Hard work

This is from a week ago now, when we put in a strenuous afternoon of the sort you're not meant to do. The once a week blitz that's so frowned upon by some sectors of the allotment fraternity, and was the impetus for starting this blog. Last weekend an afternoon was all we had, and we worked flat out. The children (strong, healthy teenagers) pleaded exam revision, but there's going to be no escape for them once the exams are over. So it was the aging parents' work party.

Achievements: two rows of British Queen potatoes planted, giving us five rows of tatties so far. I still have Desiree potatoes chitting, but I may not have room to fit them in. Digging over a weedy patch where the leeks had been. Removing the net from the broccoli and kale to let the bees in to the flowers. Weeding around broccoli and kale. Watering raspberries with ericaceous feed. Watering salad sowings. Pushing in onion sets that had been pulled out by birds. Clearing weeds from around the blackcurrant bushes. Picking rhubarb. And strenuous digging by DH to start to reclaim more ground.

This is the result of that digging:


It doesn't look much, but it was hard work, and it will give us another row of something.

The salads were just beginning to come through, although the corn salad wasn't showing yet. I have my doubts about it - again. Am I sowing too late when it's too warm? It certainly doesn't feel overly warm.


The ground was very dry, hence my watering. It must have worked as a rain dance, for during the week we've had a good deal of rain. A day of heavy drenching at first, and then days of showers and sun. People in my office thought I was mad to be delighted at the sight of rain.

The soil round about the blackcurrants is such a joy. It gets the brunt of the leaf fall from the sycamore trees every autumn, and all that leaf mould year after year makes for rich, crumbly soil.