My Un-Aesthetic Allotment

We've all been there. Or, at least, that's what I'm telling myself to feel better about the current state my plot is in.

Back in March I had visions of having an immaculate allotment with regularly topped woodchip paths, beds with wooden borders and with the weeds few and far between. Skip forward a few months to the present day and I have none of that. But, I do have a working allotment providing me with veggies and a lot to be getting on with. 

Clearing an allotment is a lot of hard work in itself and that's without keeping on top of the areas you have already cultivated. There are still a couple areas of my allotment that are not fully ready to go. But, that's okay! Because, I don't need them just yet. And, if we work to clear them now and then don't use them immediately, I am leaving them to potentially overgrow with weeds and make more work for myself in the long run. Anyway, I am here today to talk about the beds I have cleared. So, what does make them so not aesthetic?

1. The Weeds

I'll be honest, they're very weedy. I couldn't tell you what a lot of the weeds are but many of them are stinging nettles which although can be eaten and can make a great nettle feed for your plants, I don't want these chaps on my plot anymore. I have three milk cartons worth of nettle feed that needs a considerable amount of watering down so will for sure last me the season. And, to be honest, I just don't fancy eating or drinking them. So, up they come. The number of times I have been stung whilst weeding is immense. 

2. The Paths

Paths? Erm.. what paths? I have approximately half of one singular path in total. And don't get me wrong, I love that path (if you forget all the weeds that are now growing up through it). But, paths have just been my lowest priority right now. You read all the allotment blogs and they will all tell you that if you get your paths sorted, the rest will start to come together. Well, I didn't do that. Taking on my plot at the beginning of the growing season meant I had to turn things around and fast if I wanted to make use of my growing space this year. My eventual plan is to put cardboard down where I want paths, put down a layer of weed suppressor and then cover that with wood chip. Hopefully I will get that done over the summer but I ain't getting my hopes up.

3. Re-Use > ReCycle

I am the family eco warrior and of course I have spread that to my allotment as well. The netting on my fence is the netting from a fence my mum and boyfriend took down, I've got metal rods I found on the plot marking out where my beds approximately will be, and I've got plastic/glass bottles galore! From innocent smoothies to herb pots to your J2Os, my plot has it all sticking up in the air on a precariously placed bamboo stick or metal rod. My idea behind this is to 1) deter the mole that has been digging up my patch and 2) made the stakes more easily seen so I don't end up impaling myself whilst I'm down there. I'll admit, it makes my plot look a bit daft and nothing like the plots round me who all seem to have matching sparkling water bottles on their plot stakes but it's reduced my recycling bin and saved me some money so it works for me.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if your plot is a state. Mine is horrendous! Maybe one day it will be an aesthetically pleasing garden haven but also.. maybe it won't! As long as we do our best and enjoy our little veggie patches, it's okay if it's a bit of a shambles really, isn't it?