Allotment No 22… or is it 20?
Thursday, 19th of May 2022
Tuesday, 24th of May 2022
As I write the date for this article, I realised that the number of my new allotment plot perfectly suits this year! How cool! Although it didn’t stay mine for long I say…
Some of you guys might have read about my allotment adventures. I have taken on my first overgrown allotment plot No 14A last year and have written a few articles about it:
Allotment and fruits of my labour
Allotment Number 14a update
I might have also mentioned that I had an eye on plot Number 22. It was overgrown with grass for sure, but it is also located on one of the sunniest spots of the allotment and in comparison to the shady and overgrown with blackberry rambles plot No 14a it looked like heaven to me.
After many emails to allotment coordinator in out city and working on the old plot for some weeks I finally found a reply in my spam folder and I was over the moon to read that I finally got plot number 22 that I was eyeballing since last year.
I started working on the new plot immediately. I moved all the plastic sheets to the new plot with a plan to cover some of the grass that I won’t be able to work on. That was a week in April that I was also looking after Alfie for my friend. He was very content coming here with me. After just a few days he already knew his way around between plot Number 14a where I still kept my tools in neighbours shed and plot Number 22, where I spent most time at.
He would come, sniff around and then place himself in the little shaded area next to the plot and observed me digging up the grass in preparation for new seeds to plant.
While working on plot No 22, I’ve met new neighbours and one of them told me that plot 20 is also available and maybe I should ask if I can swap them, because even with my daily visits, I was barely making a dent in the work needed. So again, I emailed with the question and awaited reply.
Had I stay with the plan of the daily visits to my new little piece of land, maybe I would transfer it into my little heaven soon enough. But then bad days came and I couldn’t get myself out of bed, let alone out of the house. I was occasionally checking my email for the reply, but none arrived.
Last week I decided to go for an evening walk and have a look at my allotment. In the past weeks we had a lot of rain and sun mixed together and what I saw upon my arrival at plot No 22 made me feel like I wanna give up altogether.
The conditions in the last weeks were perfect for the grass to grow super high and go into seed. Even the little part that I dug up was already taken by the weeds. Disheartened I still cleared up that little part and then I walked to the Plot 20 and had a look around. Clearly nobody took over this plot still and the weeds already started taking over even the strawberry patch that looked really good just a few weeks back.
I decided to give it one more shot. I send another email to the allotment coordinator and explained that I would be very keen to swap the plots if No 20 is still available.
Then I did the weird thing… I already started working on the plot Number 20, slowly removing the weeds from in between the strawberries and imagining how good it would be to have a space to store my tools, even if it is a very old shed.
Well, guess what? When I checked my email the following day, there was a reply that the Plot 20 is already mine. Of course I replied with gratitude and told her how she made my weekend with this email! Without a delay I went to work on the allotment the following day.
After couple of hours my new/old strawberry plot was almost free of weeds and ready to grow happily.
In fact I was able to also pick a few of them as a little reward for the work done!
With the help of a new neighbour I also managed to cover some parts of the plot with plastic sheet so at least some of the weeds die back, making my future work a little bit easier.
Of course, there is a lot more work to do. This plot however was tended to by the previous owner, so it’s nowhere near as neglected at the 2 previous plots I had. The weeds are nowhere near as rampant either… just easy to pull annual weeds that I already started working on. With a little love and regular visits it will surely become my little heaven in no time. There is also the shed and a few flowers already growing on this plot. What else do I need? A good weather and a will to work I guess.
So here goes… my journey from a shady plot No 14a to a sunny, but an overwhelmingly overgrown plot No 22, to a sunny plot No 20 with strawberries and flowers :)
PS. This is another take on Nature prompt by @JonicaBradley
Until next time 💙
You're lucky that the plot was finally given to you. If not the plot would have been weeded for nothing.