2020 Covid-19 Memories
Stuart Swarbrick - Ferry Road Allotments
The Covid 19 crisis really brought into sharp focus, issues and problems I had been working on and worrying about since the end of the last growing season - how do I get the most out of this patch of ground using the little time, money and spare energy I have to spend on it.
Five years of clearing, collecting and building had made the plot cluttered and haphazard. I had put raised beds in and built up netted cages, but it wasn't organised or planned and too much space was lost to the labyrinth you needed to follow to get to each patch of growing space.
Most of that is gone now, replaced with simple, unlined beds, with a hoop for the netting.
During this time getting seed was difficult and getting "proper" sterilised compost was more complicated. This year I've mostly been using homemade or community compost which has made the weeds more of an issue - trying to tell the difference in the sprouting between friend or foe has been a slog. Instead of direct sowing, I bought a couple of soilblocker presses, and slowly by trial and error I'm learning to use them. Getting the mix right has been a learning process, with a few casualties along the way, as blocks were either baked into soil dice or crumbled at the slightest touch. I'm still using shop bought compost, but it's two bags for the sowing, instead of the usual twenty I'd spread on the vegetable beds.
It's been a hectic time. I thought with lockdown, I'd have plenty of time to get things sorted, but the opposite was true. With two boys, who were *very* reluctant homeschoolers in the flat, getting lessons done was fraught. I wasn't furloughed, more shifted to "on call", and any time I was on my plot or the site in general, the number of jobs to be done everywhere I looked, it made my head ache.
All considered, it's been a very valuable learning experience. Things are now more streamlined and they needed to be. I've been thinking a lot about what's coming in the future - what would I do if I'm laid off, always a clear and present danger. There might be more disruption and crisis on a national scale coming down the road, and what can I do to help my family get through it?
I have no illusions about self-sufficiency, but having a working plot is like a small jam jar of change in the kitchen cupboard - enough for a loaf and pint of milk to get you through a couple of tight days, and while it lays a few more worries on with one hand, it lifts them off with the other.
Five years of clearing, collecting and building had made the plot cluttered and haphazard. I had put raised beds in and built up netted cages, but it wasn't organised or planned and too much space was lost to the labyrinth you needed to follow to get to each patch of growing space.
Most of that is gone now, replaced with simple, unlined beds, with a hoop for the netting.
During this time getting seed was difficult and getting "proper" sterilised compost was more complicated. This year I've mostly been using homemade or community compost which has made the weeds more of an issue - trying to tell the difference in the sprouting between friend or foe has been a slog. Instead of direct sowing, I bought a couple of soilblocker presses, and slowly by trial and error I'm learning to use them. Getting the mix right has been a learning process, with a few casualties along the way, as blocks were either baked into soil dice or crumbled at the slightest touch. I'm still using shop bought compost, but it's two bags for the sowing, instead of the usual twenty I'd spread on the vegetable beds.
It's been a hectic time. I thought with lockdown, I'd have plenty of time to get things sorted, but the opposite was true. With two boys, who were *very* reluctant homeschoolers in the flat, getting lessons done was fraught. I wasn't furloughed, more shifted to "on call", and any time I was on my plot or the site in general, the number of jobs to be done everywhere I looked, it made my head ache.
All considered, it's been a very valuable learning experience. Things are now more streamlined and they needed to be. I've been thinking a lot about what's coming in the future - what would I do if I'm laid off, always a clear and present danger. There might be more disruption and crisis on a national scale coming down the road, and what can I do to help my family get through it?
I have no illusions about self-sufficiency, but having a working plot is like a small jam jar of change in the kitchen cupboard - enough for a loaf and pint of milk to get you through a couple of tight days, and while it lays a few more worries on with one hand, it lifts them off with the other.