Michaelmas marked the traditional start of the agricultural year, as of the academic year, and Monday 29th September, the feast of Michael and All Angels, was our last day on the allotments. Much as we have been doing at home prior to our move, we spent the day tidying up and disposing of things. We took surplus pieces of wood to the tip to be recycled and harvested the last of our parsnips, Bramley apples, some Jerusalem Artichokes and flat leaved parsley from the big greenhouse. Then that was it, we locked the gate and drove away.
Today, we took the gate and hut keys back to the designated office and handed them over in person to a pleasant and helpful council officer. Once more we drove away. Now I am coming to terms with the fact that our tenure of the allotments has ended. I comfort myself by looking at what we have harvested - the Bramleys have been magnificent this year - and what we have saved - the parsnip and squash seeds stored in paper bags, the pot of oregano that is coming north with us, the Michaelmas Daisy clump that my husband dug up yesterday which originally came from our senior customer G. These few significant things will carry us forward.
Meanwhile, waiting to be packed are all the books that I found in charity shops during our time here. I thought that I was buying them for reference for our customers. I think that that may be true, but that I was also buying them for myself - books about borders, container gardening, small gardens, kitchen gardens. These are ready and waiting to be used when we finally arrive in the north west and begin to plan our sowing and growing in yet another avenue.
Tuesday 30 September 2014
Friday 12 September 2014
Unwinding
I seem to have spent a fair amount of time this week unwinding tendrils of vegetation.
On Monday, it was wisteria. A friend called us in to tackle this. I am not entirely certain that it was the appropriate time of year, nevertheless we did as requested, cutting back and untangling wisteria at the front of the house where it was twining up a cable, and at the back where it had extended itself among the branches of her cherry tree. With several provisos we chopped and confined the wisteria to her ornamental arch.
Later this week it was off to the allotment to take up our runner beans. This was a much easier job. Although runner beans are perennials in their country of origin, in Britain they begin to die off as soon as the temperature drops in autumn so it was time to pull them out and untwine them from the canes that my husband had erected. The beans came out easily and the canes went back into store for whoever takes on the plot after us.
Thursday saw me wresting with various ornamental creepers that were taking over the bushes in another border.
For me, the most fulfilling experience of the three was the allotment. Many customers call us in when their ivy or ornamental climbers have grown, unchecked, all over fence, trellis and tree. This is our work, it pays the bills. But I have enjoyed taking up what I have harvested, tidying it away for a new season.
On Monday, it was wisteria. A friend called us in to tackle this. I am not entirely certain that it was the appropriate time of year, nevertheless we did as requested, cutting back and untangling wisteria at the front of the house where it was twining up a cable, and at the back where it had extended itself among the branches of her cherry tree. With several provisos we chopped and confined the wisteria to her ornamental arch.
Later this week it was off to the allotment to take up our runner beans. This was a much easier job. Although runner beans are perennials in their country of origin, in Britain they begin to die off as soon as the temperature drops in autumn so it was time to pull them out and untwine them from the canes that my husband had erected. The beans came out easily and the canes went back into store for whoever takes on the plot after us.
Thursday saw me wresting with various ornamental creepers that were taking over the bushes in another border.
For me, the most fulfilling experience of the three was the allotment. Many customers call us in when their ivy or ornamental climbers have grown, unchecked, all over fence, trellis and tree. This is our work, it pays the bills. But I have enjoyed taking up what I have harvested, tidying it away for a new season.
Tuesday 2 September 2014
On doing cultivation and construction together
The best feature of our gardening life with M is that we do the tasks we enjoy the most. For example, today we visited M's plot to help her move a tree which was intruding into what has become her temporary structure, which she treats as a greenhouse, coffee lounge and chilling-out space. Note that when I say we, I usually mean my husband.
I do not dig up trees, as readers may recollect.
This morning he was able to transplant an inherited apricot taking it a few feet down the slope to her orchard area. Fortunately it was a fairly young tree and not too much damage seems to have been done. Then my husband and M got down to the enjoyable (for some) activity of positioning two enormous panes of thick glass within the gap which had now opened up in the ramshackle wooden frame of the structure.
I left them to it. I weeded around M's greenhouse base where she has sown spinach for over-wintering, around her cherry tree and along the line of her top plot boundary and then took a spade and fork to some extremely deep rooted weeds. I also sifted out as many white bindweed roots as I could find. I weeded around the concrete tank which now houses M's rhubarb (large and flourishing) and finished off by clearing a spot for cultivation and covering it with a weed suppressant plastic tarpaulin. M has indicated that she may want to sow broad beans in November or potatoes later in 2015.
We stopped and relished the warmth of the noonday sun, sitting on old green chairs under the corrugated plastic roof of the structure. I ate (probaby too many) apples straight from M's trees to prevent my blood sugar from dropping too rapidly. This is an almost unavoidable consequence of diabetes, strenuous exercise and allotments but when I tested at lunch all was reasonable. Then it was off to do a paid gardening job in the afternoon.
What a perfect blend of activity.
I do not dig up trees, as readers may recollect.
This morning he was able to transplant an inherited apricot taking it a few feet down the slope to her orchard area. Fortunately it was a fairly young tree and not too much damage seems to have been done. Then my husband and M got down to the enjoyable (for some) activity of positioning two enormous panes of thick glass within the gap which had now opened up in the ramshackle wooden frame of the structure.
I left them to it. I weeded around M's greenhouse base where she has sown spinach for over-wintering, around her cherry tree and along the line of her top plot boundary and then took a spade and fork to some extremely deep rooted weeds. I also sifted out as many white bindweed roots as I could find. I weeded around the concrete tank which now houses M's rhubarb (large and flourishing) and finished off by clearing a spot for cultivation and covering it with a weed suppressant plastic tarpaulin. M has indicated that she may want to sow broad beans in November or potatoes later in 2015.
We stopped and relished the warmth of the noonday sun, sitting on old green chairs under the corrugated plastic roof of the structure. I ate (probaby too many) apples straight from M's trees to prevent my blood sugar from dropping too rapidly. This is an almost unavoidable consequence of diabetes, strenuous exercise and allotments but when I tested at lunch all was reasonable. Then it was off to do a paid gardening job in the afternoon.
What a perfect blend of activity.
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