What's the point?
If you have any longish term experience of working with the land and the weather, you will get this feeling. Probably more than once. It happens to all of us, I'm sure. Just watch #clarksonsfarm if you want to see this state of mind made into a light entertainment show!
Anyway, it happened to me when I went to the allotment plot about 3 weeks ago.
Let me set the context. The previous visits I had made to the plot were in the rainless May period where the ground had set like concrete so could not be prepared as I'd wanted to. And add to that, everything that I was trying to grow was stressed, due to a lack of water. That stress took the form of weak spindly growth (not being sufficiently nourished in spite of regular watering visits) or actual non existence of plants altogether as seed sown in the previous weeks had just not appeared at all.
And then, in typical British weather fashion, it all changes. Rain, absent for so long, moves in and 'stays in' emptying from the sky relentlessly...especially, it seems, at weekends thus denying me the only spare time in the week I have to catch up on the plot.
When I do finally get back to take a look after a couple of weeks away what do I find?
A jungle scene.
What used to be 'concrete' ground is now a carpet of weeds. My perenial enemy - bindweed - has quickly spread across all the beds, strangling the life out of anything in its path. The slugs, in their armies, ignore all the plentiful bindweed available (of course they do) and devour every other bit of 'new veg growth' that I'm trying to grow, putting many plants out of their aforementioned stress misery by leaving them as slimy, lifelesss green stumps (including my potentially record breaking sunflower!). And my autumn planted onions, having been successfully nurtured and overwintered and about to be harvested, have reacted to the sudden transition from desert conditions to swamp by bolting (going to seed) rather than continuing to plump up into usable onions.
And all this carnage is framed by 6 inch high couch grass on every side (and even higher on two of the unkempt plots that I border - see below).
At first sight, the whole scene just drains all your enthusiasm. All that spring work (I've dug some of the big beds twice already) rendered a complete waste of time. The fact that I can't do anything I might want to do until I have spent a whole morning strimming and clearing just to regain sight of what I was relatively proud of a month ago.
And that I think does have something to do with it - pride. I don't want people to walk past my plot and think "I wonder how often the owner of that plot even turns up?".
I won't be beaten however. As I said at the top of the blog, you'll get disappointments regularly - its part of the battle, the challenge to succeed in spite of what's thrown at you - that is part of the appeal for me. And to prove it...
Three weeks on, the bindweed has (superficially) been cleared, to once more reveal some sweetcorn. I'll never get rid of the bindweed, I've accepted that, (although I am so envious of anyone who only has to turn their beds once a year and not 3 times as I have to). And don't even get me started on the benefits of the #nodig method. All you no-diggers, I challenge you here and now to take a bed on my plot!
I've also upgraded my strimmer battery so that it lasts nearly half an hour (rather than 10 minutes) before petering out and thus allowing me nearly enough time to clear the plot in one take.
The bolted onions (and some were ok) have been cleared and replaced by next Christmas's sprouts (you've got to keep positive!) with net and slug pellet protection now in place to keep out unwanted shell backed alfresco diners. Even the sunflower (see more later below) has been replaced with a separately potted reserve plant (and now with similar protection to that that the sprouts are receiving).
And the heavy rain does look as if it has been good for and revived some things. The early potatoes that were already in the ground are looking fine (the maincrop went in during the drought and are still looking sickly in comparison - picture 3 below for the comparison
It has also helped this year's parsnips (one of last years disaster crops) establish themselves in a raised bed and enabled me to harvest my first mangetout of the season (below).
And finally my sunflower update?
Sunflower seed number one - grown direct into the soil - got established but then turned into no more than a slug meal.
I have transplanted into a soil filled water butt (so about 3 foot off the ground) to see if it can possibly recover, but I doubt it will.
Sunflower seed number two (we were all given two seeds and I must admit that this seed was one of my daughter's (who is also working for us at the moment, so qualifying for her own seeds) has been grown initially in a pot and transplanted out. It is 4 inches high (my daughter's number one seed is already about 18 inches high by comparison) but I am sticking with my 'plant in the ground' method and have planted it out amongst my butternut squash. Yes, it is once more exposed to the slugs and other 'pests' but its now well and truly netted to protect (hopefully also from the local pigeons and peacocks. Here's hoping it's second time lucky!
So there you have it. It's going to get tough at times. But you've got to roll with the punches, as there will be many 'straight left handers' that nature will land on you in a single season. Just accept it and let it help energise you to 'absolutely not give up' this year...or any other year for that matter.
In spite of what the title says, don't give up - I haven't...yet! 😊
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