what a plot of messing about!

Over 3 hours, yes three hours,  this morning it took 7 of us to measure the plots and it turns out that we can all have one the same size despite the illusion that the site tapers. DDJ came with me and must have been bored silly! The plots will be good sizes  at 10.6 x 26 metres with 1 m paths between each. We’ve allowed an extra metre on the one side of the site to allow for the conifers (I’ll have to get someone to hazard a guess as to how tall they are  but I’d guess, maybe, 30 feet?) and it leaves a good sized path up the centre of the plots. We didn’t hack into the brambles today to measure the last plot but the person who will be cultivating it has lots of machinery to do that himself. The posts don’t look like they line up but anyone is welcome to grab a tape measure and check their plot size!

After measuring I came home to sort out dinner and went back later for an hour before it got dark ( by 5 to 9 tonight it was too dark to see what we were doing – wait winter, I’m not ready!) . I was really disappointed because I went to have another go at digging the bed for these potatoes on my own plot and my right wrist is quite painful. I tried for a while and managed about 2m x 50cm which was hard going because I couldn’t get my fork in past all of the stones but in the end I had to give up because of my wrist. I’d already bent my fork trying to dig and I’m really tired because I kept waking last night; maybe I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as I have been.  Anyway, I didn’t do much and now my wrist is painful to move. I’ve taken ibuprofen and I really hope it’s better tomorrow – they’ve forecast rain coming on Tuesday.

Just before we came home, DSK (whom I’d dragged over to keep me company even if he was just sitting on a deck chair with his nintendo ds!) and I went to harvest some comfrey leaves from the pathways to use on the potatoes. I’ve read you should line the base of your potato bed with them so I’m going to do an experiment (1). While we were wondering up the site, I noticed a fairly clean crisp packet blowing about and, thinking someone was littering the site, grumbling and went to pick it up. When I did I noticed the expiry date was 1996! The packet is older than my kids!

• Other news today:

• I emailed a well known potato supplier yesterday to ask about allotment discounts and gave the link to our newspaper article to show what we were doing (or rather, the papers take on what we were doing) and they have responded immediately and positively. I am very pleased and would publicly praise the company but I’m not sure they want hundreds of people requesting discounts!
• I’ve also been volunteered to be on television as the BBC are coming to do a story about what we’ve done. I really don’t think I can do it. I couldn’t even do a presentation at uni.  The thought makes me feel sick and what do I say?! It’s only next week too so I’ve got some thinking to do.

(1). I have two 4m x 1.5m beds to fill with these potatoes. I’m going to plant half in each bed with a lining of comfrey leaves and half without. Then one bed will be mulched with the hay that we’ve cut and left and the other bed will be earthed up with soil. Then we can compare whether comfrey makes a difference and whether we find earthing up of mulching to be a better way for us to grow potatoes.