Fences don't make good neighbours

So, I've been digging couch grass again. I think it's going to be my lot in life for the foreseeable future. Once again, I'm pulling handfuls of matted interwoven roots and trying my best to get the damn things out. Except there is a problem. A big problem... fences.

I have a fence alongside my plot, where the manure and wood chip bays are. It was erected a while back when it was decided (for the better) that a location was needed to drop off these supplies apart from the car park. Don't get be wrong, they still do drop in the car park, especially when the central area gets overly boggy and they can't get the vehicles in and out, but that's beside the point. These bays are right next to the plot which makes getting hold of these resources really easy and helpful. But there is a big downside... especially when it comes to couch grass...

...you just can't dig it out.

The couch grass is buried and twisted around the fence poles and you need leverage to be able to break it apart and pull it out. Thats just not happening here. I guess from now on, it will always bee my job to pull the couch grass, each and every time I visit the plot. I don't relish that idea.

We managed to pull probably the last two courgettes out. One was hidden in the foliage, and it was more marrow sized. Guess I must have missed that.

The 2021 Courgette Tally:

57

Oh what a tangled web we weave

Or rather what a tangled web that Couch Grass roots grow into when you're attempting to dig the blighters out.

I've mentioned before about Couch Grass. It's the most common weed that I have here now that I've spent years eradicating bind weed and brambles. Yes there are the odd bramble or bind weed that rears its ugly head and I can pull but as I've managed to get through the plot I've managed to keep things reasonably under control. But Couch Grass is the pain that just keeps on coming.

It can send out rhizomes that go underneath paths, and any kind of mulch. Which is why, when I put down a load of newspaper and wood chips last year, it didn't work as I hoped. Now I am digging through the same area that I covered trying to dig out these roots. The newspaper is long gone. The woodchips have started to breakdown into decent soil, but it is still quite friable. The problem are these roots.

They criss-cross under and over each other. They form a mat underneath that takes huge amounts of work to get them out. They break easily. So thats what I'm doing. I'm grabbing handfuls at a time and pulling them out. I guess this winter is going to be weed eradication as far as I can because I really need to get on top of this before it gets so much worse.

The Council have sent their contractor it to empty the waste areas, and in doing so they also piled up the woodchips to such an extent that they are now pushing over the fence to the woodchip bay into my plot. No real haslle there over than it's a bit awkward to get past. But as you're walking on top of a load of Couch Grass... so what? At least once I get rid of the stuff it's extremely easy for me to replace all the paths without having to truck it about on my broken barrow. But of course, there is the issue of getting rid of the weeds in the first place.

I've done 3m of pathway in a couple of hours and the damn stuff is still there. It's hard going.

Meanwhile The Wife has been tending to her Strawberry Empire and started planting some of the runners from the strawberry beds, into pots rather than letting them plant themselves into pathways.

So now there are loads of little pots dotted about. She's left the runner intact for now as it does help with keeping the daughter plants alive whilst they settle into their new homes. I'm guessing that next year she might want another bed to let them take over. Or they may just end up filling up odd spots where some of the mothers are not looking so healthy. Or she may want some more planting troughs to put them in. I don't know as yet.

Either way, I'd better hurry up and clear these weeds out so that there is room to move around.

The 2021 Courgette Tally:

55

Allotment Week - Day 6 - No photos

Muggins here forgot his phone and left it at home, so no piccys today. However I did finally finish clearing the Sweetcorn bed, as well as two more spaces for Courgettes. I made a start into clearing the pathway between those beds and the woodchip/manure bays as well, but I was soundly defeated by the shear mess of couch grass roots.

Last year I put down newspaper and wood chip in an effort to counter the invasion. I have now come to the conclusion that it is just not worth it. The couch grass roots are still there. They kept on growing sideways rather than sending up shoots, and now, about 10cm down, is just a huge network of interlocking roots that it's like a mat. Trying to break through is almost impossible and is definitely back breaking. The use of woodchips is definitely recommended though as they gradually break down into good compost and hold a large amount of water in times of drought. More than that they offer a good home to fungal growth which works wonders on the produce.

But probably the biggest reason is that they do not compact so much in the London Clay soil and just a little loosening with a garden fork allows you to get at any rhizomes buried underneath. I think this will be the only way I'll be able to get rid of the dreaded scourge. Albeit with continuous action.

Allotment Week - Day 4 - Anatomy of a Thistle

Today I am digging the Sweetcorn bed... it's somewhat daunting.

In there are a whole slew of different weeds. Lambs Quarters (easy to pull out), some small thing that looks like a purslane but isn't (also easy to pull), couch grass (bane of my life), bind weed (bane No. 2) and Thistles!

