Back on track

After our lengthy absence, one or both of us has made it to the allotment four times, yes FOUR times, in the last week. We are very proud of ourselves. Especially today. Today we didn't just go to the allotment, we cycled to the allotment. All the way to North Finchley from Green Lanes. North Londoners will know this is a very long way (11 miles there and back) and also there are a lot of hills en route. It was great to be back on my beautiful bike. Although I did have to spend the first 30 minutes after we arrived recovering from all the exercise.

Anyway, back to the transformation of the allotment from weedy mess to not-so-weedy mess...
Last weekend, Andrew went to a family party at his aunt Jill's house. Jill and her husband Paul and their son William live the good life in Cambridgeshire and have been a wonderful source of gardening advice, inspiration and seeds. Last year they gave us a load of bean seeds which produced a most bounteous crop of runners and French beans. On Sunday, Andrew told them our terrible sob story of allotment woe and Jill very kindly gave us a whole host of useful things:
4 yellow courgette plants
2 aubergine plants
4 borage plants
8 marigolds
a hoe
a garden fork
a jar of Paul's famous homemade marmalade (not that useful for the allotment but delicious nonetheless).

After a long session of weeding, Jill and Paul's generous gifts have, in one fell swoop, transformed our failure into a functioning, purposeful, food-growing success. Hurrah for them.

As if this wasn't enough, I was also given three tomato plants by a lovely colleague at work, Sue. She was given a load by her dad and didn't have room for them all. They're now in our greenhouse, in a growbag, each surrounded by a very clever 'growpot' that my dad gave us a while ago which will keep them nice and moist. Our allotment would be a much sorrier place without all our lovely, generous friends and family.

Today we planted some runner beans, French beans and peas. A bit late, but better late than never. Here's what it looks like now:

Time to stop typing as Andrew has just brought me a  bowl of his delicious homemade raspberry ice cream, complete with a raspberry picked from the allotment today (yes just one, we ate the rest while we were gardening).

Two very repentant gardeners and one million rampant weeds

We finally made a long overdue trip to our allotment this week. Due to a combination of circumstances involving a key that doesn't fit the gate padlock, the lack of a car, trips to visit poorly parents, sibling's hen do, friends getting married abroad, 30 reports to write and moving house, Andrew and I have been to the allotment a total of 2 times in the last two months. Our fellow allotmenteers are so outraged by this blatant disregard for our plot that almost as soon as we arrived on Tuesday evening, one marched over to us and demanded to know where we'd been and why we had let our plot turn into such a jungle. And to be fair to her, it was looking like a jungle. We didn't have the heart to take a photo, but it looked something like this:

There were weeds as high as our waists, or even higher. According to this old lady, four days is the maximum amount of time it is acceptable for any decent allotment holder to be away from their plot. We've been four times since January. The weeds are everywhere. 

Feeling suitable admonished and assuring our neighbour that we would be much more dedicated now we have a car and a key to actually let us through the gate, we set to work. And it was a very depressing task. Most depressing of all were the strawberries. Our strawberry plants are wonderful. Fruitful, luscious, plentiful...we had such high hopes for a summer of jam, Victoria sponge cakes, strawberries and cream... but instead, due to our neglect we found literally punnets and punnets worth of strawberries...all rotten and mouldy on the plants. Only a handful of ripe strawberries remained. What an awful waste. We feel very bad indeed. 

However it's not all bad news. We do have three beetroots growing, and one Brussels sprout plant. It seems that it's not a good idea to ignore your allotment during the driest Spring on record. Our broad bean plants are growing but there's no sign of beans. Our peas never even made it to the surface. Our onions are growing though, we've got pears and apples on the trees, a bountiful gooseberry bush and the potatoes are doing well. Tonight we've just eaten some of our Charlottes. Delicious.