ChonanClegg
Family Allotment

We took Joe and his friend to a bonfire and fireworks display on the plot last night!

I’ve failed to blog the last couple of weeks but we have not been neglecting the allotment. Last weekend was spent installing three long concrete posts at the back to which I was able to tie the decrepit wire fencing that separates our plot form the next. I’m probably going to use the remaining fence panels that were donated by the TRIM timber guys to properly close of the back. Junko has been working hard on her beds and they are really starting to come along. She’s getting some very welcome help from a couple of friends, Mark and Yumi.

On Friday we took delivery of more lumber from those wonderful guys at TRIM. This time, git my hands on 8 scaffolding boards, perfect for raised beds. In their unceasing  generosity, the TRIMers rewarded me with twelve more fencing panels, free of charge! Thanks guys!!

So today I built one raised bed 5′x2.5′. The plan is for one more of the same and a third at half the size - next week’s job.

Today was a truly glorious day for allotmenting. The sun shone bright and hot all morning. I managed to spend 4 productive hours from 10am without a single drop of rain. Miraculous.

There is still so much to do before the plot will start looking as I want it. Junko is working hard most days to try and improve the quality of soil and get some produce out of it before the cold weather starts. She is struggling at the moment a war against the dreaded slugs. The recent weather we have been having has brought them out in their millions it seems. You can see how they have attacked our turnip leaves from the picture here. There is a lot of advice out there on how to tackle this problem and I quite like the idea of the slug pubs. Our fear is though that the persistent rain would just dilute the beer beyond effectiveness.

Compost is another of our obsessions at the moment. We’ve started collected out vegetable and other organic waste from home and are reading up on wormeries. The whole thing is very fascinating! who’e have thought there would be a such science and art to it all?

My main task yesterday was to try and clear the space at the back of the plot. It seems there was once a shed there and possibly a greenhouse judging by the amount of buried wood and glass I have recovered. The fencing up there is also in a serious state of disrepair and needs sorting out. I would like to get that space clear and level as soon as possible as this would be the ideal location for our shed. And it would be nice to get up before the end of the year.

At last I managed to erect a fence at the entrance to our plot with a nice gate. I got the wood (some fantastic quality fencing panels) from an excellent reclaimed timber suppliers called Trimon Williams Road just off Hide Road next to Bell Vue train station. If you are looking wood for your fencing, raised beds or a compost box, I highly recommend this place. It is extremely good value and the guys there are very friendly and helpful. Here’s the place:

Aaaaaagh!

Yesterday the weather was depressing. Today it was just plain annoying.

I woke up in great spirits today because the sun was shining and all was dry. A great Sunday for some allotment work. But guess what happened? As soon as I stepped out of the car at Highfield allotment site…it started to rain. However, the rain didn’t last long and the sun returned in all its glory. Then it rained again. This patterncontinued for the five hours I spent at the allotment today. Utterly, utterly annoying!

Anyway, got quite a bit done. Cleared loads of rocks and rubble from under the ground just by the entrance of the plot; built a ‘box’ for our growing mound of compost, attempted to reinforce the fence and laid a stretch of edging. Good job.

What I really need to do is close the plot of by building some kinf of wall with a gate. As it stands at the moment it is wide open undesirables. And as our three neighbouring plots are open plan we are all at risk. That’s my mission for next weekend.

Just this moment returned from the allotment. It has been an incredibly miserable morning. Completely throwing it down witth rain the entire time. So I’m very wet and very muddy. I suppose the only consolation is that it is actually quite warm regardless.

The thing that bothers me sooooo much about the weather in this country is the fact that it is so unpredictable. Yesterday it was very bright and warm and I managed t get several hours of digging and tidying. Today it just pelted with rain from the moment I stepped out of the house to load the car with allotment gear. I was going to repair the fence bordering our neighbour to the left. Didn’t get very far and Joe wasn’t enjoying himself too much either. After a couple of hours slipping and sliding in the mud I decided to call it a day. You know what? As soon as we got out of the car back home. The rain had stopped! Aaaaagh!!

We really are making progress now. As of yesterday we now have a row of blackberries, a row of strawberries and some Japanese onions. This i s real milestone for us and I sincerely hope it will provide the incentive for us to really keep on top of things and get the allotment into a state of perpetual richness. I do now have a new-found energy for the project and I determined to carve out a schedule that will allow me the time needed for its success.

