25th Aug - Rumex obtusifolius

A common perennial who's leaves can be used in salads or can be prepared and cooked the same way as spinach. They contain oxalic acid with is hazardous if consumed in large quantities (quantity size unknown and I'm unwilling to experiment to find out). Dried seeds can be used as a spice and tea made from the root was thought to cure boils and it's leaves can be used to sooth stinging nettle rash. Yes you've guessed it, I'm talking about broad-leaf dock plants.

I have an abundance of these so if anyone would like me to mix up a batch of boil cure or dock leaf cannelloni please let me know but perhaps you should refer to the "Hair today" post (https://kerrypowell74.wixsite.com/allotment-tales/home/21st-aug-hair-today-gone-tomorrow-apologies-it-s-a-long-one) before letting me cook for you!

It's no wonder they grow in abundance as the roots on these fellas are huge! Saturday therefore was a day to dig out as many as possible as the fine weather window for the weekend was not great.

Thankfully the few days of rainy spells we saw this week did mean that the ground was a lot softer so I set to work with my trusty stainless steel fork and started to work my way along the the south end in front of the compost bin and working towards the west border. In next to no time I had started to make quite a pile of uprooted docks and was careful to keep these far away from my compost bin, as I definitely don't want these coming up through my lush compost next year.

In the meantime, my trusty assistant (pwahahahahaha) had joined me once more to complete his Tahiti Engineering Project #1. I say mark one because there will be many more building projects, he just doesn't know it yet. Where was I, ah yes, having visited Mole Valley that morning, we picked up some shiny new hinges and clasps, so armed with a cordless drill, hammer and spirit level (well it has to be done properly) Si fitted the doors onto the front of the giant compost bin. Job done and what a beautiful action it has!

What to do...back to the field of docks. Four hands are better than two and Team Powell had a two prong attack of digging up docks and raking over the plot to remove all the loose dead stuff. This gave the added benefit of seeing exactly how much I have to do to clear the site. I know it's possible and the soil is good because I've been taking inspiration from some of the other sites.

2 hours later, Tahiti wasn't looking quite like these but we'd had a really good craic and it actually feels like I'm starting to win. The raking and digging created a massive pile of badness to be taken straight to the recycle centre, I had a massive blister on my thumb from raking, backs were aching but look at our happy smiley faces.

As we were about to leave, we bumped into our neighbour Andy who also has a plot. He's had his for a year and was able to give me top tips and what grows well and what to avoid. Andy has done really well the potatoes, beans, carrots, strawberries and courgettes. He also said he'd fitted a hose pipe the length of all the entire site with tees inserted every now and again so that everyone can connect a hose pipe to the main line This will certainly be a massive help next year, rather than walking too and fro from the tap with watering cans in each hand.

Later that evening when we returned from the recycle centre we found this on our doorstep! Makes me have faith in humanity <3