Allotment success beats the building blues

There is nothing more forlorn than a building site put on hold where the builder has been laid off owing to third party intransigence and general dilatoriness. Much of my waking hours have been spent of late hand digging and barrowing 52 tons of earth, sand and rubble into skips. Progress has only stopped because of a privatised utility company dragging its heels, because they can.

It has been a welcome refuge then to get up to the allotments for a few hours at the weekend as Mrs. O and her brother having been doing the daily chores of watering and weeding. A few weekends ago it was the annual bash at our fields. You would not know it if you walked through but we are on 14 and the neighbouring field is 15.

One of the fun bits of the day is to enter vegetable to certain criteria and another is to make a cake using a vegetable grown on the plot. Mrs O knocked out a rather excellent courgette and hazelnut cake, a recipe that had been tested twice on me and the builder and I entered the longest marrow section. Sadly Mrs. O did not win anything with her cake so I brought that home for the builder and me so nothing was wasted. I was surprised though to win the longest marrow. I picked three and entered the yellow one.

two green and one yellow marrow
Longest marrow
Flowers and marrows on judging tables
Judging taking place

By the way, if it had been a weight based entry I would have been last methinks.

Even more surprising was winning best improved plot on Field 14. I took the plot over on 1st June and effectively turned it around as a form of getting my body into shape for this building malarky so getting a shield and voucher was a big bonus.

This is what Plot 61 looked like on the day.

allotment garden
Field day best improved plot
overgrown allotment
Overgrown plot 61

Yes there are weeds but so has every other plot after a few downpours after the prolonged dry spell we had. I am trying out Dowdings no dig in the middle ground and the caged brassicas have already yielded fantastic Cavalo Nero so I’m looking forward to plenty of vitamin C over the colder months from these.

If only privatised utility companies could be so productive…

 

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