I know I need to go but the longer I don’t the more it is scaring me

I need to:

-prune all my fruit bushes (I have a LOT of fruit bushes)
-grease band and generally tidy the fruit trees
-get the ground ready for various bits and pieces that have been growing over winter
-dig a bean trench

inspire me. Please.

I know its a poor poor excuse but honestly, my big issue is that if I go I have to take at least 2 kids with me, usually 3, and its always raining here and I get about 2 minutes work done before someone falls over and so on and so on. And without wishing to seem arrogant, in 8 years of gardening with kids I’m pretty sure I know all the tricks, including the one where I take up a laptop and a car and let them watch a movie while I dig.

LOL! ok <rolls sleeves up>
Here’s the deal
The secret to life
The secret to getting the life you want
The secret to getting a wonderful harvest later in the year and being SO pleased that you got off your arse and did something.

You’ve just got to quit the excuses, pack up the laptop and your fork and go and dig honey…

That’s it - no magic wands, no rationalising or talking about it - this is an ACTION issue

Take ACTION; no matter how small; just take up thine fork and dig!

Go!

Now!

And don’t come back here until you’ve got something to tell us

You know that the alternative is being really annoyed with yourself in August when we’re all blabbing on about the fantastic dinner we’ve just eaten and you’re hot footing it to the supermarket for a ready meal

starchild - 20 February 2012 04:50 PM

just take up thine fork and dig!

I think I need that on post-it notes scattered all over the house!! (or perhaps just over the iPad and all my knitting and sewing)

at you lot…my excuse is that my heavy clay soil is so claggy still I end up unable to move due to the weight of mud on my boots! But likewise…..it’s been soooooo long since I last did battle down there and I know the longer I leave it the harder it gets  

Think how fab you will feel once you’ve been up there - we went up to ours yesterday and moved a gooseberry and planted some shallots, picked some leeks and kale - in all it took about 40 mins - we then went for a 20min poke at mud and ice stroll, with obligatory welllie boot stuck in mud.  It was frozen (so goodness help the shallots, but hey), but sunny and it felt wonderful.

Also there’s that wee feeling inside that you were up but no-one else was, feeling slightly smug is quite nice

I’m afraid that we tag team going to the allotment - either just 1 adult or 2 adults and kids, that way one of us can get something done.

Tanya

You don’t think our Edith is still down there digging, do you ladies?!

Floodlit allotments, now there’s an idea!

  We always say my Dad does more work outside when it’s dark!He has been known to put the car lights on outside to see what he’s doing.
That’s commitment to the allotment being up there still - maybe she’s popped home by now.

Haven’t been up to ours personally for a while now, dh has so still ticking over. I’ve been clearing that patch in the back garden though and got seeds and seedling on the go in the greenhouse and windowsills. Still quite a bit growing from hardy veg plants sown throughout the year so feeling good about that too. Been buying some additional perennials too for this year.

I have dd home today so I think we might go and sow some more seeds later, get some fresh air out in the garden - lovely and sunny today.

lol I wish my allotment were floodlit, that would be very cool.

I did go up, and did a recce. Its not actually looking too bad. after being on the bloody thing for eight years, i think we might be starting to get it under control a bit. Did the pruning though, and it wasn’t too bad, apart from the vine which is a scary mess. We do have a lot of fruit and bushes and so on so its nice to have the pruning done, just need to mulch and greaseband the trees now. We’re not allowed fires on the allotment, which is a shame, but we’re going to start being better organised this year and taking stuff home to burn, maybe once or twice a month one of us will stop off there on the way elsewhere purely to drop stuff off and pick stuff up, because a big problem we’ve been facing is that we normally walk or cycle up there and that makes it hard to get stuff either there or back. Such a stupid small thing but it will make a difference and really, its easy enough for dp to detour past there on the way to work on days he has the car.

Need to sort out the beds but thats ok really, just digging. Bringing maybe two new beds into operation this year, including one at the front that I want for flowers for cutting.

The big, big thing we must do, that we might aim to get done or at least started this weekend, is to sort out the shed. Right now its a big mouse infested junk dumping ground, it is always like this at the start of the season. What we need is somewhere primarily for the kids to go and be dry while we work, so we need a reasonable sized table and comfy stools, (mouseproof) storage for pencils and paper and a few snacks, kid level storage for kid size tools, and also safe storage for our tools-though we might just put a locked box outside for them. Plus a big blackboard. Might even paint inside! Oh and a door that shuts would be the icing on the cake.

Edith, I read this post and replies with keen interest as I have a pile of pallets on my driveway, just waiting for the ‘right time’ to turn them into veg boxes for the allotments. But of course one thing leads to another and they never get made….and they sit there, and sit there, becoming the eyesore of the estate… So (thanks starchild for the rool sleeves up message!) I have now diaried a whole weekend to the making of them and the plan is by the end of the weekend we plant beautiful seeds from the real seed company. (I hope it works.)

I wish you luck with yours this season and hopefully I’ll have some seed to share at the end of the year!