Celljump AS Financial Problems and Weeding

Alicante

It’s hard to know how much to put in what is, after all, an allotment diary about my trip to Spain. I did spend a little time looking at a garden and a rotovator. The rotovator was good but the tomatoes had blossom end rot due to irregular watering,

Got up on Monday at 4.30am and went to bed at 5am on Tuesday for a whole 3 hours then arrived home on Tuesday just before midnight. Scandinavians tend to drink more than is reasonable, in my opinion.

GrannieAnnie asked me if the work was legal and I joked I didn’t care. Unfortunately they are crooks* and reneged on the agreement to pay the expenses for the trip. I understand now that their company Celljump AS is in serious financial problems and some investor has backed out. So 4 days of work and ?500.00 out of pocket.

So was a little tired on Wednesday but did take a walk to the plot, which was still there. Came back with the Mantis to see if I could sort the problem with the tines. Actually it was really easy, a stone was caught between the tines and the body so it was solved in 2 minutes. Got to have some luck in life.

Weeding

The new chap was on plot 28 when I went down this afternoon. The new tenants are really good people, they’re putting me to shame! The path has never been so weed free, which emphasised the weedy state my plot is getting into.

Went through the broad beans and sweetcorn in a couple of hours. It’s incredible how fast the weeds have grown but the soil on that bed is very easy so most were pulled out easily by hand,

I’ll be harvesting some broad beans tomorrow – tried a pod with my neighbour and they are delicious. He’s Italian and was telling me how they used to eat them raw with cheese when he was a child.

Since I have more new potatoes than we are likely to need, dug up a plant and gave him a meal. Got to encourage people who clear the path to that standard!

I thought about spraying the blackfly on the beans. Some of them are heavily infested but most are clear. As I approached, sprayer in hand, I noticed quite a few ladybirds munching on them and decided to leave them to sort the problem for me.

*Addendum – acording to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary ‘crook – a dishonest person, esp. a sharper, swindler, or thief’ My meaning here is dishonest as in someone who reneges on an agreement or swindler as in someone who has taken my time and cost me money under false pretences or thief as in someone who has stolen my time and indirectly my money and in no way should be taken to imply that I know they have been convicted of any criminal offense.