Chairman’s Chit Chat August 2024
The last several weeks have been a blur of horticultural activity both at home and on the allotment.
It has been a constant round of grass cutting, deadheading, harvesting, weeding and watering.
The grass seems to grow overnight and no sooner have we cleaned the mowers and put them in the garage than it is time to get them out again. There are definite demarcation lines governing grass cutting. Jessie mows the lawns at home, as I do not keep the lines straight enough.
However, I am allowed to be let loose with the petrol mower on the allotment paths.
Jessie is self-declared in charge of deadheading; it is a job she really likes doing because it makes the garden look neat and tidy. She is out patrolling the flower beds, hanging baskets and pots every other day with a pair of snips.
Harvesting is a shared task, which is just as well because there is a lot of it going on.
In the greenhouse there are tomatoes and cucumbers to pick. From the little vegetable plot at home, there are salad leaves, runner and dwarf French beans. The allotment is bursting with flowers and produce, sweet peas, dahlias, gladioli, potatoes, brassicas, peas, broad beans, onions and plums – all be ferried home and processed in one way or another.
Harvesting is a real joy and makes all the hard work worthwhile.
Weeding (where DO they come from?) is a constant battle. My sadly departed allotment mentor, Arthur Richmond, always used to say “If you let the weeds get away from you in August, you are doomed.” So it has been a never-ending cycle of hoeing and hand weeding to keep on top of things.
Ah, watering. There are two sides to this. There is our own watering and then there is watering done for others. At home, Jessie looks after watering the flower beds and I take care of the greenhouse, hanging baskets, pots and the vegetables. It is my responsibility to ensure crops on the allotment do not die of thirst.
In addition to this, I then participate in what Jessie laughingly refers to as “contract watering.” This involves watering duties undertaken for friends and neighbours who are away on holiday. This starts in April and goes through until the end of September.
Time is whirling by. so I had better crack on with some harvesting, watering, weeding………….. and you know the rest!!