Flighty's plot

bring this blog right up to today!

Despite all the rain I’ve been lucky in that the weather has been fine on all the days that I’ve been here over the past couple of weeks.

Digging and weeding still continues to occupy most of my time, with the former being just a bit heavy going in places after last Friday’s deluge.

The weeds are contributing to an ever growing heap down in the far corner, and will probably be burnt later on.

Around three quarters of the plot has now been forked over. This view is from about half-way down the western side of the plot looking towards the north-east corner. The two pallets are where I’m intending putting a very small shed (more on this next week) and rest area. You can see the roadway, and above the pallets on the other side is the water tap and tank.

The three brown sticks in the picture are last years sunflowers which I shall remove eventually!

On Sunday fellow allotmenteer Leslie, kindly gave me a marrow. I’m not that keen so today I gave it to Cally at the bookshop who does like them.

Joe, a diminutive Italian in his late 60s, also said to help myself to a marrow and lettuce. I said thanks and would later on in the week. His plots are a superb example of what can be achieved, being full of vegetables, flowers and some soft fruit. I see him most days I’m there and we always have a chat.

Week 3 can be summed up as more steady digging and weeding. I worked on the plot on Sunday and Thursday for a couple of hours each day.

I remembered to collect the remaining sunflower seeds, but appear to have lost the poppy pods that I’d done the same with!

Today I got home to find a padded envelope on the doormat.

I could see that it was from Nikkipolani, and contained a card, a pair of swish gardening gloves, various packets of seed and two pages with details and pictures all about them.

I’ll mention the seeds again once I decide on what is going where, and of course when I sow them and they start growing.

In her card she wrote Until you can plant enjoy dreaming and planning.

I will Nikki and thanks !

Monday I didn’t work as I was having the car looked at. Thankfully it was a minor problem, easily sorted and didn’t cost much.

So after lunch I spent a couple of hours digging and weeding, stopping once, for five minutes, to shelter from a fairly hefty shower.

I went home when the skies became very leaden for a well deserved cup of tea and a biscuit or three. It turned out to be a wise move as it later rained cats and dogs !

Thursday it was more of the same workwise. I stopped to eat an apple whilst watching white butterflies flitting around and bumble bees on the white clover.

You can tell that I’m not used to doing this kind of work as I got a blister on my left thumb, despite wearing gloves and taking it very easy!

One of the really nice things about allotmenteering is chatting with fellow plot holders. Everyone says hello, some chat for longer and there are absolutely no pretensions which I find so refreshing.

So another week when I’ve made good, steady progress as you can see 

Standing at a corner of Plot 124 after lunch one day early last week looking at a somewhat overgrown allotment I wondered what it would look like in a years time.

I walked round it noting not only the weeds but poppies, three sunflowers from last year now brown and over at an angle of 45 degrees, a few marigolds and some onions that had gone to seed

I worked for a couple of hours, at a very leisurely pace, stopping to chat with people or to look at the occasional aircraft landing at RAF Northolt.

I went again later in the week, again working for a couple of hours.

Yesterday rather than doing some ironing and vacuuming I went again, just to potter around for a while looking at other plots and thinking what I’d like to do with mine.

I feel that Week 1 got off to a good start. I was lucky with the weather being pleasantly warm, if somewhat breezy, and no rain!

I joined the Newton Park Horticultural Society (established 1939) and became 2007 member number 247 for the grand sum of £2-.

They have a proper building on the allotment site over the road to mine which is open for trading on Sunday mornings for a couple of hours.

I found that I know the membership secretary, Brian, who lives across the road to me and is usually to be seen chomping on a fair sized cigar!

He signed me up, took my money and showed me round. I chatted with a few folk and bought some much needed gloves.

I was talking with someone about garden tools, which they don’t sell, and mentioned that I didn’t have a fork or spade. One of the other guys overheard this and said to stay put for a few minutes then wandered off. He returned with a fork in his hand and insisted that I could borrow it for as long as I needed it. What a nice gesture!

Equally so is that Cally, one of my bookshop colleagues, has said that I can have her spade as she never uses it.

I have a hoe and a rake, but will treat myself to both a good quality hand fork and trowel.

On the way home I detoured to have a look at my plot ( click on Plot 124 at top of the page) but it was wet and windy so making a start would have to wait for another day.

I received the promised paperwork from the council showing plots that are available, and which I went to look at on Thursday.

None had been worked for years and were very overgrown. After chatting with a couple of the guys working their own plots I decided on which I liked best and thought that I’d go back on Sunday for another look.

When I got home Friday lunch-time there was an email waiting for me saying that there was a half-plot available on the other site, which is on my side of the road and even closer to home being less than five minutes walk.

I’d only got through the gate, re-locked it and walked a few yards when I met and started chatting with John, a longtime allotmenteer.

It’s much better with the available plot being next to the site road, close to a water tap, and, although it looks like a jungle, was worked until last year.

When I got home I immediately emailed the council saying yes please Plot 124 will do me nicely,  and sent off my application form. Today I got an email saying that an agreement in in the post.

to get itchy green fingers now!

A guy from the council’s allotment department phoned me on Friday and said that he would send me details, including a map, of plots that are available on a site that is just a few minutes walk away.

I’ve been reading some allotment blogs including Angelfeet’s Bless the Weather one and looking at all sorts of related webpages.

I shall also treat myself to a copy of Allotment Gardening by Susan Berger which has been recommended to me as a good book to help get me started.

I’m not making any promises but I hope to be able to do a regular entry, with photos, every week charting my progress.

Happy digging!

will be all about the allotment that I’m in the throes of acquiring, hopefully in the not too distant future.

Mind you looking out of the window here in London this grey, wet morning I could be excused for having second thoughts!

I have a lifelong love of gardening but do not have a garden. Owning and working this plot will therefore be a new, but welcome, pleasure for me.