It's been a few weeks since I updated this blog; but only because for quite a while nothing much happened. Lots of green things were poking their way through the cloddy earth, but being such an absolute novice, I had no idea if they were what I planted or what was already in the earth and are termed 'weeds'. So I had to wait to see what came up.
And then 'whooooosh'.. the spinach and the potatoes particularly did their thing in a very fecund way:
We've now planted out most of the space on the allotment, with about 1/8th left for some later planting of broccoli etc.
So we now have: Potatoes (2 lots), onions (2 lots), some very feeble broccoli and courgettes, green beans that seem to be in stasis, lettuce under a polytunnel, I lonely beetroot, carrots, spinach, I fledgling raspberry bush, sweetcorn, peas, and one possibly-majestic-looking sunflower!
So, now I know that whilst my fingers may not be green, they're not totally imbued with uselessness when it comes to creating the conditions for things to grow i.e. stick a seed in the ground that's been cleared of weeds, water it. That seems to be basically it!
Harvested the first handful of spinach tonight - it looks a lot larger, and tougher, than the supermarket stuff - we'll see what it tastes like tonight.
What has amazed me is how little (so far!) work the lottie has taken. There was initial digging over, but it's only really been a few hours a week. And still we'll go up there, do a bit of weeding and a bit of watering and a bit of planting out, and then stand around sort of at a loss for what else we can do. Gaze into the distance for a bit, enjoy the view, have a chat to other lottie-ers and then wend home because... well... there's nothing else to do.
I've also managed to cut down the time it takes me to walk to there, from about 1/2 hour to 20 minutes; if I keep finding shorter cuts, I'll be getting there before I've set out!
It's a pleasant walk, past a much-closer-to-home allotment site (3-4 year waiting list!), through a housing estate, down a couple of country lanes, past the Scientology centre that never seems to have anyone around (although a man standing by the gate and who said 'evening' last night was the first person that I've ever seen in and around the very large house and other assorted out-buildings), past a meandering stream, across a field and there the lottie site is!
So, I get to enjoy a late evening stroll and very soon, hope to be walking back with a basket full of fresh produce to put on the dinner table.....
More, later.
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