Wednesday 17 August 2011

Self-medicating

 All my uncertainty over the allotment has been washed away.  Our allotment is not one of the tidiest or weed free places, it does sometimes feel like a burden I could do without, and the things we produce are not going to win any prizes either, but my goodness, it is so much more than a source of food.
 I managed to convince the children to spend some time down there this week, and they were busy digging potatoes, picking beans, pulling up the spent broad bean plants, watering, playing tug of war with the hose pipe, and fighting with hoes and rakes!  We munched on plums, and raspberries and made the most of the blackberries that had overrun the currant bushes.
 After having had a rough week with my own head and emotions, the allotment was the salve my body needed, grounding myself, calming, and basking in the sun I have recently started to fear.

The promise of the bounty to come as we head towards harvest...
 And surprise successes, the onions I grew from seed, was late planting out, and thought if I got spring onions from them I would be lucky, but look, they are actually proper onion sized, not whoppers, but they'll do very nicely thank you.  I won't show you the courgettes or sweetcorn, as neither are amounting to much at all.
So I promise the ground I will nurture it over this next year, and as a friend told me, a gardeners motto is that "there is always next season!"  

3 comments:

  1. It always surprises me how much the ground produces, even when we leave it to it's own devices...permaculture is a wonderful thing ;) I know the feeling you describe, the remedy of just spending time outside on the plot, it is really so good for the soul! Looks like you all had a great time, I love your apples, I wish we had as many! xxx

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  2. Looking good, glad you are keeping going with it.
    Your apple tree looks much like ours although we took that huge weight of it last week but it's still so full - a bountiful apple season.

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  3. Glad you got your hands back in the soil - it does make a difference. And - yes - next year..... xx

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