MONDAY 29th WAS A DAY OFF!
Tuesday 30th January was an absolute corker if you like cold and frosty mornings as I do. Obviously, wrapping up in suitable attire is a necessity for total enjoyment of the perishing, crisp temperature, which was a nipple numbing minus three degrees celsius when I arrived on the plot at around 08:00hrs.
Not having spent the night sleeping rough, like so many people do in this town, is also a bonus. Being #homeless in this day and age is an unforgivable for which our local MP, who does less than zero to address the issue, and the government on the whole, really should hang their heads, both in shame and on the chopping block ready for a lesson in consideration and respect. My thoughts are never far from rough sleepers and the homeless and particularly at this time of year and in these difficult conditions.
I digressed... No apology forthcoming!
We are very fortunate in Britain to have such a diversity of climate. I have been hoping for a hard frost to help to break down, or up, my clayey soil into something that isn't just a solid lump and my desire was granted by Mother Nature in such a beautiful way.
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| ARRIVING ON SITE, WITH A BROADER VIEW OF THE ALLOTMENT GARDENS ON A FROSTY TUESDAY MORNING IN JANUARY. |
CLOSING IN ON MY PLOT, EXCITED AT THE FIRST HARD FROST OF MY TENANCY AND OF THE YEAR.
Below is a short video of the glory of the crisp morning on the allotment.
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| MY CRISP LEAF LITTER GLISTENING IN THE GLORY OF THE MORNING GLOW, GREETING ME, SMILING, WITH A "Brrrrrr... HELLO!" |
The plan for today was to continue on from Sunday and finish collecting the remaining leaf litter from the latest 'Leaf Litter Central' which is a few hundred yards up the road on a small piece of common ground at the junction of Stoke Road and Chestnut Drive.
Armed with wheelbarrow, rake, fork, 'leaf boards' and a couple of large bags, plus a camera, I trundled off to the site, arriving at around 08:25hrs.
The image on the right is a reminder of how the leaf litter site was left on Sunday gone.
By 11:20hrs, well beyond the anticipated finish time due to
chatting with a few passers~by, mainly on topics such as town and county
council and government mismanagement and failings including council tax
irregularities and the dubious merger of Taunton Deane and West
Somerset District Councils, Common Law and its' supersedence by
corporate, capitalistic laws and extortionate and increasing taxations,
austerity for the poor, including the abuse of the elderly and less
abled, and continued prosperity for the well orf including the
privatisation of deliberately 'run down' national public services by a
very select membership, ye goode olde days of resource appreciation,
make~do~and~mend, like it or lump it, love thy neighbour, communicising and the conspiracy
to subjegate and alienate individuals from their neighbours including
the loss of basic traditional social interaction due to the closing of
community meeting places such as libraries, village post offices, community and youth centres and
increasing taxes on the brewery and public house industries to name just a few, combined with technological distractions including time and mind
draining television and computerised entertainment and 'exercise' and
the conspiracy to undermine natural and organic foodstuffs by companies
such as #Monsanto and #Bayer, among other issues, ....
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| WORKING ON COMMON GROUND CAN ATTRACT ATTENTION SO SITES ARE LEFT CLEAN AND TIDY FOR NO NEGATIVE FEEDBACK |
...the site was cleared and I trundled back to the allotment to release my treasure unto the Earth.
Below is the full video of the days leaf litter toil.
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| MY GROWING COLLECTION OF SHITTY BROWN GOLD AWAITS BEING CALLED INTO ACTION IN 'OPERATION SOIL UNCLAG' |
As fully demonstrated in the above video of the days leaf litter toil and pictured below, the leaves, which in the main are tightly bound together due to wetness and compaction, are raked to separate, aerate and make easier to evenly distribute over the heavy ground before being dug in.