Now the thistle is a tricky blighter. At the top are the flowers... fortunately I caught this just before they set.

Then there are the dreaded spiky bits. Let me tell you, these are not fun with thin gloves.

And down below is a tap root that wants to head deep, deep down. And this is where the problem lies. Because if you don't manage to get all of that damn root out, then it'll sprout up all over again. Case in point, I dug the thistles out of this bed a while back, but didn't get the whole root. So now they sprouted.

Well it looks like the final score is Thistles - 1, Me - nil. I was defeated in attempting to clear the bed. All the bending over to dig out the weeds made my back ache and my stomach feel somewhat queasy. 

Just about got half-way. I think retreat is the order of the day and try to marshal my forces to make another assault tomorrow.

Allotment Week - Day 1 - It's like Deja-vu all over again.

So I am forced to take holiday. I am carrying over the maximum allowed into my next year, because I haven't been able to take holiday. But that's pretty much the same for everybody.

Anyway, today is the day after rain. Yesterday (and a bit on Thursday) we had a torrential downpour, and boy do the weeds love it. So today I'm back to the same old thing... Digging weeds and beds and more weeds and...

I dug for a few hours until my back and legs started complaining. So I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but sufficient to start planting out some of the things in the greenhouse. The beds I dug were the failed Edamame ones from earlier in the year. Hopefully the replacements will be a little more robust.

But at least the Poppies are liking it. The Red and Whites are thriving around the compost bins.

And the Pinks are starting to come into flower in The Wife's flower bed. Guess I'll have to take photos of those tomorrow.

Digging, digging and more digging.

It's been another scorching hot weekend, and I am writing this blog entry on the Monday afterwards, because I was too damn exhausted to write anything at the weekend.

It didn't help that on Friday there was a long slow steady drizzle of rain that soaked everything and made the couch grass spring into life. It was too damn heavy to move stuff... especially the areas where the couch grass had settled. So you get the one and only photo that I took at the very start of the weekend...

Yeah, see all that grass? Well a lot of it is still there. But a lot of it isn't.

There are also some beds which have been cleared. Not sure if you remember the scruffy bed next to the compost bins? It had some rogue chard and beetroot in it, as seen in the top of the top photo. Well that has now been cleared too. And a whole load of other beds cleared. And the compost bin that's at the very front of the plot has been dug out and sifted.

My aching legs and back meant that when I got home on Sunday I just wanted to crawl into a bath and bed. But at least now there should be some decent soil and beds ready for the next lot of stuff that has to go outside.

We do keep on potting on some of the bits that we have in the greenhouse. Most notably the courgettes and tomatoes. But I think the chillies are next on the list for potting on... as and when I feel I could withstand the plot once more.

Dealing with Couch Grass

It goes by various names... Couch Grass. Quick Grass. Quack Grass. Scutch Crass. Twitch Grass. Witch Grass. I just have my own name for it... BLOODY ANNOYING. S'cuse my French.

It has long creeping rhizomes roots which means it gets literally everywhere and is really hard to get rid of. To coin a phrase, I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I put down a load of newspapers earlier in the year and they did a reasonable job in keeping it somewhat under control. Except at the edges. The roots travel a few inches under the ground until they hit something hard, in this case the wooden beds, and then start creeping along that bed sending up tufts of grasses.

Today I spent a good few hours digging in the woodchips to find those roots and pull them out.

The woodchips are a bit compacted, but very easy to dig though, so once they're loosened up a bit it's relatively easy to pull out the rhizomes. It's just back-breaking work. And it's never ending either. So I am determined to dig over as much of the plot as possible to try and disrupt the damn plant, before once again mulching with woodchips and newspapers.

It's not going to be easy. But then we didn't get allotments thinking it was.

Another bucket'o'weeds

The recent rain has done two things. Spurred the weeds into growth, and softened up the ground so that it's easier to pull them out.

So, like recently, it's all hands to the weeds.

My tool of choice for digging them out is a three pronged thin fork with downward facing tines. It's easy to loosened up the soil around the weed in question and then grab it and pull it out. So I've been gradually working my way around the wood chip paths and goat paths between the beds digging out the errant growths. Mostly they're weeds, but on occasion I have found strawberry runners leaving their confines and trying to escape to adjacent beds. The definition of a weed is any plant that is growing in the wrong place. So out they come.

I've lost count of how many buckets were emptied. but there always seems to be more to do.

We're still getting courgettes. And Tomatoes. And we've now started to harvest the apples form the tree before they all fall on the floor. Of course we have to eat the apples by using a knife to cut them as they all have a maggot inside. There is only one thing worse than biting into an apple and finding a maggot inside.

