Reflections on a Life of Grime

I came across my first allotment diary while having a sort out.  It's not exceptional. Most days are blank but some have scribblings about digging in manure, sowing seeds and  chitting potatoes.  Clearly there are high expectation... up until May when all of a sudden the record stops.  With variations on detail, extent and timing this is how every vegetable diary I have goes in the last twenty years.

First Records

So I'm wondering why I bother. I don't have time to be a diarist and  I guess this blog is a replacement for my failing attempts to keep a record on paper.  Have I referred back to my notes within the same season or in the next season?  For the most part, to be honest, no! Each year is a victory of expectation over real life.  Conditions vary so much from year to year favouring one crop or another, or early or late sowings of the same cropp.

Take peas. Last year I grew peas Oregon Sugar Pod and petit pois Waverex.  OSP was a success and the petit pois were a dismal failure.  Undeterred this year - and really just because I had seed left over- I sowed some more this year. The Waverex did stunningly well.

Pea Pods





Peas Galore


 Here's something I won't forget: the dismal results from my experiment with growing cucumber out of doors. Last year I got three fruit from one of these grown in a plastic greenhouse. This year in the greenhouse and outdoors  - nul points!


Cucumber?



So to return to the point.  You never know, one winters evening, when there's nothing on TV or the internet,  I might actually review my diaries and see if there is any useful information to be extracted from them. Normally they are just a short term reminder of what I have done when or a way externalising thoughts and setting reminders for myself. Will they be anything more? I'll let you know.