Seeing as its been in the news a lot lately I decided to think about how I could go green and do my bit for the world. There are lots of easy ways to do this but no I picked one of the hard ones first! I went and got myself an overgrown and shambolic allotment plot…I should fess up at this point and tell you that it wasn't something I thought about in my wage against the climate change war, it just sort of happened and I can happily adapt it to my action plan.
On a sunny June afternoon this year I traipsed over to my local allotment and decided to take over the only plot that was completely overgrown with bramble bushes, whilst eating the lovely fresh plump blackberries from amongst the thorns. A few weeks later, once the paperwork was complete, armed with a sickle and a shiny silver key for the allotment gate, I started my epic journey across the road. Over that weekend, alongside a few helpers I hacked into the bushes and they in turn took their revenge by ripping huge lumps out of our arms and legs at every opportunity. Next came the roots which seemed never ending and even now (five months later) we are still pulling up and digging out the budding roots that have taken hold of the dark peat.
Once we had the first, slightly raised border, made out of planks of wood I took to an experimental sowing expedition. I felt that the seed packet instructions had it all wrong and rather than sowing individual beetroot seeds and spacing the carrots out with military precision, I just randomly scattered the seeds without a second thought. Proudly I would tend to them and pull out the weeds around as they grew, although I had a slight accident one day and pulled out a whole row of spring onions because I thought the tender blades of green where actually grass. I also found that I had vegetables fighting for room and growing on top of each other. I even managed to grow two lettuces at the end of an uneven row of beetroot (even though there was a row of spinach in between them). I learnt that I hate baby spinach on its own, oh yes and also that you have to wash the vegetables vigorously as otherwise you will find little insects battling for air and climbing up the side of your steamer (its very off putting when you actually come to eat the vegetables)!
Now onto my second rather good 'going green' result…all the best gardeners know that you need a compost heap if you soil is ever going to make it through. I am now the proud owner of three rather smelly and often steaming heaps of pony poo, grass, rotting vegetables and whatever else we find to sling in. Turning the mass regularly has resulted in us being able to already smother some of the beds (current total being six) with this luscious mixture. My soil should love me now but alas the cold weather and a stream next to my plot has left the earth a bit bog like rather than a soft pliable chocolate dream.
This is still work in progress and we are preparing for next year (the garlic, broad beans, runner beans and onions are already in) but nothing beats eating your own vegetables and I hope to continue this going forward.