Putting the plot to bed

It’s time for the annual clearing up on the plot and putting to bed for winter. It sounds so cosy as if the allotment is being tucked up with a cup of cocoa and a bedtime story. However, it does seem far from cosy as we drag yards of pumpkin vine to the compost, wrestle sunflower stalks to the ground, dismantle bean poles and clear away leaves and windfalls. Exhausting as it is it does seem somehow therapeutic – almost like a spring clean – if that doesn’t sound too weird. Once the detritus is cleared away you can somehow see the blank canvas again. Now that many of the plants have gone you can energetically unearth all the weeds that were hard to get at before – and also be safe in the knowledge  that they won’t be growing back so vigorously. And then there is the digging – as each forkful is dug you can almost see the earth breathing in the air and turning it’s face to the sun – albeit in a few weeks’ time   it will be tickled by the frost. I’ve decided to attempt double digging as I feel this is what real gardeners do – I assume this means digging twice. I  look up the term on the net – and oh no – it is nothing as simple as that.  You dig a trench and put the earth in a wheelbarrow and then dig another trench putting the earth  from there in the first trench and then from there … ok you’ve guessed it – I gave up. It is back breaking work and to be frank life is too short! I  look over at one of my neighbour’s allotment –now he comes only occasionally to his plot but his patch always looks in good shape. I decide to watch what he is doing… I realise he doesn’t dig but hoes and then spreads compost and manure over the top to let the goodness seep in and be taken down by worms. Well, this sounds like a plan – I presume it means that the goodness is kept locked away as some of it must get leached when exposed to the elements in the digging process. I realise though I like digging – it doesn’t feel like gardening if I’m not wielding a fork in a meaningful way – I like to see the worms wriggling, I like to look at and feel the earth and smell … well the earthiness of the earth …. Basically I like to do things the hard way!