Junko met Steven today, our new neighbour. Turns out her first encounter was possibly slightly misrepresentative as he was very accepting of our new border arrangements. In fact, he even seemed a bit apologetic that he may have been a little over-enthusiastic with his own original claim. Anyway, the issue is now resolved and Junko offered the idea of sharing the pear tree which he seemed glad to accept.

Junko also reported that the Eastern Threesome (Jiji, Junko and Joe) had been working hard today planting fruit and other indiginous flora, so I will be off tomorrow to inspect and take a few pictures for the blog.  Looks like we may have really started something good here. Thanks Jiji!

Well, Joe and I spent 5 hours on the allotment yesterday and we managed to clear most of the bramble and high-standing weeds. Basically, we got the plot back to the condition I got it at almost exactly twelve months ago with a little extra clearing right at the back. So we have made some progress. I think Joe and Jun are going back again with Jiji (Japanese grandad) tomorrow for some more work.

Regarding the issue of allotment space, I took some measurements and made some calculations and came up with the following:

Our plot is officially 295 yd², that’s 2665 ft² . The length of our plot - and our neighbor’s - is almost exactly 121ft. This means, everything else being equal, our plot should be roughly 121 ft x 21.9 ft.

Our plot is one of four in an open-plan area surrounded by four fixed boundaries. We all have a well defined entrance border and a far-end perimiter, but only two of us have a fixed boundary to the side. Ours happens to be on the left. I have adopted the logic that to measure the plots accurately we must start from either one of these fixed edges. I chose to measure out our plot from the left side fence which as I was told by the Allotment manager, belongs to my left-side neighbor. And this I did.

As this was not an attempt to secure myself and my family the largest possible piece of land - just to measure the plots fairly and accurately - I took a measurement of 21ft at regular intervals from the boundary fence to the opposite side. As mentioned earlier, the boundary fence is not straight, so my perimeter line is now equally rugged - but fair.

I think perhaps my new neighbour took a slightly different approach and did not account for the variations in the extreme perimeters. The results is that my line crosses over his (marked by three small sticks and a lose peice of string along the whole 121ft) in several places. At the start very much in his favour. But curiously as we reach the end, significantly more so in our favour.

By measuring our plot in this way, my intention was not to start some Allotment War over ownership of land and property. For this reason I factored in a significant margin for error and effectively surrendered more than 108 ft² of our portion.

The pear tree? Well, this was actually a little tricky to determine as the perimeter fence at the far end starts to lose its way somewhat. From what I could tell though, the tree lies between 17 ft and at a push 21 ft (coincidentally) from the fence….

I stopped my perimeter line short of tree, as did our neighbour. I thought it best that we leave that for friendly discussion if there is any disagreement. In any event its close enough to either side for me to be happy to declare the tree a Public Asset and help care for it on behalf of Levenshulme Allotment Society

After almost a one year hiatus, we are back at the allotment.

A new job in Sheffield and a some rather significant lifestyle changes have made it very difficult to find the time. But we’ve had a breakthrough.

Joe’s grandad came over from Japan a couple of weeks ago and he is a very keen gardener.  In just three visits to the plot he managed to turn over about a third. Tomorrow, I’m off with Joe to do a bit myself. I hope to bring back some photo’s of our efforts.

There has been a price to pay for our absence. Obviously, most of the work I put in last year to clear the weeds and bramble has been rolled right back to square one. But I suppose that’s no more than we deserve. The other, more upsetting penalty is the arrival of our new neighbours. Of course, not specifically their arrival, but the fact that they have come in and appropriated a substantial portion of what I thought was our land. Now, I have to be careful here as I have never actually measured our plot with an appropriate instrument, I simply worked to the borders that already existed. Now since we allowed our plot to once again become overgrown, these borders became unclear. The upsetting part is that the line that has been re-drawn by our new neighbours does not look very straight. It appears to lean conveniently, just enough, to incorporate what we thought was our pear tree - in their favour.

I could be wrong and the people next door may have measured their plot correctly. If so, fine. But I just feel I need to measure  it myself to be sure. So that will be our first task tomorrow. I have my tape-measure and luckily we have an absolutely defined edge to our plot from which we can make accurate measurements.  As per our rental agreement I shall be marking out a 295 yd2 area.

I really hope it includes ‘our’ pear tree. If not, that’s cool. But at least we’ll know.