Allotment neglect

[HeyWayne]

Come on you lot - get with it. I reckon you sould be doing this by now:

YouTube - Visa TV Ad starring Bill Shannon

[Incy]

love it

[louisesgarden]

I've been there myself. The trick is, take crutches in one hand, drop down onto step with knee of bad leg (assuming you've only got a half leg cast that is). Use free hand to steady yourself and use your good leg to propel yourself up the steps one at a time. I had two months on crutches (July and August 07), and needs must!!

Aaww poor you!!! Do you have a lot of steps?
Having spent a long time on crutches myself, the way I did it is put the crutches either side of your feet and lift yourself up to the next step pulling crutches up behind you. Be very careful though if the steps are uneven or wet as you could slip. You may not be able to use this method if your arms aren't strong enough or the steps are too high though.
The other way to get up is on your behind going backwards. Not very elegant but much easier and safer. Wouldn't fancy it on a wet day though

Ten steps, wide and covered in pebbles clad stuff so not slippy, its my plevis and hips that are knacked, my hubby so nice as he is says i walk like i have one leg longer than the other ! 12 weeks they have said and i will be doing cart wheels !!!!! prob not enough time to save my veg or rescue it from my hubby looking after it, who has been watering a giant weed as he thought it was a flower !!!

[Incy]

Ten steps, wide and covered in pebbles clad stuff so not slippy, its my plevis and hips that are knacked, my hubby so nice as he is says i walk like i have one leg longer than the other ! 12 weeks they have said and i will be doing cart wheels !!!!! prob not enough time to save my veg or rescue it from my hubby looking after it, who has been watering a giant weed as he thought it was a flower !!!

I imaginge you need a different method if it's you're pelvis/hips that are the problem. Have you asked the hospital? They may be able to recommend a solution.
At least your OH is doing his best. Bless

[Pumpkin Becki]

prob not enough time to save my veg or rescue it from my hubby looking after it, who has been watering a giant weed as he thought it was a flower !!!

Oh bless him, and to you I wish a speedy recovery. I sure it will all be okay in the long run.

Best Wishes
PB xx

[SlugLobber]

Oh a bit of rain never hurt anyone I agree, trouble is on my heavy clay I end up having to scrape half the allotment off my boots and then carry it back again.

lol, me too, hence ditching at the back door. Sometimes EVERYTHING gets ditched this way and I streak up to the bedroom for a dressing gown.

Oh and a tip for the car is have a large cardboard box to ditch your wellies in. That, or get some horses and you'll be so filthy for 90% of your life, you won't notice the dirt in the car...

[Hazel at the Hill]

I didn'texpect to feel smug about my raised beds and bark paths until winter but I so do now.

Smug, smug, smug, smug, smug.

Ok, so now you all hate me

[Incy]

I didn'texpect to feel smug about my raised beds and bark paths until winter but I so do now.

Smug, smug, smug, smug, smug.

Ok, so now you all hate me

I have raised beds with gravel paths

[HayleyB]

Wayne you jump on Hazel and we'll throw clods of clay at her

[HeyWayne]

Wayne you jump on Hazel and we'll throw clods of clay at her

I think me jumping on Hazel would probably do it to be honest.

[HeyWayne]

Well, I finally managed to get to the plot yesterday morning before our guests arrived for lunch.

I loaded up the now easier to load* car and headed down to the plot. I drove up to plot 35 and got out of the car. My heart sank - weeds a go-go. Paths and beds were in most part indistinguishable.

However - I could see amongst the weed jungle that some plants were doing well. The beans were flourishing with quite a few flowers, and given that I'd made the mistake of planting what I thought were dwarf French but turned out to be climbing French beans - it's all a thick lush wigwam of bean-ness.

So, I set to it armed with my hoe and trusty pair of hands and two hours later I'd made pretty good headway with the weeds. In fact the paths are now covered in a thick shagpile of dead weeds where they've either been chopped or flattened.

After a couple of hours hard graft I decided to have a look around and see what I could harvest.

Broad beans - 1 carrier bag full (what's left on the plants - about the same again, is blackening pods ready for next year)
Rhubarb - 12 good thick stalks
Apples - half a carrier bag full of big juicy cookers
Potatoes - two carrier bags full

I called LadyWayne and asked if she wanted cabbage as there are about 8 cabbages - varying from large and decent looking to small and cute. She didn';t need any, but we may well have some one night this week.

There's also nice cricket ball sized Kohl Rabi's - once we've worked out how to eat them I'll lift them too.

Beetroot's fattening up nicely.

Sweetcorn is about 4ft high with tassles forming nicely (baby corn is - well, smaller).

Raspberries have gone mad and are huge bushes now that will undoubtedly need taming back.

Onions are a bit of a lost cause this year - I think they're in the wrong place.

Peas are a bit pathetic - I think I need to plant way more next year.

I still have 3-4 rows of spuds to lift, so will be doing that over the next week or so and dishing them out (apart from teh mains which I will obviously store).

The carrots are doing nicely in their grwoing tubes in the wheelbarrow (I'll be adopting this methaod on a larger scale next year.

Oh, and finally I decided to remove the netting from the dwarf French beans that I'd planted and forgotten about. As I did I noticed a few beans on the plants - so I harvested those too, a nice little surprise to leave the plot with.

All in all I left with a happy heart, an achy back and sore hands (I'd been stung several times by stinging nettles when pulling up weeds).

The moral of the story - keep a positive mind and it won't turn out as bad as you thought.

*on account of having swapped the saloon for an estate.

[HeyWayne]

Oh, I forgot to mention the squash and courgettes.

Courgettes are growing at various rates - all of them slowly, but there are signs of some flowers et al. I think I planted them too late however, but we'll see.

The Warted Hubbard (HSL) squash that I planted by the sweetcorn is doing well though. Growing nicely in amongst the sweetcorn towers and there are a few small "balls" of fruit in places.

[Glutton4...]

Sounds like a bumper harvest after all mate - well done! Mother nature knows what to do even when we don't 'assist' as much as we would like to

[Pumpkin Becki]

See! All that panic, and it was all perfectly fine after all

[maytreefrannie]

Well done, Wayne - the plants 'remembered' to keep growing and were just waiting for you to come along.

Hope you enjoyed your harvest.