8-9th Sept - Another Weekend Another Weed

A whole, free weekend ahead of me so what better way than to start with breakfast on my allotment. Armed with coffee and two bacon and egg rolls, I headed to Tahiti and the most peaceful and tranquil breakfast I've had for a while. Although Whimple, in general, is a very quiet village, the allotments at Heberton Close envelope you in a surreal silence, broken only be the cry of a squirrel in a nearby tree and the gentle chirping of my plot's tame robin whom I regularly feed with slugs.

Eventually I managed to pull myself out of my trance and measure up a metre wide section to be dug over that day...well you have to set yourself a challenge.

Actually, for once the weeds were letting go of the soil quite helpfully and you get an eye in fairly quickly to know the best way to attack it. Docks run deep and don't want to let go and take a whole lot of close up vertical digging. Grass forms a matted mess underneath the surface which makes it quite tough to get a fork through but you can lever in sideways. Oh dear, what have I become!

Then there are these resilient little weeds. These have a mass of tough roots which work their way through the even tougher clay soil, quite incredible really.

After a while I was finding that I was beginning to feel slightly freaked out by them. I felt they were multiplying and ganging up on me. Maybe it's because they reminded me of spiders, or their incredibly white roots felt like death even though they were providing the plant with life. Maybe it was because I'd got up way to early and had drunk far too much caffeine before 9am and I was becoming hyper. Then it struck me. The Matrix. Yes, these little plants were in fact Sentinels sent to destroy my plot!!!

See for yourself and to prove the point I decided to re-enact a scene from The Matrix where Sentinels start attacking the Nebuchadnezzar, I'm sure you can see the similarities. It was during this re-enactment that Dean wandered over to see how I was getting on. I think I got away with it, unless he reads this blog!

Losing the plot somewhat, I got back to digging. Felicity, who has the plot opposite arrived to do some maintenance and to plant raspberry bushes. I love chatting to other plot holders and finding out how long they've had their turf and finding out what grows well. Courgettes grow well so we did a swap of her courgettes for my tomatoes that I've been growing in my garden.

Sunday was a repeat or Saturday. Early wake up and breakfast onsite before measuring out the next section to dig over. It definitely helps the soul to cordon off sizeable and achievable sections.

It was great to see lots of neighbouring allotment holders on Sunday. Several families bring their children, explaining to me that it's a fantastic way for kids to learn where food comes from. Who knows, in the future we may be needing to grow a lot more of our own. I know I'm biased but it definitely feels like allotments are back in fashion. More and more people want to know exactly where there food has come from, cut down its travel miles, eat organic and be a bit more self-sufficient. There is a shift coming and allotments are bang on trend. It won't surprise you to know that before I had a plot I'd already put together a list of fruit and veg I wanted to grow. There's no point growing stuff you don't eat but lots of point growing stuff that's expensive in the supermarkets.

I think working the day before was catching up on me so I called it a day by 1.30pm. I took my blistered hands home for a bit of RnR. I think it will be a day or two before the blisters repair...I can't wait to get callused hands!