Saving our sanity

Arrrghhh! 14b is really messing with our heads and it's all just a bit much. We finally broke last week and had to make a decision...we are covering half of it in plastic or some such material and focusing only on the cut flowers, raspberries and gooseberries this year. So well play 14b, well played.

The darn gon' freaking weeds are just too much to handle and I swear that plot is the major breeding ground for, oh let's say, half the known slugs in the world! We are miserable every time we look at it and I just seem to waste hours every weekend in there battling with some really stubborn mutant dandelions the size of my head and grass, grass growing everywhere. It's cleared one day and they're back the next. On top of this the soil is terrible no matter how much we improve it with compost, manure, grit etc.

****** Its a freaking money pit! ******

So more love and attention is going to given to 24a and I think in the end we won't renew our ownership of the other half plot when spring comes around again in 2015. That's just how we feel right now. 14b I think we shall have to part next year, you take up too emotional and physical energy from us.

To be honest we are having differences in our lookout on the allotment means to us. This year particularly,
* Andrew is NOT enjoying the plot, he believes himself to be so far behind with everything, complains about the soil, the weather the way the seedlings aren't growing right, the fact that we have every pest there is and the pigeons, do not get him started on the pigeons! Then again he is the gardener and does the majority of the work.

* Me, I'm proud of it. I am proud that we are in this for the long game and aren't thinking along the same paths as so many young people today - we don't need to have it now, it's not like some video game, we aren't doing this to gain fame and fortune. I have wanted to be there more often this year than the last 3 years put together, I've even been by myself! I can work for an hour or so alone as Andrew drives off to collect supplies and guess what - I haven't completely freaked out. It's pretty much been the only consistent thing that gets me out of the house.

Yes I see all the problems and I do lament the loss of seedlings and 10, 10! marigold plants over night. I don't like slugs, aphids or cheeky birds eating my food. It's hard work for me to get myself there, I often don't enjoy it and feel often like giving up bar the fact we have spent so much money on it and of, lordy,..so much time.

But it feels meaningful to be growing our food. I don't know that I would have anything to do with my life if I didn't have those days of taking photos and working the day away, putting what energy I have into this blog... It helps save my sanity.

It's Friday, we ought to be happy, sorry..

I did this last Saturday on 14b all  by hand as we don't have any petrol strimmers or lawnmowers....

saved the blackberry and rhubarb from so much grass

Beautiful produce - chives, gooseberries, blackcurrants plus new dahlias and roses in place

Much love and best wishes to your plots and gardens friends!
Carrie xx

The dreaded sawfly....

A battle is raging at the lottie, a fierce, no mercy kind of insurrection. My soft fruit bushes and mostly the gooseberries are being attacked by a voracious, hungry, hungry catepillar. I'm talking the dreaded sawfly.

They are evil, pure evil, look up evil in the allotmenteer's dictionary (someone should really write one of those) and you would see their photo. They start off at the very bottom of your beloved plant and leave little tiny pin holes in the leaves. Turn that leaf over and you'll see teeny tiny almost see through catepillars, probably lots of them. grrrr!

If left unchecked (by that I mean, if left alive) they will quickly and I mean quickly, eat the leaves of your plant down to little skeletons in no time. They get fat - thus easier to see I suppose -  quickly too and that my friends is when WAR is declared. I not the biggest fan of gooseberries (I don't dream of them or anything...) and I'm generally a pacifist but when something is eating MY food - well, all niceties go out the window.

Andrew squishes them, I'm more girly (I hate things popping in my hands and leaving innerds and green slime everywhere, but that may just be me) and plop them into a container with water in it. I think salt would be good here too, but I haven't got any down at the plot and anyway our Blue Tit chicks are growing big and strong (and noisy) and they probably like the unsalted variety of sawfly. You can of course go down the pestiside route too but then I don't really like that.

 Be careful about the desire to just shake the plant and watch them all drop off, they just climb back up again or if they're old enough, they will thank you for the help - they go to ground in order to pupate (I hate that word!)

Here are some of my pictures of the new enemy in our plot -  I guess now we are becoming a more established allotment garden we're going to get  more of these pests....

Also, here is the RHS advice on the topic, this makes for scary reading, so don't do it before bed ;)

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=517