Melancholy Averted

In the end I had a very successful weekend down the allotment, thanks to the weather and a distinct lack of a social life.

I turned up around Saturday lunchtime and became almost irreversibly melancholic as it seemed the previous weeks’ hard work had been wiped out by the irrepressible couch grass invasion. Damn weeds, shouldn’t they be hibernating by now? I contemplated digging up all my crops and resorting to allover roundup application but half an hour with my swoe cheered me up no end. I must remember to leave more space between my crops, I have a tendency to cram them together but that means I can’t safely hoe between plants.

By Sunday evening I had dug over the whole of one side of the lotty, planted a double row of broad beans (aquadulce), two types of garlic and two types of onion (red and white if you want their technical names). I also invested in a cheapo garden incinerator and made an amazing impact on the pile of dryish bindweed roots - I had to use a good deal of zippo lighter fuel to get it going but once it took I felt like armaggedon had arrived on the plot.

It was a jolly pleasant day with the digging interspersed with a spot of reading - I took down Clarissa Dickson Wright’s autobiography and read it while I was munching on a french stick with cheese. I was happy using my penknife to hack off chunks off cheese until I used to open the bag of manure left over from the previous occupant. After smelling the contents of that bag, I can’t imagine my knife will ever be sterile enough for food again.

I ended the weekend back at home trying to germinate my very own ginger beer plant in the kitchen. This is going to take up valuable space on the limited work surface for the next 2 weeks so I’m going to have to work at being tidier than normal.

Imagine life in my flat when the rhubarb goes into overdrive and I begin to contemplate the joys of homebrew wine, jam and chutney making as well as gingerbeer bottling?