to clear an entire plot before in a few weekends. Alas, it was not to be as simple as that. We started off by having a look around the plot and see what was going on. I had brought up a bird feeder filled with peanuts because I thought it would be a good idea to encourage birds to the plot in order to eat all the nasty grubs and slugs that we didn't want.

We decided to dig up some Chinese artichokes to se how well they had done. There were loads of the little blighters and it was until today that Tim decided to tell me that Chinese artichokes are part of the mint family. Aagghhh! I think we all know how invasive mint is and how difficult it is to get out of the ground afterwards. Oh blimmin heck! That Tim is going to have to go. I am not convinced by these little vegetables. As stated last year, they do look like witchety grubs and I don't think I can bring myself to eat them. Tim will, though... weirdo.

  
                       
 
                                             
 
                                             
Tim had also decided to force the rhubarb. It sounds cruel but all you do is stick a large container over the rhubarb plant and leave it to grow in the dark. We put the water butt that we were going to sink into the ground over the rhubarb and waited 5 minutes for something to happen. Sometimes this gardening lark just isn't fast enough. If it was a job and the employer expected to see results and a fast turnaround I think we'd both be fired. If only we had a polytunnel...  
                                             
 
                                             
The moment of truth came to take a look at the ground underneath the plastic. Was it still soggy, was it dry? It was, in true Goldilocks-fashion, the one in the middle; it was just right. There were bits of ice that had collected on the pockets of water on top of the plastic sheeting. Tim and I got all nostalgic and went into Karate Kid Part II mode and decided to break the sheets of ice using brute man strength. Tim managed to chop 6 sheets of ice. He's a hero! I smashed one sheet of ice with my forehead. It hurt.

We dug the ground and it was very slow-going. There were weeds and weeds and even more weeds. I think even the weeds had weeds growing on them. We dug and dug until we could dig no more. We did get pretty far and had managed to shift quite a few barrow loads of weeds up on to our soggy pile of rubbish that would never burn. We decided to try and dry it out by putting some plastic sheeting over it. It seemed to have worked for the ground we were digging so there's no reason it wouldn't work for the big pile of rubbish. It might take a few weeks but it would be worth it to get rid of all those weeds that have accumulated over the past year or so. We went home feeling pretty tired. More digging next week!