Friday, August 19, 2005

Daft shape for a bed

Planted Mr Fothergill's spuds out in daft shaped triangular bed, or at least half of them, as I didn't know if they needed chitting. General consensus on A4A board seems to be no, so I'll try the other half tonight, assuming the rain ever stops. Read somewhere that they should be planted north to south to prevent too much shade, so I'll have a go at that too. If anyone new to gardening is reading this board, triangular beds are bloody ridiculous. Though that doesn't mean I'm not marking out a load more. They do say you don't learn unless you make mistakes, so I figure you may as well make big huuuge mistakes.

Met the chap across from me last night. For the last couple of weeks he's been up every night spending a good two hours watering and never saying a word or meeting my eye; I thought he was going to be one of those people who just prefer their own world and have enough friends, thank you. Nooooo. Made brief eye contact with Trevor last night. Was given yet more leeklings and a fifteen minute tour of his plot plus found out about history of mine - used to be a double plot looked after by a couple in their eighties, until she got too short-sighted to drive. That explains all the mature fruit, anyway.

Discovered that there is a shed on the other bordering plot with functioning tools inside. However this makes me think it's still being cultivated and I should probably stop scrumping. Or scrump diplomatically at any rate. If the rain ever stops (there's a whole Noah's ark thing going on today) I'll go check the diagram of lottie plots in the store tonight. Might have to go via homebase for some wellies.

Lastly, and pathetically, completely failed to get polythene on roof of half a shed. Ended up with artistically draped bit of sheeting over shelf, which should nicely channel the rain in. I just don't know how I'm going to do this without a stepladder, another person and a car to collect bloody great bits of wood. Eejit is off to pastures new for the weekend, so I might see if I can fit his mini stepladder in my rucksack along with his hammer (top tip - you can't hammer in felt nails with half a brick) and have another go. Bit down as I really wanted to get the shed semi-waterproof before today's biblical downpour, and instead I'm liable to open the door and watch my rather pathetic collection of tools float gently down Histon Road to the Cam. I'm off tomorrow as well, to try to get to a friend's house in rural Suffolk without resorting to a car, so that just leaves Sunday. Do I invest in a heavy duty bit of polythene that I'm going to wreck by hammering great holes through? Or do I continue farting about with scraps of crap plastic? And how in God's name am I ever going to get the wood up to the allotment to build a roof in time for winter?

Perhaps several large golf umbrellas?

On a happier note exchanged Trevor's leeklings for some celeriac this morning. Haven't a clue what celeriac tastes like or how to grow it. Happy days.

2 Comments:

Blogger Bupster said...

There may well be a secret handshake, or a certain way of wearing your wellies turned up. I don't reckon I'll count as a proper plot holder until they've seen me fall backwards on my backside into a mudhole in February, sort of a rite of passage thing - I suppose it's quite easy to fall in love with the whole idea in August.

Best of luck with yours. I also seem to spend quite a lot of time sitting in silence contemplating cloud formations rather than actually doing any hard work...and I'm with you on the broad beans :)

1:39 pm  
Blogger Emma Kitteridge said...

Fab blog bupster - I agree with the comment you posted on mine having read through the other very long comment I don't know that I will be going to the USA for wood - I think I'll stick to Cambridge!!

11:04 am  

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