Busy as a Bee

This afternoon I ambled down to the allotment ready to get stuck into the jungle that used to be our plot. With rain forecast, I started at the top of the plot, clearing the strawberry bed which had disappeared under several hundred bindweed and mare’s tail plants. Clearing the bed took over an hour and multiple overflowing weed buckets tipped onto the compost heap. Finally, it was clear and I took a quick break to work out what to do next.

I decided to work on the patio and fairly soon, the slabs reappeared from under the weeds. Moving into the greenhouse, I pulled out yet more bindweed and cleared the central path. Three more weed buckets full and the compost heap dangerously full, I decided to clear the willow cuttings from the plot.

The willow cuttings were half in a builder’s bag. Wrestling with the cuttings I eventually got them all into the bag, sporting several scratches and cuts for my efforts. With the bag half full, I dragged it down to the Bog Garden where the remaining willow cuttings had been put. Further wrestling saw the bag full and the path clear. Thankfully, there weren’t many people on site as the air may have been full of expletives. Willow is supposed to be flexible. I can attest to the opposite. It would not bend or fold easily as I tried to get it into the bag. Frustrated, I persevered, refusing to be beaten by dead willow sticks. In the end, the bag was full and I was covered head to toe in scratches. But victorious!

Quite what I am going to do with this vast bad fully of uncooperative willow, I’m yet to decide. But the plot is clear of it – just in time for the willow to need its next prune…