The allotment is a foreign place to me now even though it is but a moments drive away. Andrew is soldiering on but even he is feeling downhearted about the place, for example last night he had things to do but instead spent an hour mowing paths that the council neglect to do; what a waste of his time.
We've had some serious talks about giving up; about only keeping 24a and stopping 14b; of whether we would care if it all burned down one day.... and the answers, well, we would care. We don't need to put so much mental and psychical effort in but we are keeping it and are going to start reigning back the time and efforts spent therein.
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| 24a - looking good if you ask me ( I can't show you the disappointing bits, too upsetting) |
So much time, energy (psychical and mental), money and love has been poured into those little slices of 'Eden' and so little has been received in turn. Plus now the plots are truly in their worst states in the A field at least, many friends have left, there is absolutely no community atmosphere and the barren ground, diseases and weeds are really taking their toll.
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| Recent produce (plus potatoes) and the garlic lifted |
'Be the change you wish to see in the world', has long been a motto of mine, but let me tell you, there is only so much an already mentally ill girl can take and I am saturated.
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So - this blog shall continue to log our allotment efforts and gains but now I shall be talking about Ecotherapy as a whole in my life and not limiting it to Allotmentherapy alone. I/We have 'refound' camping and hiking and life is looking like one of adventure and exploration as only last week showed in glorious (almost blinding) technicolor.We camped out in a tent for the first time in years last week and I journalled, talked to strangers and took photographs (ones to prove I was camping, hahaa, AND fine art ones), a part of me coming back to life! It was scary, it was noisy but Andrew and Maggie were there and all was well.
Then we also hiked for 8 miles on Friday with amazing friends. Up in the Mourne Mountains, I still can't believe I did it but we have photos to prove it! With my double vision, it was more of challenge than one would imagine, plus I fainted about a quarter of the way in, but my stubbornness pushed me forward and, what?, I walked from the Trassey Trail to Bloody Bridge (Walk 16 in the book The Mournes Walks).
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| Lunch time :) |
Anyway, my love to you all as always,
We shall still 'Grow Our Own' but now we shall also be just generally 'Growing'
Your
Carrie
When we started to use weed control fabric it cut down our workload considerably.
ReplyDeleteYes, on the paths the weed membrane is a blessing but seriously I can't underestimate how bad the blown in weeds are all around us. :(
DeleteI can understand the weed problem as when we first took our plot we were surrounded by a sea of head eye weeds for years. It was the reason thar we started gardening more plots as we had to strip back the weeds thar fell over onto our plot anyway.
DeleteYour garden looks marvelous. Glad to see you out and about.
ReplyDeleteIs pine straw mulch available at your garden centers? Buy twice what you think you need. A thick pine straw mulch will keep down weeds and encourage your plants. It starts out a rich brown and weathers to grey. You never have to take it up, just add more on top when it looks thin.
we don't see pine straw mulch here but we do mulch heavily with bark mulch and yep, it helps a lot but never enough.
DeleteIt's a shame that your plots are a burden and not giving much pleasure at present.
ReplyDeleteWell done with the hiking. Flighty xx
You know what Mike, we both (yes me too!) went yesterday and working together we got quite a bit done. With me on weeding duty and picking delicious berries, Andrew was able to get pruning done and things that had been driving him mad. We need to just think on all this.... Thanks for the well done, I couldn't believe it but I like hiking! eek.
DeleteHow frustrating at the allotments, and yet, sounds as if you two are fighting thru.
ReplyDeleteThe hiking is a tremendous way to go! We went up one of the mountains we see from home, two days ago in brilliant sun. Now we enjoy proper winter rain.