Flitting between the ivory tower and the allotment...
Working on a literature review, realising that when you're researching something that, apparently, hasn't been done before, and ergo no literature, then reviewing said non-existent literature is a really rather difficult task... Or something. So I managed a couple of hours at the allotment yesterday, let the mind work on abstractions whilst the hand holds a spade.
I planted another few rows of winter field beans. I should get the NW bed done by this weekend, if the weather's kind. And speaking of weather, there have been heavy showers in Glasgow the last couple of days, plenty of big puddles in all the places where puddles assemble... But not in my allotment. The levelling has clearly paid off. Despite the rain, the soil was well enough drained to dig.
Two or three feet north of the old greenhouse foundations, there was a sheet of corrugated iron held up with two iron posts. I have no idea what the hell it thought it was doing there. It was the sort of structure one would have in an allotment that needed terracing, but the ground to the south of the sheet was only a couple of inches higher than the north.
It took some digging out, mind. When someone hammers a metal pole into the earth, they're heedless to the fact that someone else (namely, me) will have to come along and dig the bugger out one day. One of the poles went down nearly four feet below the surface. And a corrugated iron sheet buried to a third of its width is an awkward customer too.
But it was done, and it felt like I'd burst a dam: the allotment is getting ready to flow again from one end to the other, the NW bed will become the W bed. I made a start on removing the old greenhouse foundations. Not actual mortared walls, thankfully, so far as I can tell, just three courses of bricks stacked up. Hard work with the fork and spit, but do-able.
Piling up a big heap of rubble and bricks, at Southern end of NW bed, (near the old greenhouse) to stay untouched until next spring - a winter refuge to hibernating frogs and other fauna.
Some kind of fungus growing in NW bed, and behind the old "shed". Which indicates presence of mycorrhizae. And I'm seeing more and more worms as I dig.
I planted another few rows of winter field beans. I should get the NW bed done by this weekend, if the weather's kind. And speaking of weather, there have been heavy showers in Glasgow the last couple of days, plenty of big puddles in all the places where puddles assemble... But not in my allotment. The levelling has clearly paid off. Despite the rain, the soil was well enough drained to dig.
Two or three feet north of the old greenhouse foundations, there was a sheet of corrugated iron held up with two iron posts. I have no idea what the hell it thought it was doing there. It was the sort of structure one would have in an allotment that needed terracing, but the ground to the south of the sheet was only a couple of inches higher than the north.
It took some digging out, mind. When someone hammers a metal pole into the earth, they're heedless to the fact that someone else (namely, me) will have to come along and dig the bugger out one day. One of the poles went down nearly four feet below the surface. And a corrugated iron sheet buried to a third of its width is an awkward customer too.
But it was done, and it felt like I'd burst a dam: the allotment is getting ready to flow again from one end to the other, the NW bed will become the W bed. I made a start on removing the old greenhouse foundations. Not actual mortared walls, thankfully, so far as I can tell, just three courses of bricks stacked up. Hard work with the fork and spit, but do-able.
Piling up a big heap of rubble and bricks, at Southern end of NW bed, (near the old greenhouse) to stay untouched until next spring - a winter refuge to hibernating frogs and other fauna.
Some kind of fungus growing in NW bed, and behind the old "shed". Which indicates presence of mycorrhizae. And I'm seeing more and more worms as I dig.
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