The Good Life meets the future

Irish Property Blog | MyHome.ie

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Philosophy of a weeds

Today was my first visit to allotment #146 in over 2 months. I was expecting weeds but not the unrecognisable weed jungle that was waiting where my lovely allotment used to be. Had it not been for my trusty beanstalks waving desperately from the center of the plot I think I would have turned on my heel and run off home to hide.

I tentatively entered the plot the smell of lavender drew my attention to the two plants that I had put in months ago. I have never, until now that is, grown lavender successfully it always seems to give up on me no matter how hard I try. Maybe that was where I go wrong, maybe I try to hard. These two lavender plants were certainly proof that they are not high maintenance or indeed delicate plants, going forward I shall just leave them to it.

I waded further into the plot familiar stalks catching my eye off to the right, Leeks! I was surprised to see that the stalks were green not withered and brown with suffocation. I cleared the weeds from around them; they're small but healthy. I'll leave them to carry on for a while yet. I did vow to them (yes I talk to plants) that I would keep the weeds at bay from now on, after all they are the National Emblem of my home land.

Off to the left were the most enormous cauliflowers. It's quite a site seeing something like this growing in the plot. Sadly most of them had succumb to rot, possibly caused by recent weather conditions (and neglect). I took up all of them for the compost heap, saving the one good one to take home as my bounty and the leaves for Dorris and Daisy my pet bunnies.

Next to be checked were the beans, they looked so healthy and as they were growing up the cane frame I had put in for them they had not yet been drowned by weeds. The beans were mostly ready for harvesting and were absolutely massive. So far dinner is cauliflower and beans.

I spent 6 hours clearing weeds and eight trips to the compost heap with a wheel barrow full of dock leaves and creeping buttercup (do not be fooled by it's name this is an evil weed). All that and I've only managed to clear this much...

Before I left I spied the remains of potato plants in the debris of weeds which could mean one of two things. Either the spuds had got blight and dies a nasty death or they had done what they could and there were brand new spuds waiting to be unearthed. I was lucky, there were spuds, not many and not massive but spuds all the same. One last chore before I called it quits for the day and that was to tackle the weeds that stood tall where the tomato plants used to be. There were small yellow tomato flowers peeking out through the weeds - they were alive? Yes, there was one tomato plant strong, with fruit but sadly also with blight - it had to go. Good news though, there is still an aubergine plant that I had completely forgotten about - Happy days.

So, having come away with quite an unexpected bounty I have reached the following conclusion:

Sometimes we can't always give a garden the attention that is needed. Then when we realise that it has become neglected we sometimes choose to bury our heads in the sand and hope that it will right itself. Generally it won't. It's best to take the bull by the horns. Sure the garden will be overgrown but don't dwell on this; dig in, clear away the weeds and rubbish and take a look at what you have left. Then start again. You live and learn.

"Je Suis un Petit chou-fleur" - That's about all I can say in French. That and "Merci Beaucoup" which is what I'd like to say to the lovely people at Mondadori who were kind enough to include my Bloom entry in their magazine l'Ami des Jardins et de la maison.

Merci