Yesterday was the first 'official' day of going to the allotment. I've been before of course, quite a few times to ponder and wonder (mostly at my sanity level in taking this on in my current form!), but yesterday I actually put the wellies on and got my new gardening gloves dirty. There was no digging on my part, my official role was weed clearer and general listener - my friend M was the digger who also needed someone to listen. There was clearly a lot to be said and listened to, because he made an impressive job of digging and raking the soon-to-be veg patch over in a relatively short space of time.
Even though he made great progress, there's a lot I've still got to think about. I quickly realised as I gathered weeds, that I'm going to have to get some books out of the library and start doing some intensive research, as I know absolutely nothing and there's a huge amount of stuff to learn.
Despite my painful lack of knowledge, it was good to go and see what might be possible with the soon-to-be veg patch, and I'm thinking that raised beds might be the best thing. I'm hoping that will make it more manageable, or less daunting at least. I've plenty of fancy ideas about what I want to grow, but I'm thinking spuds, carrots and onions will be good choices to start with, and then to see where that takes me. So my next task will be some intensive web-searching for vegetable seeds, particularly for some potato tubers to chit. Being a favourite of mine, I'm keen to try the Marfona variety as I've only ever been able to buy these spuds in Marks and they're not cheap! M will be making said raised beds and has also been very generous with some seeds for another idea I have in mind...
The generosity and community-minded spirit is part of the appeal for starting this and already I can see how the allotment 'community' has its reputation. Nikki (the plot owner) came out and chatted to me about soil quality, things that have worked there before, things that haven't - no brassicas for me then... Earlier, Joyce, an elderly lady who has the plot next to Nikki's, came over to ask if we wanted some rhubarb. She then introduced herself and told us that if we wanted anything, we were to just ask, including the use of a toilet. Now having an MS bladder, that's definitely a handy thing to know...
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