Monday 22nd ~ 28th January. Digging and Leaf Litter.

This week was another tough one for digging. I did, however, managed to address the 'sparsity of fibrous material' dilemma as mentioned in the previous post and collect some leaf litter from 'Chestnut Drive Motorway Ridge', a wooded embankment that runs parallel to the M5 motorway and Chestnut Drive and is designed, quite effectively, to reduce the heavy traffic noise to the adjacent housing estate and is but a stones throw, for someone that can throw stones quite far, from my home, yet a jolly fair trek from the allotment, especially as the only modum onerariis is a foot propelled wheelbarrow.
 

VIEW ALONG M5 RIDGE LOOKING NORTH ISH

VIEW ALONG M5 RIDGE LOOKING SOUTH ISH

TUESDAY 23rd JANUARY 2018. ON THE PLOT AT 10:51 hrs.

Needless to say I persevered, out of necessity and desperation, and armed with rake, fork, 'leaf~boards', giant sacks and wheelbarrow, managed to accrue quite a reasonable amount of leafage, visible in the left hand corner, to begin feeding the earth back on the allotment.

ON THE PLOT TUESDAY 23rd JANUARY AT 10:51 hrs VIEW ONE.

ON THE PLOT TUESDAY 23rd JANUARY AT 10:51 hrs VIEW TWO.

Three images showing collected leaf litter spread evenly over the pre~turned earth. Subsequent leaf litter applications will be spread over evenly before the earth is turned. 

Hopefully the worms will move in and help me out in correcting my dereliction of duty.

𝅺

By 13:45hrs on Tuesday I was both leafed out and dug in as seen in the images below.

Having completed a couple of feet of tilling after the application of leaf litter, I felt somewhat happy with the result despite the altogether slow progress made. I at least managed to save the worms a chore of dragging some of the leaves underground. Their work may appear to be 'taken~for~granted' by most people only I personally appreciate their toilage and thank each one whenever we meet. I'm not sure whether they can hear me as they don't appear to have any ears only I'm sure that my positive mental energies and thanks that are sent their way resonate in some mysterious way as they continue to turn up for work.

The end of the on~site available leaf litter means the need to source another supply before I can continue as my new digenda calls for leaf application before earth tilling. Tomorrow will be dedicated as Leaf Locate and Collect Day. I have a new area in mind, somewhere that is by far closer that the Motorway Ridge, easily accessible and, as needs to be, FREE.

THURSDAY 25th JANUARY 2018. ON THE PLOT AT 10:20 hrs.

PLOT SHOT 01. GREEN TARPAULIN IS COVERING WEDNESDAYS LEAF LITTER COLLECTION.

PLOT SHOT 02. GREEN TARPAULIN IS COVERING WEDNESDAYS LEAF LITTER COLLECTION.

After spending a few hours on Wednesday collecting a couple of 'barrow loads of leaf litter from a newly sourced location just up the road from the allotments, I was ready to rock 'n' roll on Thursday and was eager to make the most of the glorious January sunshine.

I didn't take any photographs on the Wednesday as time was pressing and hands were messing. I was just keen to get in, out and dump those leaves about. I had intended to take photographs of every stage and from every day worked to keep a record of progress made. Hopefully the majority of digging will be completed soon and the images will be of things growing. In the meantime it's more of the same. Despite the never ending tilling outlook today was another digging day and it must be mentioned that I was joyous irrespective of the repetitivity.

I'll miss it when it's all dug over, which will not be any time soon.

PLOT SHOT 03. #DOGLEGDIGGING.

MORE SHOTS OF MY #DOGLEGDIGGING TECHNIQUE and PRE~DIG LEAF~SCATTERATION.

Below is an image taken at approximately 14:20hrs after four hours on site with a diggage rate of only a half a foot per hour. Where does the time go? What have I been up to? Well, in all fairness AND acceptability, communal allotment gardening encompasses two main elements, as the title implies. The gardening element is the more obvious aspect and needs little to no explanation. The communal element is equally as important at least, and that is where much of the time has gone in the instance of today. I could both chat and listen for England, for the UK, for The World, for Everywhere.

