Moog digs the allotment

We all visited on Sunday - Mrs Moog-Keeper, The Moog and his friend Pepper. We spent a couple of hours sorting out the site. We’ve moved the carpet round to the side where all the long grass is, as we found it is working really well, not just to smother new seedlings, but to compost the dead top growth. The long grass is hardest to get rid of, so we’ll give it the carpet treatment for a while.

Moog spent most of the time in the corner tied to the fence, digging. The Moog loves to dig! Moog thought he was 'helping', and in fact he made a fairly good attempt at clearing a corner of the plot all by himself. I’d have posted a picture but I didn’t take my camera. Pepper just barked at him in encouragement until she was banished to the car boot for being a nuisance and not helping.

Moog spent the rest of the day looking very sleepy indeed – he thinks he might leave the digging to me in future!

Mike’s Wisdom proved correct

There’s a small patch of grass at the front of my plot, which Moog thought made a good place to sit but needed mowing. I resolved to get hold of a push mower or petrol strimmer to sort it out.
I returned on Tuesday to drop off another carpet donation, to find that someone has already mown it – Moog thinks the chap next door must have done it for me.

Excellent news, the wisdom tips are already paying off!

Work Starts - Buried Treasure Found!

Moog thought we should take advantage of the sunny bank holiday weather to get the work started on the allotment. So it begins.

I started by looking round the site and found a pile of old pallets and timber in the middle, which after stepping on and hurting my foot, I stacked at the side of the site. They could come in useful. I found a small section dug in the middle of the plot about 2ft x 6ft that the last occupant left covered with orange polythene, Moog thinks they were trying to provide a perfect home for slugs, snails and ants. I think they succeeded. Half the plot is bindweed and thistles, the other half is long grass.

There are some small hawthorn saplings, which I know from experience will be harder to uproot than they have any right to be; but I found no evidence of any useful plants growing. I did however find a nice old fashioned metal watering can buried in the undergrowth. Hurrah! Treasure! Unfortunately there's a small split in the bottom, so I took it home to use as a decorative planter in my garden.

After a trip round three different shops I found that Wyevale has the best selection of weedkillers. I chose a glyphosate concentrate (like Roundup, but not as expensive) and a couple of wide sprinkler heads for my watering cans rather than using a spray, because I didn't want it drifting on to anyone elses crops. Most people seem to have had a fairly poor year this year due to all the rain and lack of sun so I don't want to add to their woes with weedkiller!

It took two of us about an hour to cover the whole plot with trips back to the tap; unfortunately I'll have to wait and see if it works, since the stuff takes a couple of weeks to get going. Shame, as we had to leave the plot looking almost the same as when we found it.. I'm used to jobs with more instant results!