| Plot 17 – The Earthly Comforts Garden Season Three – Plot 17 Growing Season April – September 2023 The Allotment Plotters Directory |
| Don’t Judge a Plot by the Beds Only |
| “The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.” Will Rogers |
| Plot 17 from the front gate – now 90% completed. |
| All outside raised beds now planted aside from No’s 6 & 9 |
| It’s been a while since l wrote about the actual expansion/sowing progression down on Plot 17. I have been busy. We both have various projects on the go simultaneously, either with the allotment, gardening business, or volunteering. Never mind the actual life stuff we both need to get on with. Whilst we have progressed wonderfully on the allotment in several areas, we still need to catch up for this reason or that. There is always something to work the devil’s advocate. In the last week alone, l have had many smaller must-do projects on the go, mostly the selling side to Gazen Salts and bad news on that front that happened last week and made me examine if l was finally going to have to let go of the nature reserve’s volunteering. It might come to that, sadly. A clash of personalities is what is the trigger. Of course, the Jubilee Garden project is now on the horizon, and l am very excited about that because l believe the marketing ideas l had for Gazen will work just as well, if not better, with the Jubilee. Whether l will give up Gazen Salts entirely remains to be seen, but something has got to give, given the sheer busyness of my life itself. I may settle for Stocks and Stores for Gazen Salts once a month to keep the shed ticking over and then dedicate a couple of days a week to the community garden/allotment and the work with Earthly Comforts and our allotment. Life is set to become even busier. I am also recovering from a serious issue with the top of my hip or the lower part of my back. It’s been excruciating, and whilst the results from the x-rays l had several weeks ago revealed minor osteoarthritis – if this pain is mild, l dread to think what life will be like when l am eighty-five or something! So l have booked myself in for an ultrasound scan this coming weekend to see if they can isolate something other than a maybe arthritis bid. Despite the pain and discomfort, l have still worked in the various locations, and whilst YES sure l took some time out on Monday and Tuesday, l am never sitting still doing nothing, so l am always active even when unwell. I was working either in the Willow Garden or on other projects. I visited another gardening project last Tuesday, which could work out to a four-day stint of new business for Suze and l, and if the quote is accepted, we could add another regular to the books once the job is completed. We shall see. However, to the allotment. Things have changed once again with the sowing and planting lineup. Way of the gardening world, l feel nothing is concrete till it is rock solid. The last time l displayed the planting lineup was back on 9th May. It has changed again, but finally, now we are there. We have twenty-one growing areas over the entire plot, comprising twelve outside raised beds of various sizes and nine distinct additional areas for farming purposes. Be this tabled raised beds, fruit cages, growing land strips, secondhand baths and potted regions. Of the twelve raised beds, we are currently planted into ten, with the remaining two to be finally achieved this coming weekend. The building projects – the polytunnel and the water station are STILL behind, and now it’s down to the injured back of mine and a north-easterly wind that is making farming awkward. Many of the seedlings we wanted to plant have had to be potted on again into much larger containers to not suffer from wind damage or the cold still present in the wind, which is burning the leaves or damaging crops. We will now buy new seedlings instead of growing them from seed for courgettes, marrow and butternut squash because although we planted them, the weather has caused terrible damage. Once bought, we will repot into larger containers and grow on. We really could have done with the polytunnel erected by now. I tire of saying ‘All Going Well’, but despite my annoyance with the term, we are still doing well. We have a lot of crops planted and an allotment that is thriving in many areas, and once we have the water station and the actual tunnel up, we can both take a breather because we are absolutely shattered. It’s still a tremendous achievement and success from the time we took Plot 17 on board on 9th September 2022 and how it as an area of land has come along with our hard work. Many other allotmenteers once considered the allotment to be a tidy plot in the time previous to us. However, it lends weight to the term ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’. Because of the sheer graft, we have performed with the area and the soils especially – that supposedly ‘once tidy plot’ before us has been seen all too clearly to have NOT been a prosperous, growing area. This was a fact l raised in October last year when l mentioned the poor quality soil. I have improved the soil with my compost and vermicast, our hard work, diligence, and determination to make a farming area for our table worthwhile and valuable. Anything we do with that space is always for the betterment of either our lifestyle or for the potentiality of business possibilities. One of the most significant projects to consider was our strategy for improvement. That has paid huge dividends. There will come a time, or even not when l can write in more detail; l certainly have all the necessary photographs to support the posts, just not always the time. Things can change quickly with the plot. Plus, there is so much to it, and l could write post content explaining everything done and achieved since my last detailed post, and yet whilst that might be true for that particular day, l can almost guarantee something significant will have changed it the following week. I will write about the plot in more detail once all the plantings are finalised, the building projects completed and when the human stresses and strains of two overly tired individuals who, at times whilst best mates, want to kill the other one at least a dozen times a week are replaced with less duress and sprain. This is primarily due to clashing motivation levels, l am a natural optimist, and Suzanne is not, and she sometimes leans more towards the pessimist side. This can mean on occasion and more when fatigue is present, there are differences of opinions about what goes where, the effectiveness of decisions and if things are running behind schedule [the various building projects] combined with poor weather whilst l will say, ‘well, it can happen’, Suze knowing that to be true is still pretty pissed off! It can be challenging for us both at times. But all that said, we are the best of mates, and we bounce back quickly, thank goodness! Till then, here are some of the latest photographs of Plot 17’s Progression. |
| I hope you have enjoyed this post, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time. Till then, have yourselves a terrific day! The Autistic Composter |
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