The community allotment is one of the few remaining established and affordable bastions of communicising left in our civilised system. With the increase in hutch living, that is living solitary existences in hutch~like abodes being 'entertained', or distracted from real life via television or computer games, people are becoming more insular, isolated and less interactive with fellow beings, which goes against our natural trait for socialising and facilitates an uninterrupted self serving political agenda of 'enslavement of the masses' (plebeians (that's you by~the~way)) by the current 'ruling classes'.

Anyway, chatting with fellow allotmenteers is the reason that diggage is down today!

and friendships are up!

THE WATERING CAN IS BALANCED ON A STICK AND MARKS THE START POSITION OF THE DAYS DIGGING.

With an original prediction made on The First Working Day of approximately twenty hours to dig the initial designated area of 900 square feet and based on the first days dig rate of two feet by twenty feet per hour well and truly not happening, or not happened, I have given up counting and have decided to 'just do it' until it's finished.

Varying factors have added to the time scale including, inclement weather (always a good and viable excuse when conducting outdoor work), failing or tiring limbs, very dense, heavy going earth, leaf litter collecting, extreme optimism / glass overflowing, plot plotting / procrastination and chatting / socialising / peer group learnings.

SUNDAY 28th JANUARY 2018. LEAF LITTER CENTRAL, Stoke Road ~ Chestnut Drive Junction.

SUNDAY 28th JANUARY 2018 13:30 hrs. LEAF LITTER CENTRAL, STOKE ROAD ~ CHESTNUT DRIVE JUNCTION.

Unkempt council managed public land is a fine source for leaf litter. These areas, governed under common law, would be best returned to management by the community. There are enough caring and responsible members in society (I met some during my leaf quest) that would doubtless ensure a better, more considerate service than any town or county council could or would provide, especially Taunton Deane Borough Council who seem hell bent on spending taxpayers contributions wantonly and frivolously.
Is it time for peaceful anarchy? I think so...
I digress, a little...

Back to leaf litter and my plight at the site, Leaf Litter Central. Everything is really self explanatory, however I will explain a little, if, like me, money for compost and leafage is so scarce that it doesn't exist, tidying up around and about is probably the best option that not only furnishes the pile, it does the area and environment a good service too.
A few words of warning.. "WATCH OUT FOR DOG DOO!"
Some dog owners are ignorant and selfish      .

Below is a short video of the beginning of my adventure to Leaf Litter Central

at the junction of Stoke Road and Chestnut Drive in Taunton,

and below I am loaded up ready to return to the allotment with my barrow of brown treasure.

LOADED UP WITH LEAF LITTER AND READY TO ROLL.

Well the week has ended fruitfully with a reasonable pile of roughage and nutrition for the plot and some edibles for the worms. A few more hours at this leaf litter central tomorrow should furnish me with a nice wee mountain and allow me to crack on with the task of preparing the ground back at the allotment.

Spring is fast approaching so the race is on.

NEXT WEEK ~ MORE LEAF COLLECTING AND DIGGING!

Monday 15th ~ 21st January. MORE DIGGING!

An update on progress begins with an image of where I left off at the close of play on Sunday 14th after three hours of quite tough digging due to the extreme density of the earth. At a previous rate of two feet per hour I was hopeful that week two could produce similar results.

CLOSE OF PLAY ON SUNDAY 14th JANUARY 2018 WITH A DIGGING RATE OF 2 FEET PER HOUR.

PLAY RESUMES AT 11:30 hrs ON TUESDAY 16th JANUARY IN BRIGHT SUNSHINE AFTER A VERY WET MONDAY.

CLOSE UPS SHOWING TRENCH SIDES AND COMPACT, WET SOIL STRUCTURE.

With one and a half hours toiling and a disappointing dig result of just one and a half feet over the twenty feet length completed, I decided to take some snaps before the anticipated rain arrived,...

WEATHER TOOK A WET TURN AT 13:00 hrs SO IT LOOKED LIKE TIME TO PACK UP. 1 ½ FEET OF DIGGING WAS DISAPPOINTING..

