The end of harvesting has arrived at the allotment - time to dig up those late potatoes 🥔🥔 after a strange year of heatwaves and drought.
Every year, it is as if a switch is turned off, and everything starts dying back. Therefore, it was very surprising to see some of the potato plants going green again as if they were continuing to grow.
But things are not always what they seem.
Much to my disappointment I dug up one squidgy spud after the other. There was at least one on every plant, together with a handful of smallish potatoes, and a couple of pebble-looking ones!!! All that watering! And still not enough.
A much unwanted surprise came for UK salad farmers this year, too, with a late aphid outbreak – the worst infestation in decades according to the British Leafy Salad Association. Around a third of the crops were lost, costing farmers roughly £10 million.
The aphids appear to have moved on to our allotment and attacked every remaining cabbage leaf!
Weather always matters when you are growing stuff, and the lack of rain has made a huge impression on me and my wife. A hosepipe ban meant carrying water back and forward from the tap to the allotment. We tried different ways of keeping moisture in the ground, like using straw around some plants, and had upside-down bottles slowly feeding others. Of course, we have several water butts to collect water when it does rain 🌧. But using ‘grey water’ from the kitchen after rinsing dishes to water flowers, or bath and shower water for the toilet, has opened our eyes to the massive amounts of water we are using.
According to the #worldhealthorganization, approximately 2 billion in the world (1 in 4) don’t have access to safely managed drinking water. So, we should be very thankful and do our best to not be wasteful with this life essential substance 🫗.
Back on the allotment, the end of harvesting is also the beginning of preparations for next year. There’s dung to be spread, and seeds to be dried and stored from beans, beetroots, salad, tomatoes 🍅, cucumbers 🥒 and courgettes.
To get a little philosophical, working with the soil helps us to see the patterns of life. There are ups and there are downs, as there are cycles of water, air, and organic matter. There are friends and foes in the insect world. And there is hard work and there is some rest, as the seasons come and go.
Watching and praying to the God who sends the rain 🌧, but who is also able to withhold the rain. (Isaiah 5:6).
RJB Newsdigger 👨🌾 👩🌾
#allotment #drought #aphids