Losing the plot, in more ways than one...

On top of the churning of the site there came, last week, news of changes in management. The site is currently run by a foul-mouthed woman and a couple of gay absentees who take the money and promise the world but who actually never deliver. Previous ideas included buying everyone a spade and fork, installing water and providing a toilet on site. None of which has ever come to fruition. Now there's trouble at t'mill as a group of three or four have taken firm steps to take over the running of the site and find out where the rent money has gone.

I've pretty much had enough and, while I will play along for now, the long-term plan is to slowly extricate ourselves from the whole situation. The bees are moved and slowly we'll take off what we've planted and not replace it. So far there are spuds in, King Edward and Charlotte, but no sign of any growth yet. I did plant them deeply and it has been chilly so I'm not surprised.

The garlic has been in for a while and looks good, with the lovage making a comeback in the distance. Lovage is great chopped and added to soups and sandwiches and has a celery hint without being over-powering.

Onions are also in now, planted on a wet Wednesday morning. The sets were from Edwin Tucker and are, I have to say, not the best. Out of just over 100 that arrived, I planted about 80, the rest having gone mouldy or failed to sprit. Still, we have no room to store many, so I should stop wingeing!

Moving house, part one...

I thought I might have had the plot to myself last week when I popped up to turn the ground ready for the potatoes, but the place was packed. There'd also been a good deal of activity since my last visit, as I found out when I went through the gate. What was once good thick turf has been reduced to a slippery slope.

It got worse further in, with the path to the plot more of the same, up to the spring where we get our water. There, some bright spark had had the idea of moving the basin where the water collects, with the result we now have a pool where the old pool was, and a swamp because the new plastic sump doesn't drain the water away properly.

When I got to the bee plot, I was horrified to find this mess:

Walking across from the path was hard work and I can only begin to imagine how much harder it would be with a full super. You can't even wheel a barrow it's that uneven. When I queried who and why, and pointed out that was my half plot for the bees I was given some vague bullshit that just proved once again that the people who have plots on that site have no clue how gardening works, and if brains were manure, there'd be enough to fertilise only a very small gro-bag.

So my hand was forced, so to speak. I don't want the bees on this site any longer and decided to move them straight away. So with a friend, Andrew's, help the remaining hive (the one on the left in the photo) was lifted from its home of over three years, carried stumblingly across the ground, placed gently in the car and driven to a new location.

The distance from site to site was well over the regulation three miles and they should do well there, secluded and in the midst of masses of balsam. I returned to the plot site on the Monday and removed the rest of the windbreak netting and the remaining hive and will re-queen as soon as possible to get back to two colonies.

All this was done in the rain so thankfully there were no flying bees, and I have yet to inspect them after their move, but it all went smoothly, albeit a couple of skids on the path of the skimmed allotments and a near-miss blunder at the top of the potentially lethal steps, below.

The photo is blurred because I was still shaking after slipping on the second step, with Andrew skidding at the top. Thankfully those orange straps keep everything nicely tight and together. So one colony successfully moved, no stings, no mishaps. Thank goodness!