Hungerford allotment blog - grow your own, harvesting and vegetarian cooking. Enjoying allotment wildlife, weather and other things that catch my attention.
Enjoying time on the Marsh Lane Allotment site in Hungerford, Berkshire.
A record of successes, failures and a handy reminder for me.
From 2017 each post title brings a song to add a little extra music to the world - enjoy!
Thankyou to all our helpful volunteers! Our mission yesterday was to prepare our 'horsetail plots' which surround the composting toilet.
About 6 poles (150 sq.mtrs) have been covered for at least a couple of years now and have always looked ugly (so ugly that the only 'before' photo showing the area is 2 years old - before the toilet was erected!). Two additional plots alongside the toilet-plot have been recently leased so we'll have a productive growing area there once again.
Look at that sea of covers - the aim was to stop the deep-rooted weed from spreading - we tend to call it MaresTail, (but that's actually its cousin which grows in water). Now here's the 'After photo' - doesn't that look much better!
I've never been convinced that we'll stop the weed as it's growing on the canal towpath, the other side of our hedge. If a plot is worked then the weed doesn't cause too many issues, but if left it can spread up the site, which we don't want. So we figure that if we grass seed the area and keep it cut that should curtail further spreading.
We've also prepared the end furthest from the toilet for wildflower seeds - hopefully the mass of roots will also stop the marestail from spreading - it's an experiment and both methods will look better than the white covers.
It was a particularly windy day for this task but, with enough of us, we managed to keep some control though the dirty puddles ended up all over us and we had a few slip ups in the mud, which caused some amusement.
It may have been windy, but the sun shone a few times and it didn't rain, so it was a good day to be working outside with friends. Now I need to select and buy enough grass seed for 100 sq.mtrs and 25 sq.mtrs of British Wildflower seed - what fun!
Thanks for the photo Kerry
Love this song is by Jack Johnson and the title is very apt - many hands do make light work, though our legs and backs are aching today!
The community spirit on your site is incredible. When we go to the allotment we are often the only ones there or one of a very small group. People don'y seem to have the tome or motivation to give to their own plot let alone a communal area. We did try to develop something. It started with enthusiasm all round which gradually faded in that no-one wanted to actually get involved other than the committee. Them a small group started to resent anything the committee did and so for peace and sanity the whole thing folded.
I think it may be because we're a fairly new site and self-managed. We're lucky that we have so many committee members who are happy to help every time, but we're always joined by other plotholders too. Maybe it's the snacks and drinks that do it :-)
We tried cake! Any meetings were very poorly attended and then people complained that they didn’t like any decisions made. Some people were really nasty. Others would give verbal support on a one to one but slways kept their heads down when we were being verbally abused - even the council kept their heads down.
About 6 poles (150 sq.mtrs) have been covered for at least a couple of years now and have always looked ugly (so ugly that the only 'before' photo showing the area is 2 years old - before the toilet was erected!). Two additional plots alongside the toilet-plot have been recently leased so we'll have a productive growing area there once again.
Look at that sea of covers - the aim was to stop the deep-rooted weed from spreading - we tend to call it MaresTail, (but that's actually its cousin which grows in water). Now here's the 'After photo' - doesn't that look much better!
I've never been convinced that we'll stop the weed as it's growing on the canal towpath, the other side of our hedge. If a plot is worked then the weed doesn't cause too many issues, but if left it can spread up the site, which we don't want. So we figure that if we grass seed the area and keep it cut that should curtail further spreading.
We've also prepared the end furthest from the toilet for wildflower seeds - hopefully the mass of roots will also stop the marestail from spreading - it's an experiment and both methods will look better than the white covers.
It was a particularly windy day for this task but, with enough of us, we managed to keep some control though the dirty puddles ended up all over us and we had a few slip ups in the mud, which caused some amusement.
It may have been windy, but the sun shone a few times and it didn't rain, so it was a good day to be working outside with friends. Now I need to select and buy enough grass seed for 100 sq.mtrs and 25 sq.mtrs of British Wildflower seed - what fun!
The community spirit on your site is incredible. When we go to the allotment we are often the only ones there or one of a very small group. People don'y seem to have the tome or motivation to give to their own plot let alone a communal area. We did try to develop something. It started with enthusiasm all round which gradually faded in that no-one wanted to actually get involved other than the committee. Them a small group started to resent anything the committee did and so for peace and sanity the whole thing folded.
ReplyDeleteI think it may be because we're a fairly new site and self-managed. We're lucky that we have so many committee members who are happy to help every time, but we're always joined by other plotholders too.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the snacks and drinks that do it :-)
We tried cake! Any meetings were very poorly attended and then people complained that they didn’t like any decisions made. Some people were really nasty. Others would give verbal support on a one to one but slways kept their heads down when we were being verbally abused - even the council kept their heads down.
DeleteHow awful! I guess we've just been lucky (so far). Maybe our short lease and self-management keeps difficult people away (hope so!)
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGGW4IezbC4
ReplyDeleteI don't know that one - but another for the 'maybe later' playlist :-)
DeleteByan Ferry confused the issue by covering it with different lyrics: Let's Stick Together
DeleteAh well, thanks, that's another useful title ;-)
DeleteGlad to see such happy workers. Looks like you had fun!!
ReplyDeleteI think we were slightly delirious because it was so windy!
Delete