Desperation stakes

Despite the carefree attitude I (usually) display on this blog, there are times when having an allotment gets me down. I know other allotmenteers feel the same: and for some, it's enough to force them to give up.

When I was writing a list of reasons to rent an allotment, Tony Penge wrote this comment below my post about allotments being "cool and zeitgeisty":

They are also a lot of Bloody Hard Work, they demand constant attention, they need endless amounts of Unconditional Love - in that you must keep loving them even when the aphids have destroyed the globe artichokes for the fourth year running and the tomatoes have all gone down to blight, they smother you in chard, cucumbers and courgettes until you can take no more, they tease and test your loyalty and devotion like an uppity courtesan (and can be just as expensive if you're a bit too zeitgeisty and inclined to the contemporary potager), they are Never Satisfied and the work is Never Done. Talk about an abusive relationship: why am I never really happy unless I'm pollinating melons and tying up tomatoes, when consummation is so uncertain?

This really struck a chord. I'm always aware than I am only just keeping on top of everything: the harvesting, the sowing, and the weeding - my GOD the weeding.

This weekend, for instance, I looked at the strip of ground where the early peas had been flourishing only weeks ago and realised that the earth was now choked with weeds, including the dreaded b******d (I can't bring myself to type the word but click on the link if you have no idea what I am talking about). And the potatoes needed harvesting, and I was already late sowing some rainbow chard for the winter, and the tomatoes needed staking and tying, and ... well, you get the picture. I am off to foreign climes again in a week so the desperation at everything I need (ok, want) to get done before I leave is really setting in.

So what to do? Well, at that point it's best to step back and take some deep breaths. Relax: it's not the end of the world: from my experience the chard will grow pretty much whenever it's sown, the tomatoes will survive, and the potatoes can stay in the ground for several more weeks. So, getting my priorities right, I tackled the weeds: the longer they're left, the harder they'd be to get rid of.

The ground was moist from several dousings of rain in the week, and a couple of hours' work by me and my assistant allotmenteer on a sunny Saturday afternoon did the trick. And it also gave me a chance to enthuse (not that I take much prompting) about how lucky I am to have such friable soil.

Once I'd got on top of this job, the other priorities all seemed to slot into place.

The key, once you've cleared a patch of ground, is to get something sown or planted to fill the vaccuum: otherwise the winter wet will leach nutrients from the soil, and the weeds will undo your good work in a matter of weeks. So I planted one bed of rye grass as a green manure, and one of winter lettuce.

I pottered off home with some carrots, courgettes, lettuce, sorrel, parsley and flowers. Eating an allotment-generated salad later, I remembered why I bother with all this malarkey: ultra-fresh, ultra-local produce. It does the trick every time ...

Comments

[Clare]

It may sound strange, but I find it hugely reassuring that even with all your skill, knowledge and experience you find keeping an allotment disheartening at times. In an odd kind of way, it makes me feel like I'm doing something right - I feel disheartened often!

[Jane Perrone]

Clare, thanks for your comments. Sometimes I feel as if I am feeling my way along in the darkness: there's always something new to learn. I am an amateur gardener rather than a trained pro, so I always feel like I have lots to learn from other people. I try to remind myself that this "hobby" - although sometimes all-consuming - is just that...

jane

[mtp]

I get frustrated a lot with the things that I can't get done. I make lists and lists of things 'to be done' and when I get to mtp I promptly start doing a completely new set of things. And just when I get around to actually 'doing' the things on my list, Ryan calls me and tells me I've been away for two hours and it's starting to get dark and am I coming home soon... yep that's pretty much what happens every time:)