003: The Allotment Diaries

birthday shenanigans

cardboard, that most precious of commodities

It was Etty’s third birthday on Friday and we woke up (unusually) to clouds and MUCH EXCITEMENT. Her late-April arrival has meant that we’ve enjoyed a picnic in some shape or form every year since she was born, and had planned one at plot 60A if the weather proved good enough.

Thankfully a slew of Very Large birthday presents has helped to swell our cardboard collection, which we’ve needed to put down on the beds in the hope of adopting a no-dig method of cultivation. It’s a bit of an odd process, but in essence, the cardboard theoretically acts as a membrane, preventing weed growth. Fresh compost and mulch then gets placed on top to act as a top layer to plant seeds into. I’d had a stab at this earlier on in the week, finding it to be a rather sweaty and labour intensive job.

So with this semi-sorted for atleast half of the plot, we were finally able to plant our first crop! Etty helped me pod out the sweetcorn seeds in the top-right corner. Stupidly we forgot to bring our watering can so we relied on Etty’s dinky green one and an empty bottle of Buxton. I think we planted them a little early, but we’ve had such warm weather here it shouldn’t be an issue (she says having absolutely no idea if that’s the case…).

By late afternoon both sets of grandparents were on hand to help celebrate, so we cooked up some cajun chicken and lamb steak for the grown-ups and sausages for the birthday girl herself. Our seven-month old is rapidly discovering his appetite and swiftly polished off a whole chipolata—before regurgitating it moments later. Etty—as is often the case—ate very little but did show keen interest in the wee sponge cake we whipped out for desert.

How lucky we are to have had three years with Etty! We love you EC!

The much-feted asparagus bed is starting to show signs of life

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