Dodging the Rain

Despite the humidity, I forced myself down to the allotment this morning. The heat was oppressive even though the sky was beginning to cloud over. My first job was to open up the shed and put up the sunshade.

I checked on Maude and Mavis who were clucking loudly, demanding some treats. I headed across to Geoff’s plot and surveyed the beds he kindly lets us use. There were lots of weeds. Pulling several of the largest dandelions, I headed back to the plot to give them to the girls. Mavis jumped on them straight away and Maude was only half a second slower in tucking in.

Grabbing the weed bucket and a pair of gloves, I headed back to Geoff’s plot and began to tackle the weeds in the biggest bed. Thankfully, the nettles hadn’t grown back so I had the joy of not having swollen and heavily stung arms for several days. With the majority of the weeds gone, it looked much better. It still needs some of the plants in the greenhouse transferring into the bed.

My next job was to weed along the edges of the raised beds and along the paths. This can be a tricky job as there isn’t a lot of room to pull the weeds out fully. Grass and marauding strawberries were the most difficult ones to remove. An hour later, the paths were clear with only a few sections left to weed around the edges of the raised beds. Next, I began on the beds themselves. The density of the weeds took me by surprise. The onions were completely surrounded by the weeds and it was a delicate job to remove the weeds and not the onions!

After lunch, I headed back to the allotment with my husband to load up the car for a tip run. As we got outside the house, the heavens opened. By the time we had run a few feet to the car, we were soaked. At the allotment, we sheltered in the shed, hoping the rain would stop. With only half an hour before the top closed, the rain had eased enough that we could go outside without drowning. We paused our dash to the car with the three bags of rubbish only to grab a handful of strawberries apiece. Munching on the delicious berries, I headed back to bag up some more rubbish, the heavens opened yet again.

I hid under the sunshade, which thankfully is waterproof – one of the many benefits of using an actual sail! It was fun to watch the water run off the edge of it. Five minutes later, I risked running to the car, throwing myself in much to the amusement of my husband. The tip was utterly deserted when we arrived and I think we must have been the last car into the site. With the rubbish deposited, we headed back to the allotment again.

As my husband sorted out the girls in the main coop, I headed across to check on Gertie. Connie has now decided she isn’t broody and is clearly making up time she’s missed by being extra bossy! I put Gertie in the large feeding bowl and watched as she ate. In the large bowl, she can scratch more but I’m not convinced she gets as much food into her crop. With more rain coming down, I left her to eat independently as we retreated to the car, soaked yet again.

The plan for the next few days is to finish weeding the last few sections on Geoff’s plot and to tackle two of the big beds on our plot. Hopefully the rain will have softened the soil enough that weeding will be possible!