Christmas day

Merry Christmas and a great growing new year to one and all

Pre Christmas dig

Its nice to have a break from the Christmas madness. I squeezed a visit to the allotment into the mayhem of today between clearing out the old toys and taking Owen to a birthday party. Our tree still isn't up and there is a lot of other sorting etc to be done, but hey I have dug a little bit more of the patch. It was an hour of peace and quiet. It was warm and almost spring like today which is strange after the last few weeks cold snap.

When I will get to go again I'm not sure,dependant on the weather,work and the festivities it might even be next year (although escaping for a quiet hour on Christmas day when the niggley squabbling of the boys breaks out will be very tempting).

I looked today and thought so much to do. I might need to make another one of my not likely to be completed lists just to cope with my flitting around the plot. I realise from watching Alys on Friday's GW that there are better ways to plant garlic than what I have done luckily I've got another bulb so I might do her ridge method to give better drainage. Then we will see which does better a la jedi or a la alys.

I've covered part of the area planned for next years potatoes with a mulch of newspaper, cardboard and landscaping fabric just to help with the digging in the new year. Dug the little square salad bed and part of what I suppose is our main bed. I was just about to cut down the dead nettles when it was time to go, I really noticed that here is lots of tidying up to do our neighbours seem to be cracking on with tidying. On one of our adjoining plots the shed has gone so I think that the old man who hadn't really worked the plot last year expect with intermittent help from his family has given up, its that time of year when there is likely to be change as the notice is up to pay the rent.


Our site has been threatened by the plans to put an underpass for the train line and It is thought that we might lose a few plots where the lane and gates are. There has also been mention of asbestos in the land near the train track in the local paper, a little worryingly they are surveying the lane for evidence of this before they commence any building work. I think the people in the local houses must be concerned if they do disturb something. I'm a little anxious as asbestos and allotment health don't really go together. I might have to talk to some of the plot holders to find out what is going on.

Jedi Garlic

For the last couple of weeks allotment care has amounted to passing it once on the train (the day my car broke down). As I glanced from the window down to the patch things looked pretty much in the same sorry state as when I last visited in person. My sense of guilt at not having done more to the patch by now could possibly be felt in the whole carriage. My sense of wanting to be there rather than on the train was overwhelming.

Weekend weather and family activities mean a rapid allotment visit has to be slotted in where we can.Today was cold but sunny so after the visit to the town's Christmas carnival we arrived at the allotment about 1:30pm. The ground was still frozen in most places on the patch. Up until now I hadn't considered how little sun our end of the site gets at this time of year. As the sun is low we are thrown into the shade from a few trees and the nearby houses.

So frozen ground makes me think should I really be putting garlic out, oh why didn't I get it done weeks ago, but one thing I know it won't grow on my window sill. Owen helped me plant out the cloves once we ad hacked at the frozen ground. For some reason (well star wars is the sort of thing little boys think about far too much) Owen said its "jedi garlic". I certainly think it needs to be jedi garlic if it is going to survive what we have asked of it.

We did pull some lovely leeks as well which are now part of a tasty soup, yum.