Day 3 - A Battlefield

17th October 2020

Enthusiastically (if not a little wearily) we returned the following week to what resembled the Somme battleground, to once again toil the soil. You can now see much more clearly what the actual allotment size and scope is, as the boundary has begun to take shape.

It's surprising what you dig up on a plot that hasn't been worked hard for a few years!

We could have built a small conservatory with the bricks uncovered!

But they were piled up (as many treasures were) for a future use, yet to be discovered.

It looked like a pointless exercise - this taking pictures of wet soil, trenches, puddles and not much else - but Chris was adamant that at some point in the future the “Allotment” transformation story would be told, so we persevered and took pictures (mainly Chris did, claiming his camera was better, yeah right!)

And now look what is happening: The story is being told!

This has been a consistent theme throughout this adventure:

conceive an idea,

imagine some of it,

work on it,

improve on the original concept,

and then, as they say in Star Trek, “make it so!” …

At this point in the whole evolution of this bit of land, the plan was:

dig here,

then dig somewhere else,

then dig more.

What else could there be?

What we did know was that if we had any chance of growing anything next year then we had to dig it all over so the frost and winter could get at the roots and break down the soil… plus, as we were digging in the foliage, we were giving the worms something to work on whilst we were celebrating Christmas and the New Year (alone of course, Christmas cancelled due to Covid, not!)

Then in the spring we dig again, sort out all the tenacious weeds (and burn them), hopefully get some manure and dig that in at the same time. But for now - dig and then, dig more!

The plan wasn’t sexy, it was tough work… But then, starting an allotment usually begins that way (or so we were told), unless you choose No-Dig. We decided not to go that route. We had no idea where the manure would come from, but we imagined it would turn up when it was needed.

Onwards and upwards!

The following week we were back...

Day 2 - First Blood

October 10th 2020

Armed with stainless steel spades and forks we made our way to the Allotment. Wet, cool and plenty to dig. The first picture was at 2:39pm and the final two at 4:09pm.

So what was the thinking behind the activity thus far?

The instructions from the council for new occupants were to make a start and have done something that shows signs of activity on 30-40% of the plot within a 3-month period. So we were up against it with Christmas and winter weather on its way!

Well, Chris, in his infinite wisdom :), decided that digging a trench around the entire plot was a good starting point, so at least we knew what we were dealing with.

Made sense.

Work was also started in two other areas, where it looked like signs of cultivation had been going on and might be lighter work whilst we got ourselves mentally and physically prepared…

Well we slept well that night…

We discovered muscles that we had forgotten we had, but were now reminded…

And Desi used her Essential Oils to great effect helping to restore torn muscles back to health, ready for the next session - that was to be a full week later on!

Having begun, we developed a sophisticated schedule and plan of action which consisted of coming along weekly and digging. We decided on digging the easiest bits first, getting the 'Moat' established around the plot and then… see what happens next!

Day 1 - In The Beginning...

25th September 2020. 

Deep in the throes of “Pandemics”, “Lockdowns” and “Restrictions” we took tenancy of the “Haven”, although to be honest that name was to come much later. Right now it looked like a muddy desolate field full of tough grass and brambles - and very much not any kind of “Haven”. 

However, right there in front of us, was what we asked for: an opportunity to grow our own food, get active, get outside and be creative. A chance to build something together, grow a relationship, maybe build a different kind of community by meeting people, experience something different and new and adventure into the unknown.

The Allotment itself a piece of land some 11m x 10m. In the picture this is represented by the boundary of the road (where the picture was taken from), down to (but not including) the greenhouse, and across about 2m to the right of that Rosemary bush and then back to the road, left of the weed patch ¾ up the picture top right.

It was to be at least two weeks later before we visited again as we acquired the necessary basic tools to start the “long dig” into winter...

More in the next blog.