This is the plot next to mine.
Believe it or not, a huge amount of work was done here up until around April. It was completely cleared and rotivated, and lots of planting was done.
Close up you can see that below the weeds there are neat, straight rows of beans, onions, potatoes and lots, lots more. Anyone hoping to acquire a plot take note: weeding is not a once a year activity. It is constant.
Technically this plot isn't abandoned: the plot-holders have just found it almost impossible to get any work done on it since the spring, given all the days lost to rain plus work and other family commitments. They are planning to return to it and start again in the autumn. But I think they have pretty much given up for the time being. I know the feeling and I sympathise: I have been close to it a few times myself.
In fact I'm just recovering from what I am starting to recognise as my "annual wobble". It seems to occur in early summer when the weeds just keep on coming but nothing is really ready to harvest, and it seems like bloody hard work. Today saw yet another trip to the lottie abandoned due to rain, and that's the last chance I will have as I am at work for the rest of the week.
Over the past week, though, I have harvested tates and the first of the beetroot and spring onion; and that has cured my doubts for now. Kohl rabi, coriander, rocket, leeks and more French beans have gone into the spaces vacated by the potatoes where the soil is beautiful. That's made it all seem much more worthwhile.
As for the plot next door, the poppies are beautiful but I just don't know whether my neighbours are going to attempt to harvest anything from beneath the weeds, and if so what they'll get. Otherwise all their hard work earlier in the year will have been for nothing.
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