Home brewing antics can now be found at my other blog; http://gettinggrist.blogspot.com/

Friday 6 July 2012

Fifty Shades Of Green


Not only is the rain playing havoc with the growing season, it’s also interfering with work. 

I write stuff, and being freelance, I only get paid when the work is published. I have a contract with a sporting venue and they use my work when they have an event. Trouble is, the weather has curtailed a few this year and this week could go the same way.

It takes me three days to get my work together and I should get this week’s stuff completed today. But, if the downpours that are forecast materialise, the event will be cancelled. No event means no magazine needs to be published and no payment for me.

That’s three days wasted. Three days I could have allocated to brewing beer, getting things sorted at the allotment, or just sitting back and thumbing through my wife’s copy of ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ to see what all the fuss is about. 

Anyhow, the rain did relent yesterday, so I spent the evening at the plot, trying to get things in shape. Clearly, if there’s one thing this weather is good for, it’s growing grass. 

Swathes of vibrant green stuff had begun to infiltrate the plot, evidently growing about four times as quick as anything I’ve planted and actually wanted to grow. The petrol strimmer was deployed to stem the suffocation.



I also hoed through the sweetcorn which have begun to get a foothold. They weren’t looking too bad bearing in mind I was very late with these, following the demise of the original seedlings. A lovely shade of green.

The potato bed, on the other hand, looks worse every time I visit.



Oh, actually that lot aren’t mine. That’s the neighbours plot. Green with envy? Just a shade. 

Here’s mine.  




So Mother Nature is causing me grief, both at the plot and with my work - shafting me left, right and centre. Not too dissimilar to what’s happening in my wife’s book, by all accounts... 


7 comments:

  1. man i feel your pain. My potatoes are just as bad, onions doing nothing, beans stopped climbing, I've got masses of strawberries but so many are just rotting from the damp ground.

    The other old guys who normally do well every year, even they are struggling this year with this weather.

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  2. We too are having a difficult year, everything seems to be so far behind and trying to keep on top of the weeds seems near impossible with this weather!

    Keeping my fingers crossed for you that the event isn't cancelled.

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  3. It's definately a bad year for the majority of crops and growers a like!

    Seeing your potato patch shocks me! I don't mean to rub it in but our potato plants are 4 foot high and completly swamp an area similar to the size of yours. How come they look so depleted?

    Martin

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  4. @arn Thanks, it's good to know I'm not suffering alone!

    @pj Thanks for your thoughts but the event was cancelled, so no money this week :(

    @martin Yes, my spuds are shocking. I'm on REALLY heavy clay and many of the tubers failed to grow (I'm guessing rotted in the waterlogged conditions) and those that have grown haven't done well and have succumbed to 'blackleg' - again, a disease more commmon on heavy soils. That said, my neighbours are doing well (?) I never see him, but must try to find out what variety he grows as he never seems to have potato problems.

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  5. With the amount of knowledge and effort that you put into both beer and plot, I cannot imagine what a disappointment the last several months has been. I hope the late summer and fall are kinder to you.

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  6. I feel the pain too. Waiting for a good crop to turn out and Boom the weather changes and your dream is shattered. :(

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  7. Looks great!! when i was in village last year i grow the wheat and it looked really awesome when i saw it from my village home.
    Regards,
    Irvine Lampson

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