...including the taking of the first allotment video (below)

As the poor weather abated somewhat it was possible to continue digging for a further one and a half hours which increased the diggage to a whopping two and a half feet for three hours toil.

BACK TO A FORKING GOOD TIME FOR A FURTHER HOUR AND A HALF INCREASED DIGGAGE BY AN EXTRA FOOT. BIG DEAL!

Toil on Tuesday ended with mixed emotions. I realised from day one that things were going to be heavy going with the combination of dense soil, inclement weather and a lack of honed gardening muscles making the job backbreaking and mentally challenging as the plot got larger in mind.

AFTER DIGGING TO A DEPTH OF TWELVE INCHES THE HEIGHT OF SOIL INCREASED TO A FOOT ABOVE THE ORIGINAL GROUND LEVEL INDICATING THAT THE VOLUME HAS DOUBLED WITH THE INCLUSION OF SOME WELL NEEDED 'AIR' IN THE COMPACT MIX.

FRIDAY 19th January 2018. On plot at 15:00 hrs.

FRIDAY 19th JANUARY 2018 AT 15:00 hrs BROUGHT A SUN BASKED ALTHOUGH FRESH AND WET PLOT.

THIS IMAGE, AGAIN FROM 15:00 hrs, SHOWS BOTH THE GLORIOUS SUNSHINE AND THE INCREASE IN SOIL HEIGHT.

By the close of the days play on Friday at 14:20 hrs, yes all one hour and twenty minutes of it, I had managed a dig dimension of one whole foot by twenty feet length giving a further twenty square feet of freshly turned soil.

HOW TO EAT AN ELEPHANT = ONE BITE AT A TIME ~ HOW TO DIG AN ALLOTMENT = ONE FORK AT A TIME

 Although I didn't satisfy my expectations of two feet per hour I forgave the poor performance, as the soil was rather wetter and heavier than the previous digs, set my disappointment aside and look forward to a new week full of invigoration, motivation and possibly drier conditions.

I shall also put my mind to the problem of sparsity or lack of fibrous material.

The first working day on the plot.

MY PLOT BEFORE WORK COMMENCEMENT.

It has been a month since I accepted the allotment plot and as keen as I have been to get started, varying factors have affected the first official forking, until today that is.

Up before the lark and with the intention of making this Sunday my first gardening day, I packed a few basic tools: spade, fork, wellies, flask of tea and a banana for mid~morning energy, and marched the few hundred yards from home to the site, arriving a little after nine o'clock.

Larks get up quite late around here!

I was aware that the overall size of my plot was on the generous side, with the dimensions measuring up at 45 feet by 20 feet, giving a total area of 900 square feet. Metric measurement = 13.7 metres by 6.1 metres, giving a total area of 83.5 square metres. (All measurements and calculations being of the Ish)

There is room along one side for an expansion of approximately 45 feet by 5 or 6 feet, which would give an additional area of 250 square feet (Ish) only this is rather overgrown and will probably not be ready for any planting this side of 2019.

By the time I'd had a little tidy up, removing pieces of plastic and other ugly litter, the joy of digging had begun at around ten o'clock. At this stage, with so much digging to do in the very short period left for soil preparation, all of which should have been done at least a month or two ago, times are important as the need to assess how long it is going to take to dig the whole plot is crucial for a nerd.

After approximately three hours of single digging in soil that was heavily compacted and quite claggy due to the moisture content plus the fact that the plot has been left dormant for several seasons, the total length of tilled soil was 6 feet along the 45 feet long edge.

MY PLOT AFTER 3 HOURS SINGLE DIGGING

MY PLOT AFTER 3 HOURS SINGLE DIGGING

MY PLOT AFTER 3 HOURS SINGLE DIGGING

MY PLOT AFTER 3 HOURS SINGLE DIGGING

So, working the maths, that is 6 feet divided by 3 hours equals 2 feet per hour. With 39 feet of length left to dig, this should take me somewhere in the region of 20 hours to complete.

MY PLOT AFTER 3 HOURS SINGLE DIGGING

"Can you Dig It?"

"Guess I'll have to!"