I was reminded this morning- as I was shovelling away – of the old catchphrase from the old radio show’s Round the Horne and Beyond Our Ken with Kenneth Williams’ country character, Arthur Fallowfield, (allegedly based on a farmer who contributed to the Any Questions programme). Fallowfield character’s lines were full of double entendre – but it was his stock reply to any question that came back to me today – “Well, I think the answer lies in the soil.”
And why did Kenneth Williams come to the fore? Because Peter and I had a load of top soil delivered to our allotment – approx. one ton – and needed to shift it before the rain came again! We moved it all in just under and hour – which I was pretty pleased with for a pair of old codgers!
A ton of top soil may seem a lot. But when topping up six of our eight raised beds (left) that were all less than half filled and still reserving a bin full (right) for the things like courgette pots and potato sacks it didn’t go that far as one might imagine.
In other news we have the greenhouse well under way and hope to get it fixed down very soon. Glass is waiting (see next to the compost bin). With last night’s high winds I was half expecting to see some breakages today.
Then we can get the gutters plumbed in to fill the line of blue water butts connected by pipes down the length of the plot. First water butt is just to the left of the greenhouse frame. Since vandals ripped out the allotment stand pipes we shall all need to rely heavily on rain water for our plots at least for the immediate future.
And one final note – rhubarb! This year’s crop is already well under way and should provide a first picking in just a week or two.
All thus proving that the answers really do lie in the soil… (and – in the case of my rhubarb – an added generous application of stable compost 🙂 )
Jan Edwards 
Vandals stealing pipe, or just destroying them? I so admire you allotmenteers, and all you face; the effort you put into a piece of property that isn’t even yours, the rules, the sometimes sloppy neighbors, but to also have to deal with theft and vandals? It’s a sad world…
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Some mindless little critter came and snapped off all three of the stand pipes at ground level – you have to wonder. There have been cases of kids throwing bricks through greenhouses and trees and shrubs broken down, theft of tools and on occasion theft of produce. But we persevere 🙂 The community among allotment holders and the joy of growing things do compensate for the actions of a few mindless trogs 🙂
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