Neeps, French Beans, Carrots from France... Voila!


That's neeps at the back, beans to the left, carrots to the right. Don't know why I've broadcast the seeds in this way, rather than rows. Something to do with making it more creative, but I'm still just mixing the paints and cleaning the canvas. Planted all in rows, like soldiers on parade, might have its place but shouldn't be the norm.

Several times as I hoed and raked the ground, getting up the weeds, spreading the oomska around, I thought: if anyone thinks no-dig is a lazy option, forget about it. All of that hoeing, particularly, is bloomin' hard work. This is it, though, I've started no dig. There were some stones and glass, but I got them out fine with the hoe.

It was forecast to rain in the later afternoon, and right on cue, about 5pm, it started. Which was absolutely perfect to water-in the seeds.  By then I'd finished the sowing, and was filling the comfrey-liquid barrel with water from the allotment tap, with a 10 gallon container and a wheelbarrow. I'd put a lot of comfrey in there, no hessian sack this time, but it only had a little rainwater in. As it filled with tap-water, I thought how integral the dubious odour of decomposing comfrey in water is to my conception of an allotment.

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