Birthdays

This week was a big week for me, not only was it my birthday (I’m crazy old now guys), it was also the birthday of my allotment on the same day. I’ve come a long way in three years, I’ve had some highs, many lows, blight, mildew, bumblebees and butterflies. I’ve had successful crops, disastrous crops, snails, more snails, compost, slugs, even more snails and a lot of muck under my nails. It has been a huge learning curve and I’m still learning something new every day but this year, is the first year that I feel like I’m not as much of a novice anymore, although I am still a complete amateur. I’ve put a lot of work into the plot over the past month and it’s beginning to show already. I have three of my large raised beds fully planted up, everything had been pruned, I’ve finally begun to deal with the disastrous corner and I’m finding myself spending more time on the plot this year than in previous years.

Three years ago, when I first began my little gardening project, I never expected it to turn out the way it has. I thought I would have a perfect garden in no time, with bounteous harvests all summer long and nothing but long days to spend in the garden in the sunshine. How wrong I was. Life you see, has this funny way of throwing spanners in the works and every now and then, something comes along that takes me away from the garden. Such is the nature of things. As such, I have not been as dedicated, as hard working as I would have always liked to be, and my garden is far from perfect, and that is just fine by me. A garden shouldn’t be perfect, just as life isn’t perfect. (I am of course, perfect. Modest too).

Three years since I first stepped on to the plot and it’s still a mess, there are still empty spaces, messy spaces, wasted spaces and poorly planned spaces. On Tuesday, I woke up feeling a lot older but no wiser. I made my way out to the garden, to celebrate our joint birthday and I realised that despite the fact that the garden isn’t always the way I want it to be, it is intrinsically perfect because it makes me happy all the time, and what else could I ask for really.

March is a time of new beginnings in the garden, it’s getting into planting season and everything is coming back to life. My perennials are beginning to throw up new growth and I’m beginning to get some planting established. On Tuesday week I planted a bed of first early potatoes, some shallots and about 60 red onions. I dug, dug and dug some more and finally got rid of the four foot tall mound of muck in the corner of the plot. I figured it would be nice in a few months time to harvest my onions and potatoes and be able to say “I planted these on my 30th birthday”. Yes, I’m thirty *insert over the hill joke here*.

I also planted 18 strawberry plants, which is probably a stupid amount to plant but I haven’t grown them successfully before and I’m hedging my bets. Get it? Hedging? Because it’s  a garden? Yeah, I’m a comedian.

I’m really happy with the plot so far this year, It’s gotten off to a great start. Here’s hoping that I’ll be able to visit it next March, and every March afterward and celebrate my birthday in style. Here’s to another year!