A new way of life...

We are now at the end of June, and the events of the past three months have turned the whole world upside-down. The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has change the way we all live and react to each other in ways we have never experienced before. As the situation evolved through March, it became clear that this was not just going to go away. When the Prime Minister addressed the nation on the evening of 23rd, I was wondering if that meant the lock-down he announced would put paid to going down to the allotment, effectively throwing away several weeks of hard work and lots of  juvenile plants that we had sown. Luckily, the situation was resolved the following morning when it was announced that going to the allotment would be acceptable as long as social-distancing could be maintained.

A lot has changed on our plot since my last post. It is now under control, and we have crop in place. Lockdown has given us the time to get to grips with the weeds, dig the plot and eventually actually grow something. It must be well over thirty years since we grow any amount of plants from seed. Yes we have been growing plants for the garden, and Sue has always had a passion for sowing collected seeds. This is a whole now ball-game. We have had to collect our thoughts, dig out knowledge that has been tucked away in the mist of time, deep in the brain. Now, a good bit older than we were, these things can take a little longer than they once did. Recall is a bit (okay a lot!) slower than it once was and things have changed. Not the science, but the way things are done. So much more is available and the influence of the internet has completely changed the way a lot of things are done. The biggest change, from our perspective, is the almost total move away from open-plot growing to a system of raised beds and paths. The use of bought-in and ready-made this that and the other seems to be the norm now. Lots of stuff grown in containers and an emphasis on convenience over good old hard graft. I am not only referring to the physical stuff on the plot, but the effort required to acquire the fundamental knowledge. There are a lot of products out there claiming to be all things to all people. Multi-purpose compost and feeds seem to be popular, negating the 'need' to acquire any in depth understanding of soil or fertiliser.

We have bypassed most of the new, and are attempting to grow as we used to, at least for this season, until we are more up-to-date with the new methods and sundries. There are several things that have caught our eye and will need some further investigation already. Right now it is a case of getting stuff in the ground and seeing what happens. Whatever we get this year in the way of crop, will be a bonus as we found it hard to get supplies of seeds and compost in the early days of lock-down. We were also late getting the seeds we had planted, with so much emphasis being devoted to getting the plot cleared.

Ralph