There is a certain bleak beauty to allotments at this time of year. Everything tends to look a little worn and tired, a few battered brassicas holding on, lots of bean teepees, draped in the remnants of twining plants like skeletons of summer. I’ve had my plot just over a year now. Like all newbies…
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My life is currently dominated by boxes, bubblewrap, packing tape and paint brushes. I’m trying to get the upstairs decorated while MIL is in Arizona, since the ever flexible FIL is seemingly content to be moved around from room to room as I rearrange furniture and paint walls and woodwork. Its exhausting, but necessary, and…
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I really like the idea of green manures. I don’t like seeing bare earth, and I like weeds even less, so the thought of covering the ground with Red Clover, to carry on the good nitrogeon-fixing work of the peas and beans, or Rye Grass with its allelopathic qualities, really appeals. I had visions of…
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When I first got my half an allotment plot back in January, I had to decide what to try and grow in my first year. I decided to concentrate on things that gave a good return on the effort required to grow them (things like beans and squashes that keep on cropping as you pick),…
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I’ve been doing my impression of a headless chicken again, rushing around (mentally, rather than physically) trying to catch up with things. Given that I have over 70 unread emails, I’m not doing terribly well, but I am gradually working my way through them, catching up on blogs, finding plumbers, choosing tiles… Anyway, one of…
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