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| RAKING THE DAMP, COMPACTED LEAF LITTER SEPARATES AND AERATES THE LEAVES FOR EASIER DISTRIBUTION |
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| LEAVES ARE DISTRIBUTED OVER THE SOIL SURFACE AND INCORPORATED DURING THE TRENCH DIGGING PROCESS |
At the end of a satisfying seven hours allotmenteering and to summarise the day, it must be said that gardening is great. What can be better than working in the great outdoors surrounded by Mother Nature and playing Father Nurture, meeting people from the community, strangers in the norm who we only know under the everyday circumstances of merely passing in the street on our personal journeys, with perhaps a brief glance, an acknowledging smile or a reciprocated "Hello" who then become social and sociable friends, interacting and sharing ideas and experiences, the older generations with their upbringings of resilience and respect, the younger with their wants for the future and their need for wisdom and guidance from 'Ye Goode Olde Days', and all because of shitty brown gold.
THURSDAY 1st FEBRUARY 2018 ~ Pinch, Punch, First Of The Month.
I arrived on site at approximately 09:17 with more digging to do. Need it be said?
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| THE PLOT ON THE DAMP, OVERCAST MARNIN' OF 1st FEBRUARY 2018 |
FREE RHUBARB (RHEUM RHABARBARUM) ARRIVES
Having never, to my degenerating memory, bought rhubarb, or even cooked it myself, although it must be said that I do love the dessert vegetable when baked in a pie, crumble or stewed, with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or lake of custard, obviously prepared by someone else, I was pleased and grateful to accept the gift of a large crown, an exchange for merely digging a wee hole for a fellow allotmenteer. I'm both undecided as to where to plant it and how to care for it so for the time being it remains in the queue for attention. I have, however, been informed that the first years growth will not be edible so it may be wise to concentrate on the immediate and more pressing job of digging, in preparation for the rapidly approaching sowing and planting season. |
| GIFTED RHUBARB CROWN AWAITING A PERMANENT HOME |
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The main job for today was the clearing of an overgrown grassy mound of garden waste that was impeding what should have been the surrounding path and boundary of the plot and that had, over a number of years, developed into a valuable supply of compost. It is visible at a back corner of my plot against the railings, central in the photograph below which was taken on 16th January 2018.  |
| GRASSY MOUND OF VALUABLE, YEARS OLD COMPOST, AWAITING RELOCATION. |
With my allotment garden running parallel to and only ten feet from the ambling stream known as Blackbrook, which flows behind the railings, I was forewarned even before agreeing to the tenancy that planting potatoes near this edge would be a gamble due to the presence of rats which tend to burrow in from the river bank and destroy crops from beneath. I do intend to address this inconvenience and quite frankly 'liberty taking', by trialing rat discouraging plants, grown along the boundary and among crops, such as lavender, peppermint, spearmint, daffodils, marigolds, garlic, sage, grape hyacinths, tomatoes, the list is long and bodes well for the idea of cruelty free pest control. This procedure also ties in very nicely with the practice of companion planting, something which I am keen to trial and share in the future. It may not take much imagination to surmise that this rambling narrative is leading to the discovery of rats on my land. Whilst I don't blame a rat for being born a rat and have no desire to harm them, I'm sure there's a better location for them and am keen to motivate them to move to pastures newer, greener and possibly with a better, more varied supply of food, perhaps a messy persons back yard, a restaurant bin store or a fly tipping site.
Having unearthed a nest and managing to see off a couple of the little rodents I fortunately captured one, very briefly, on camera. I emphasize the word briefly. See short video footage below.
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| PLOT BEFORE GRASSY MOUND REMOVAL FROM TOP LEFT HAND CORNER |
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| PLOT AFTER GRASSY MOUND REMOVAL FROM TOP LEFT HAND CORNER WITH RHUBARB CROWN IN THE FOREGROUND |
The compost collected from 'Operation Rat Mound Removal' was sieved and is stored in a one ton 'builders dumpy bag', which is beneath the tarp and green barrow in the above image, ready to be used for planting seed drills where the lumpy soil will make it impossible to maintain an even and acceptable distribution of seeds, for someone with an OCD character, and for planting out pot raised plants to give them something nice and penetrable in which to develop. This compost will also be dug in over time and hopefully improve the soil structure.
