The Plot Thickens

This was us today on our first Allotment Dung Day. It’s become very difficult getting dung delivered because of the environmental red-tape. Dung we can find, but getting it to site is troublesome, so we organised a day where we’d all pitch in together with whatever we could and move as much manure as possible. The blue VW is my plot buddy Julian’s Syncro. It’s unstoppable, and we made three trips with his trailer.

Ryan’s Garden is a new blog this week, and aside from Ryan saying complimentary (and thoroughly desered) things about my opining, he’s a chap who doesn’t like killing slugs, and that’s unusual for a gardener and I like it. Do pay him a visit.

Got bit behind the knee by a really nasty horse fly tonight on the plot and it’s already itchy. I hate horse flies.

Horse flies are the worst because it’s painful for several days are the scar can last for months, but there are other nasties on our allotment too. The tiny biters are midges I think. You can hardly see them, they’re only a couple of millimetres long, but they give a decent bite. Then there’s something that’s about five millimetres long but I don’t rightly know what kind of fly it is, and its bite comes up quite badly [Ed: black fly I think]. These two make it too miserable to be on the plot on warm still evenings. When I’m digging on a warm day just regular flies can drive me crazy too, but at least they don’t bite. Citronella helps, and smoking’s quite an effective deterrent too.

I work on the Kennet and Avon canal, out and about all day in shorts. I would have thought the canal would be an idea environment for biters of all sorts, but I’ve only been bitten a couple of times. There’s something particularly attractive about allotments for biters.

I now have newts. My plot neighbour Dave brought them over in a bucket along with a couple of frogs. I’m pretty sure they’re going to like it on my allotment because there are lots of slugs and I never use anything nasty on the plot.

Some newt facts:

• Newts were called efts in Middle English, and that’s still the name of the juvenile form after it leaves the pond.
• Newts are salamanders.
• Ken Livingstone likes newts.
• Eye of newt was one of the ingredients in the potion brewed by the sisters in Shakespeare’s MacBeth.
• Newts can re-grow body parts and organs.

Do you have a shed to share? Martyn Cox has started a blog and I approve of his gardening priorities - sheds. Not sure if Martyn writes poetry, but his allotment is in Redbridge which was home, according to Douglas Adams, of the very worst poet in the universe, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone

The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool.
They lay. They rotted. They turned
Around occasionally.
Bits of flesh dropped off them from
Time to time.
And sank into the pool’s mire.
They also smelt a great deal.

So are you going to Show us your Shed? Blog it by all means, but how about entering this year’s National Shed of the Year? This year the competition is supporting the Dogs Trust.