I finally got to visit the new plot. It is about half the size of our old one, but it has a glasshouse, and beggars can't be choosers apparently.
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| Needs a bit of a tidy up F. Nice and warm in here though. |
There should have been before and after shots but F was so keen to get going that she got straight to work with her shovel and turned a good part of it over before thinking that I might want to make a blog post subject out of it. She has a couple of cubic metres of soil to move out of two heaps that someone tried to describe as compost. She is going to use that to start rebuilding the height of the plot. Generations of 'scalpers' have dug away so much soil that the plot is well below the level of the surrounding paths and, in the recent climatic conditions, has established itself as a pond. Ditches around the edges do little to relieve that problem - there being nowhere for them to drain to.
In fact, the ditches are just ankle breakers for unwary and wobbly old humans. (If I was strictly honest, they catch cats out too. I stumbled through one when chasing off an intruder at our old allotment a few years ago and went A over K so spectacularly you would think I had spilled out of a road accident in a movie. At least the humans present got a good laugh out of it.)
There is a very bold dog fox that supervises all allotment activities too. We used to have a vixen at the allotments - she and I had an understanding, a non-aggression pact. (After she disappeared the whole allotment area had a rather overwhelming rat infestation - so F is rather pleased to see the latest incarnation of resident fox.) I'm not convinced this very well fed Mr Fox is going to be quite so amenable to cats as his predecessor, but F says I will be safe and can supervise from inside the greenhouse while she is digging and explaining vegetable growing to Mr Fox.
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| Did you say Fox? |
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| (my ferocious look) I can see off a fox..... |
(That basin is full of cooch, bindweed and dandelion roots apparently - all stuff F won't put in her compost heap.)
Looks like there is a lot of work ahead for you to supervise, Tigger. Hope you manage to come to a peaceful pact with Mr Fox :)
ReplyDeleteSupervising gardening is one of my favorite supervisions.
DeleteSomeone is going to be very busy.
ReplyDeleteStrangely F seems to like digging. She wanders off with a shovel over her shoulder and doesn't come back for hours. I reckon she would dig her way across every messy plot on the site if someone let her. xxx Mr T
DeleteDidn’t take you long to slip back into the Rural Country Cat mode surveying the estate did it Tigger - a pair (or two) of tiny wellies will complete the County look for you.
ReplyDeleteTweed cap perhaps...
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteCrikey, I can't help but think F has taken on yet more decluttering work; was the idea that the change of venue would be like a holiday? I am glad you get to go, though don't get too cocky about facing down Mr Fox, 'kay? We need you intact and full-furred! Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Decluttering allotments is easy. Fire takes care of a lot. (I like fire.) A trip to the tip will resolve the rest. F won't let me anywhere near the fox, but I'd have him. I would! I'd tear his nose off. Just let me.... (It's easy to talk the talk when you know there is no chance you would be challenged to walk the walk). Furrings and Purrings Mr T
DeleteWhat a project. My neighbour is in her eighties and still double digs her garden every year - she's one of my great heroes . Oscar likes her too!
ReplyDeleteThis one isn't bad. The site nearest home has always looked derelict and unloved. It is council run rather than by an allotment association, and the council's sub-contractors have no contractual performance targets so they haven't bothered to inspect for years. With the exception of half a dozen (out of 53) well run plots the rest was awful - some 6' deep in blackberry! And the council claims a waiting list 5 years long! F is gardening this for a friend who has had to neglect his plot due to family circumstances, but we have to be a bit quiet about it because the arrangement has put a few noses out of joint. All strength to your neighbour - F's 94 year old Aunt grew her own vegetables right up to her last days too.
DeleteI hope it stays dry and we can all get our winter jobs done on our veg plots Tigger.
ReplyDeleteDave, ours is a swamp (dig a hole and the water table is about 6" down), but F is turning over the top anyway. First Mr B is going to strim the long grass (because he wants to - men and machines ...), and then F is just going to turn it over and wait for it to die off/rot into the soil. I will be supervising the online seed ordering next. Mr T.
DeleteBesides all the good food that will come from all this work there's the fact that there will always be a lot of blog Fighter for you to tell us about and we can enjoy watching what she does and seeing you in that glass house is worth a Blog all by itself. I have never really liked to dig in the dirt but my dad was like f is the minute the ground got ready to be dug he was digging and he grew things year-round anything that would grow in cold weather he grew it.
ReplyDeleteI love to see you hard at work there. And a greenhouse, what luxury! When I had my community garden --US version of allotment -- there was a coyote I'd see occasionally outside the fence studying me. No vermin in evidence then.
ReplyDeleteCoyotes are genuinely dangerous aren't they? (unless you are Roadrunner beep beep)
DeleteTigger, please tell F that Gail is super impressed by her work on the allotment. To be honest, Gail does not have green fingers. She claims that our small back garden is neglected because by the time she's done trying to tire me out with long walks AND keeping up with her hyperactive cycling friends, she's used up all her energy. I suspect the truth is, that were I not around and she for some reason couldn't ride her bike, she's still find a reason not to attend to the garden...
ReplyDeleteToodle-oo!
Nobby.
Each to their own Nobby - some people meditate, F digs. F does not have a well gardened backyard - backyards don't tend to lend themselves to being attacked with a shovel. They need more manicuring and primping around than is well served by F's heavy handed approach.
DeleteHopefully you and Mr Fox will be able to amicably ignore one another. Larry, the cat at No 10, was caught on film seeing off a fox from Downing Street a few weeks ago! Arilx
ReplyDeleteI've heard about Larry, he seems like an admirable role model to me. Larry for PM, I say. xxx Mr T
DeleteIt’s going to be an amazing and productive place when your through with it. I can’t wait to see it
ReplyDeleteI meant to ask…..is all the land on both sides of the path what F is going to cultivate? Does the ‘framework’ belong or is that on someone else’s patch
ReplyDeleteCathy - both sides of that concrete path. That framework is included and the grassy space beyond it (and the pile of old pallets and soil in the far corner). The path and the framework are coming out - the frame was meant to hold a net. It never worked according to Ronnie. The path represents growing space. F hates paths through her garden - the grass ones simply need mowing and are reservoirs of weeds, and the concrete ones are covering good growing space. She moves her access lanes every year so that all the soil gets used and fed, and aerated etc in turn.
DeleteI'm betting there is going to be a day when you can't find Mr T and he will be sleep somewhere in the plot quite happily.
ReplyDeleteThat would be OK, it was the day we couldn't find him and got home to discover he had got bored with supervising and decided to walk himself home across the Common (and a busy road) that worries me now. F
DeleteHi Tigger, have been following your latest videos with great interest. I'm glad you have retained your executive position and are hard at work keeping the natives under control.
ReplyDeleteF must be so happy to be back digging over the soil and sorting out her own piece of earth.
She is very happy despite the rain, flooding, mud, muck, long grass, cold, rubbish to clear, and a tree that needs pollarding (more on that later). I on the other hand do miss the cozy climate we used to enjoy. I have requested a well upholstered supervisors box in the greenhouse. xxx Mr T
DeleteTalent for digging (and filling in again) defines us as felines. I wish more humans appreciated our efforts, especially in nicely smoothed out seedbeds.
ReplyDelete