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Clearing The Rubbish.
I have had my new plot for some weeks now and at first I thought that I had bitten off more than I could chew as it was in such a state and it was so hard going, but I have almost got there now. Without any exaggeration there must have been literally a couple of tons of weeds come off it that have all gone into my loose brick built compost heap that is piled high at the moment. However, with a little rain on it to start the composting process, I am confident that it will soon start to shrink as the bacteria and worms get busy. My main objective was to dig the bulk of the plot so that I could get some planting done as soon as possible, because the greenhouse was full of little vegetable plants desperate to be planted out. To this end I left the edges of the plot untidy and also left a weedy strip dividing my plot and the neighbouring one. However, a week ago I made a start on the border strip and soon found that my neighbours came and helped. In fact they finished the last half of it off for me! It was in their interests I suppose as the nettles and other weeds were starting to grow and spread quickly into their plot, but the help was still much appreciated! All I have got to do now is just tidy up round the edges of the paths.
Apart from the masses of weeds that came off the plot there was a lot of other assorted rubbish. There were two bags of bits of rotten wood from a rickety bench that the previous tenants had tried to make for themselves to sit on round their barbecue pit. There was also a sack full of rotten clothing that had been used to dress their homemade scarecrow. From the barbecue pit came a few good bricks and a lot of rubble that had been used to make paths round the plot. These cobble stone paths had made the digging even harder as the weeds had tangled their roots round the stones making it difficult to actually get the fork in, in places. It also meant that a lot of stones came up with every fork full of weeds making every fork full weigh even more. On the plus side, a load of manure had been dumped on the plot several months previously that I have now dug in to improve the soil, but even this had a downside because it had fed the Nettles very well. In fact there weren’t many pluses from my new allotment as the bulk of the barbecue bricks had already been removed before I actually took possession. There were 2 perfectly good tarpaulins though and a small box of hand tools on the plot that I handed over to the site secretary to be returned to the owners if possible. There was also a cheap, broken, plastic chair that could be used if you were careful, which I decided to keep for a while, at least.
Many allotment sites have a skip for tenants to dump their rubbish in, but we haven’t. What we do have is a tractor bucket that is periodically left on the car park for people to put the stones in that they dig up from their plots. Occasionally the farmer empties the bucket and takes the stones away to recycle. Also, recently, the committee have decided to install a communal compost heap on an experimental basis. It is going to be made using old wooden pallets and turned by the plot-holders on occasional “workdays,” that the committee have decided to instigate to encourage people to keep the site well maintained and looking good. On a personal level, I have decided that when the big, communal compost heap is set up, I will do away with the brick built one on my own plot and replace it with a smaller, purpose made one, that was in my greenhouse being used as a growing tub, to deal with the waste from my garden and kitchen peelings, at home. We might be going to have a communal compost heap for the allotments, but I don’t think they would welcome all the plot-holders taking all of their “Green,” waste from home and dumping it in the heap!
 
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