Worthing and District Allotments and Gardens Association

Sunday, 30th May

That drop of rain was just enough to soften the ground in the front garden so Mrs N could get in some echinaceas I'd managed to get through the winter in pots after sowing last year. On the other hand it wasn't so much as to stop her mowing both lawns and trimming round the edges and doing a little bit on the allotment today. The onion sets she put in are a tad slow but one or two are starting to get away. Oh, yes, she's coming on very nicely indeed. She's got a week off work next week - I bet she was really counting on doing the allotment then! How else am I going to get my beans in?

Actually I do feel a bit guilty because there's not much I can even do in return. I'm good at lying down and that's about it although I did manage to saunter down to the allotment with her this evening and watch her in action for a while. Earlier I'd been lying down listening to the radio and hearing Rotherham go down 3-2 at Wembley; ah, well another season in the bottom division.

Monday, 24th May

Back to the quack's again this morning for another blood test. This bad back thing is getting to be a bit of a bore now - for you too, I expect - and it's starting to impinge heavily on my hectic social life. Crikey! I can't even go to Pub Night tomorrow. I can walk that far; I tried it out walking to the nearby Oak Grove College to buy some of their plants - 50p each, can't grumble. My wife had to carry them home (and will have to plant them too) but I did manage the walk OK. Trouble is I can't do the sitting down. Officially I'm not supposed to drink alcohol either so a bit of a waste of time altogether. So that's tomorrow written off and I was supposed to be going to a talk on Wednesday evening so that's out as well, is going out with an old friend on Thursday evening, but worst of all is our eldest rang to see if I fancied going to Wembley on Sunday to see my beloved Rotherham United in the League Divison 2 play-off final against Dagenham & Redbridge. Normally I'd be there like a shot but first it's on a Sunday so the train will probably be replaced by busses which I can't do and then the thought of sitting on a Wembley seat for 2 hours is just too painful. And how many times do Rotherham get to Wembley? Just my luck and a fat lot of sympathy I get too. This morning the window cleaner wanted to know if I did it trying to lift my wallet!

To be honest, people have been very kind. My wife has taken to gardening like a duck to water and my friends J & C have been working so hard on my allotment it's now much better that it would have been if I'd been doing it myself. If they carry on like this I shall have to enter it in the "Best Kept Allotment" competition!

Friday, 21st May

Well, I finally found out who the donor of the bottle of Chianti on my doorstep was. Thank you, M. And then today I had a telelphone call from another friend asking if they could help with my allotment while I am indisposed. Aren't there some nice people in this world? This afternoon I did take a leisurely stroll to the plot with Mrs N as she wanted some rhubarb and I could see they've been working on it already. I showed Mrs N the patch they'd cleared ready for my cabbages to go in and I am now training her up. Already this evening she put a row of red onions in for me in the back garden and studied the tray of lettuce which needs transplanting. I hope she watches Gardeners' World tonight.

So how did I get in this predicament? Well. a couple of weeks ago a few days before we were due to go on a coach tour holiday to Italy I woke up in the mornig, as you do, and couldn't move. My back had gone. I hadn't been doing any heavy lifting and couldn't blame it on the new washing machine because that arrived later in the day, after my back had given in. It was a Monday, bank holiday, so I didn't do much, just hoped it would go away. By Tuesday I was in mild agony and had to see the doctor, thinking that my trip to Italy on the Saturday was a gonner. He gave me loads of pills and told me to come back on the Thursday to see if I had a realistic chance of going so when I saw him again on the Thursday I tried to make out it was much better. Not easily fooled, these doctors, are they? And they know where to prod for greatest effect. Still in the end he agreed to let me go on condition I also took a load of muscle relaxants to stop my back going into spasm. And it worked! Sure I wasn't perfect and I did have the occasonal "Ooh, my word, that hurt!" moment but we enjoyed our break. Then we came back home. Now I don't know whether it was the potting up the 40 tomato plants, mowing the lawn or digging up the old 5ft broccloi plants but things went from bad to excruciating. Bt the time I'd driven the car to Small Dole and back they practically had to scrape me out of it. So, back to the doctor's for even more pills I am now officially a very naughty patient ........................ and absolutely useless..

But I can still appreciate the garden even if I can't do much else. The lilac smells lovely which just about makes up for its 49 weeks of boringness the rest of the year and the weigelas and the cornflower are coming into bloom so lots of colour and scent for me to enjoy while incapacitated.

Monday, 17th May

Just to let you know I am still around but so is my back and I can't sit at the computer for very long or get in the car - not that it would do me much good as it failed its MOT today. When they put the new headlight in in January apparently they put the wrong one in and fitted it the wrong way round! Somehow I've got to get it to Small Dole tomorrow.
Meanwhile, thank you very much to the anonymous kind person who left a bottle of wine on the doorstep for me the other day. Others, please take note.

Friday, 7th May

I don't believe it! I've done my back in. I don't even know how; I just woke up unable to move. Probably something to do with washing machines! It's not only keeping me off the plot but off the air as well. I can't sit here - or anywhere for that matter - for very long as it hurts and I seize up. Lying down is reasonably comfortable but the doc advises against that and it does hurt trying to stand up afterwards. Standing still isn't very comfortable either. In fact the best all round is wandering about with a stick so that's what I am doing mainly and not a lot of writing the website.

I have managed a few things in the garden: mowing the lawn with a hover mower, hardening off my begonias, cutting back the choisya (I had to - I fell in it, broke off a branch and it took my ages to get up), sown my runner beans in trays and watch my carrots and courgette seeds germinate. I think I could be doing a lot of watching over the next few weeks!

Sunday, 2nd May

I had intended to go to the allotment this morning but a little bit of rain put me off. I haven't been there for over a week now in what would normally be a busy period. The latest setback was the washing machine conking out and flooding the kitchen floor. For some reason getting a new machine became the top priority, closely followed by other shopping. The replacement arrives tomorrow but they won't fit it, although they will take the old one away, so tomorrow I will be:

• waiting for it to be delivered;
• plumbing it in to the cold water supply and waste unit;
• wiring it in to the circuit because the plug will not go through the worktop.

But I don't want it to seem like I've been doing no gardening at all. I have at last got my white onions in but I don't know if they'll be any good. I always start them off in trays but they have been longer in the trays this year than normal and I'm not sure how they will get on. I've also been mowing the lawn and continuing to hack back the hedges in the back garden outside and in the greenhouse I have been potting up/on tomatoes (late again!) and nicotiana. I have actually planted up a hanging basket too but at the moment it's hanging up in the greenhouse until I think it's time to start hardening it off: surfinias and bidens aurea.

Although I haven't given it a great deal of attention apart from mowing and deadheading the back garden doesn't look too bad. I think this is largely because the apple trees have come into blossom and that always brightens things up, doesn't it? There are still some daff's out, complemented now with aubretia, primulas. heather, tulips, forget-me-nots, berberis, choisya and bluebells. The forsythia and the hyacinths have finished but they will soon be replaced by other things like the weigela and it won't be long before I put in the begonias I've been hardening off. Every season has it's charm, I think and I love the changes throughout the year.