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| RAT MOUND REMOVED, AREA LEVELED AND SQUARED OFF UP TO THE RAILINGS. HAPPY DAYS |
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| ANOTHER VIEW OF RAT MOUND REMOVED AND LEVELED, THIS TIME FROM EXCESSIVELY DAMP SATURDAY 3rd FEBRUARY |
HUMANELY DEALING WITH RATS
The idea pictured below really does work and is particularly useful in the house and for people who don't like the sight of blood or dismemberment from snap~traps, or just don't like killing things.
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| FREE HUMANE MOUSE AND RAT TRAP |
I used this method once in a dishwasher (Not mine. I'm old school hand wash only) and managed to catch two mice, they had made their way inside somehow and managed to survive several wash cycles, by tempting them with bird seed placed in the bottom of a tall, wide necked, jar balanced almost upright at an angle. Needless to say, although it must be said, they were whisked far away and released into the wilds of the countryside, away from the pest known as mankind.
Just one picture from the visit on Saturday, which was a brief affair to check that the rats hadn't moved back in or vandalised the plot in revenge. Digging the heavy ground for hours on end does require a certain element of pacing oneself and a technique that offers some protection from backache, something I'm still trying to master and that I forget to or neglect to do due to the colossal amount of ground still left to till and my eagerness to get it done.
SATURDAY 3rd FEBRUARY 2018
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| A RATS EYE VIEW OF A WELL LEAFED SINGLE DIG TRENCH WITH MY SIGNATURE DOG LEG |
SUNDAY 4th FEBRUARY 2018
Sundays should be a milestone for my records. The end of the week for reporting on the achievements of that week. The day when I weigh up my harvests and list my completed chores.
There is only so much one can say about perpetual digging without perpetual repetition.
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| SUNDAY NOON AND THE PLOT IS BASKING IN SUNSHINE. I KNOW IT LOOKS THE SAME AS BEFORE ONLY BRIGHTER! |
Come 4 o'clock the day was done for me. This could be a case of spot the difference for the unknowing or the sarcastic, although I hadn't stopped toiling as my back let me know. Minor changes that need an eagle eye to see can dampen the day sometimes, or leave one wondering,
"was I actually here?"
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| SUNDAY 16:00hours AND THE PLOT IS BASKING IN CLOUDSHINE. I KNOW IT LOOKS THE SAME AS BEFORE ONLY DIMMER! |
What I did achieve was what is commonly known in stonemasonry terms as cutting the corner in. (see image below) I am nearing the far edge of the plot with my,.... digging, and to reach the far boundary 'finish line' WILL be a milestone. We would all benefit from setting little goals along the way of long journeys. I have a planting schedule that works from this end towards the front of the plot so next week I intend on reaching that first goal, backache or not.
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| CORNER 'CUT IN' IN READINESS FOR A MAJOR SPRINT TO THE FINISH LINE NEXT WEEK |
I also have the idea of producing a contender for 'The Most Boring and Unwatchable All The Way Through At Normal Speed YouTube Video of 2018 Award' Wish me luck.
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Well that's Sunday and this week over. To summarise, I can't knock it. It's been quite tough going only I keep at it because gardening is great and I'm sure that the rewards will be well worth the effort. Personally I love grafting and grafters so I'm really in my element here. Some might say overdosing. To say I'd do it all again is true as I have to do more #DIGGING. I've met some great, like minded people and had some interesting chats. The socialising aspect has been an added, although not totally unexpected, bonus.
I'll finish this post with an image from Tuesday 30th January. It isn't the best quality shot, which is why I was going to leave it out, only the subject matter isn't digging so it at least gets a +1 for that, plus it shows one of those things that makes being in the great outdoors, being surrounded by nature and loving and appreciating life and creation a pleasure and a privilege. Catch you swoon.
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| GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER HUNTING IN THE OLD OAK TREE NEXT TO THE ALLOTMENT |
#ViVA and NAMASTE
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