And that's biting into an apple and finding half a maggot inside.

After the rain comes the weeds

So, we actually had some reasonable rain. It has been one of the driest springs on record. So when the rain gets into the ground, all of those dormant weeds start trying to take over. Which is where the woodchips come into play.

Those of you who remember that earlier in the year I started putting down newspaper with a large helping of woodchips. Those of you with a logical mind, may have thought I was stupid to do so. After all the newspaper will rot and let the weeds grow through. And you'd be correct. But that's the whole point. The newpaper will blanket out some of the weeds meaning that they won't be able to germinate and will die. Those that do manage to grow through have a strong root system. Which means once they poke their heads through I can get a good grip on them and pull them out, root and all.

Take a look at the difference between where I ran out of woodchips...

And where I originally started...

Yes, there is a whole load of grass growing in the paths, but it's easy to just loosen up the paths, get a good grip and pull. Sometimes a piece of root gets left behind, but that can wait until another day.

Then again, if the paths get left too long there are other issues. Way back when... I put down some weed membrane followed by woodchips. But it has been left so long now, that the woodchip has broken down to soil, and the grass has grown though it. As such it is now incredibly difficult to pull the old membrane out without serious issues.

But at the front of the plot, we have our petunias on display again. Hopefully they will distract from the fact that there is a very large compost bin right behind them.

And yes, now I'm home, I can tell you one of the biggest issues that all that weeding and pulling has done. I've put my back out. Bending is now seriously painful. Breakout the icepacks.

Socially distanced gossiping

Now things are starting to ease up a little we can now meet some of our friends that we haven't seen sine the start of the lockdown. And what better way than a cuppa and cake down the allotment.

Fortunately there is plenty of room to spread out. So, whilst The Wife and Friend are chatting away, I can get on with some real work. Like pulling weeds and such. Notice the difference?

No, neither can I. This damn grass grows all over the place and unless you can get the roots out, it just keeps coming back. Despite a few hours in the baking sun, there does not appear to be a noticeable difference in the weed count. But the piles in the wild area tells me otherwise. As does my aching back.

Digging (again)

So here is the missing photo from last week regarding the Courgettes.

But today is a day for digging. First thing I have to sort out is the the bed adjacent to the above three, more commonly known as Deep End 4.

It is full of weeds. Although that's not the biggest problem. This bed has not had any additional material added to it (unlike the other three) so only the top few inches is actually decent soil. From about 5 inches down it is solid clay, which making the digging really difficult.

In the middle (just behind the fork handle in the above photo) is a large rogue chard plant. It needs to come out. However it won't go to waste, because I'll strip the leaves and it will be tonight's dinner.
(In fact as I write this, it was dinner. And very tasty it was too).

I didn't take any more photos because I was just too knackered. But apart from the digging, we potted on the sweet corns from their little trays into reasonable sized pots. It's still too early to put them out. The Wife also increased her Strawberry Empire by potting up some of the little runners that she kept into large trays - the same size trays as the Pak Choi. Talking of which, they are coming on really well. But there appears to have been an invasion of the snail variety as a lot of the leaves have been munched on. I did pick out (and squash) all that I could find, but I'll have to keep my eyes on them.

I also planted my first lot of potatoes into bags. Not sure how well they'll do, but there is no harm in trying.

I'll be back tomorrow whilst The Wife does her usual massive shop. So drop off at the Sainsbury's Mega Centre and then back to the plot for more digging and delving.

Still too wet for real work

We're still flooded. Not as bad as is has been, but still bad enough that you need to give a good tug on your wellies or risk leaving them behind in the quagmire.

But the damp conditions do make it easy to pull up the weeds in the pathways. So today was a simple clear the paths day. Not that we did a great deal because it threatened rain. Still as the saying goes, every little helps.

We're dumping the weeds into the pathways on the lowest portion of the plot. Later on I'll be covering all these paths with a good thick layer of newspaper and piling a whole load of wood chips on top. Hopefully this will raise the levels and with the compost from our overflowing bins we can raise the levels of the beds too. Anything to get a little higher ground underfoot.

Back on the plot

It's not often you get a nice sunny day in February. So we took full advantage of it and made a start clearing out some of the beds from our Weed Infested Jungle.

Between the two of us, we turned this...

and this...

into this...

It was difficult as there were a few thistles that had deep tap roots. We also were not used to hard physical work, so we took it rather slowly to get back into the swing of things. But it's early days yet. There is still a long way to go to bring the plot back under control.

We still have a whole load of path issues. But fortunately there is more than enough woodchip. But we have to get the tyre on the barrow re-inflated. Trying to wheel a barrowful of stuff on a flat tyre is not fun. And it would also help if the place dried out a bit. Tomorrows weather doesn't seem to want to help in that regard, so we're pretty glad we managed to get today done.

