It definitely gets very boring when all you’re finding is a) couch grass b) dirt (consisting mainly of clay), c) earthworms. Occasionally we find grubs, beatles or even ants. Mainly it’s very dull. So you can imagine my surprise when my shovel hit something hard. Was it some kind of wooden chest filled with gold? ancient dinosaur remains? a murder victim? Of course not, but either a fox or small pet dog about fox size call Robert or similar. Now of course his rotted remains will make wonderful fertiliser for anything grown in that area of the plot, but what to do with the remains? I have enough problems with foxes as it is – the weed resistant membrane laid down at the weekend last is covered in doggy prints. So leaving out skeletal remains is an open invite. So I’ve stuck the majority of bones in a plastic plant pot and stuck it on the compost heap where it is less likely to jump on anything important.
On the other hand the child in me decided to stick the head on a stick, name it robert overseer of the allotment and put him by the water butt.
In other news we’ve planted the F1 ‘extra early extra sweet’ sweetcorn kernals so hopefully I can start my three sisters bed soon. I’ve dug a hole for the beans (two of them) to make a lovely arch between my big blue boxes and filled the water butt so I have less far to run in the evenings when I’m trying to water them extra quickly. Helen split up some of the herbs she is growing in the hope that in a few months she can sell some at the hawkwell horticultural show.
I made the overly conscious decision to temporarily convert the watering can into a mini fridge and cooled my beer, sat in a chair and surveyed my land. As well as chatting to patrick the neighbouring allotment who has planted out an impressive array of spuds – about ten varieties and about 40 in each row. He’s going to be eating spuds morning noon and night.
I’ve made a better growing cone for the sweet peas. I swear the blighters have grown about an inch since I planted them out on Wednesday. I’m sure I’ll be back in a week and the cone will be groaning under the weight.
Tomorrow is definitely a weeding day. And perhaps some proper photos using a decent camera rather than my mobile phone.