New Visitor

We haven't seen any of the old foxes for a while now. We suspect they've moved on or, more sadly, probably succumbed to the way most urban foxes do. The average life span of an urban fox is tragically short.

Anyhow, we now have a new resident that we suspect is this years cub. Since she carries the distinctive sharp face stripes and white tuft tail we think she may be the descendent of Billy the Bully. In our typical naming fashion we've called her Francesca.

But even a quick visit for her didn't stop us from trying to fight back against the weed menace. This was after about our fourth wheelbarrow-full.

Meanwhile, I tried to tie up the tomatoes that were outside. They've flopped everywhere and seem to be losing their flowers. Hopefully lifting them and cutting back some of the foliage will force the flowers to set and fruit to ripen.

These are Ildi tomatoes and they produce quite a set of fruits. If the flowers are anything to go by that is.

The Gladioli are putting up a load of flower spikes which keeps The Wife happy.

But we did get a reasonable harvest considering how neglected the plot is. (Plums courtesy of a neighbour)

Windy Day

So there is another storm battering the UK again. Floods in Scotland, Power Cuts all over the place. Fortunately the only thing we have to put up with down the plot is high winds that seem to insist on blowing The Wife's hat off.

I'm still not up to doing much, so while SWMBO pulled a few weeds from various beds, I started potting on some of the Chillies that we have. Here you can see the results of Her work.

My work wasn't really photogenic enough. But we did have a reasonable harvest of things.

Although the Tomatoes were donated from a fellow plotholder. Our Toms are still in the flowering stage due to the delayed starts. But we did also have a number of Courgettes to give away to others.

After a couple of hours I was flagging too much to continue. One of these days I'll be able to do a full day down the plot. But not for a while yet.

Help is appreciated

I'm still not well enough to do heavy work. But many weeks back I was contacted by a gentleman who is on the waiting list for an empty plot. He offered to help me do some of the more manual work on the plot. Today the first day that he helped out, and what a huge help he has been.

So, do you remember the photo I took a couple of weeks back showing the weeds at the front?

Well Micheal put his back into clearing them out. So now it looks like this...

Much better. We even managed to clear out the pathway that I put in a couple of years back.

Although moving just four wheel barrows of woodchips put me completely out of action.

Meanwhile, whilst Micheal was pulling weeds, I managed to throw the remaining unloved potatoes into the ground. These poor things have been sitting "chitting" for a couple of months. Last week I threw some of them in the Sweetcorn bed. These last ones are going into a mixed bed. Part Carrot, part, tomato, part beetroot, and part potato. Basically all the remaining leftover bits and pieces.

Elsewhere we've managed to plant up the cucumbers into buckets rather than small plant pots. They were a bit pot bound, however now they should be free to grow as big as they need. We planted three outside, and the remaining seven will be in the greenhouse. Also we planted up the chillies. Looks like we have several (27) plants that have grown true. Not bad for the seed that collected from last years crop.

Slowly, but surely we're pulling the plot back into shape. But only with help from others.

Back on the plot

When last I was down the plot, things were just getting started. Now... the only things which have started and run away are the weeds.

The plot looks a mess. Hardly surprising when neither myself nor The Wife can get to the plot to keep it tidy. Fortunately not all is lost. The seedlings in the greenhouses have been regularly watered by our wonderful plot neighbours. So they're relatively safe, albeit a bit pot bound. But now that I'm feeling a little better I can get down the plot a bit more regularly. But I still can't do much.

At first glance it doesn't look too bad.

But as you look a bit closer you can see that the grasses, thistles  and bindweed is everywhere.

The onion bed by the shed is now just a mess of thistles. No chance of getting through this any time soon.

And the wild area at the back under the apple tree is now a wildflower haven.

Which is not so bad really as the bees absolutely love the Phacelia.

It's going to take a while to get things more manageable. I think we have to give up on the apple tree area this year. No way we can do anything with it without major intervention. Something we cannot do for the foreseeable future.

But we can make a start on the courgette bed areas. So we did. We managed to clear them. Or I should say, The Wife managed to clear them. Though I did dig the holes to plant the courgettes. Even this action left me short of breath. Not easy working on 40% lung capacity.

In the greenhouse the Pak Choi had bolted to seed. We did manage to get some of it before it went, so it's not a total loss. We've chopped it as a "cut and come again" option, so we may get second helpings if we're lucky.

But there is one consolation. It's now strawberry season. And The Wife's Strawberry Empire is really starting to prove it's worth.

The first of many to come...