I was talking to our new neighbours the other day and they were busy clearing the weeds and mess that was alongside the fence between the plot and the field next to the plot. It looked nice and while I warned them that come summer time it becomes a bit of a full time job fending off the undergrowth and weeds from the field, I thought I should be doing that. Looking back at photos showed that years ago the fence was indeed quite clear, but I also remember in those early years that come summer time I had to abandon the edge as the field undergrowth started to claim the plot. Each winter, I hack it all back and each summer it comes back. If I was to leave it, half the plot would be overcome by it, I see it on the plots that are not looked after.

Each winter I give the edge of the plot a trim, cutting back the invasive plants and weeds, the brambles. I also climb the trees and cut off overhanging branches maybe every other year.

I thought this time I wanted to follow the new neighbour’s lead and really sort it out. I was boosted to do this when the told me that they look at my site each time and are inspired that their plot might one day look as good as mine. Maybe that means I’m not longer a beginner, I can think of myself as a proper allotment holder. Either way, surely it meant I owe it to them to sort out my bit of fence, how embarrassing if I was to leave it to come over like other summers.

The plan for today was to start clearing the rubbish away. Soil had built up against the fence to the field and the remains of a fence on the plot. Over the years I have chucked stones and weeds between this gap and it had built up along with its own set of brambles and weeds. I started to pull out the vegetation and adding it to the fire that I had started to burn old bits of wood. We can only have fires between November and the end of March and so over the year I store up all burnable bits and normally have just one fire during the winter to get rid of it all. It seemed a good way to get rid of what I expected to be a whole load of weeds and brambles. It would smoke a bit, but it was still very early in the day, no-one else on the plot.

I was able to clear right back to the fence, it didn’t take much time once I had pulled out all the weeds and brambles, and a lot of old bits of rubbish, some of it mine but most of it before my time, year’s worth of old allotment bits. The biggest surprise was the length of Dexion I uncovered. I gave it a tug and nothing moved. After uncovering more, it just continued meaning I had to keep clearing bits just so that I could get this out. It turned out I had two lengths and they were both a good four meters or so long, multiple lengths bolted together. Both buried many years ago. I’ll have to come up next time with some spanners so I can dismantle it all. Once down to decent lengths I will be able to use these as supports for netting, maybe. I can imagine they used to be part of a frame for the poly tunnel maybe?

It was good in a way as I had to clear off a lot more than I was going to, making it all a bit more worth while. I had already decided this would all be a job that will take many visits, and probably many months knowing me (maybe years). By clearing by the fence I have gained around a foot of plot, the thin path would no longer be so thin, the strawberry bed would now be quite a distance from the fence. I can see why a previous owner had put their own fence up as there was a big gap at the bottom of the fence onto the field. Something for animals to get through. The banking up of the soil and rubbish would had prevented them, so I edged with wood, I will plan to bank it up with stones as I constantly remove them from the soil while I work.

The best investment we ever made on the plot was buying the role of blue thick plastic that we used to put over the whole plot when we first got it. We have since re-used this in other places but still have loads left on the roll. I levelled off the ground, raked off the woodchip from the existing thin path, pulled out any obvious bindweed roots and covered the bit I had cleared. I left a bit to go up the fence a small bit, which would help cover the gap and also be a barrier to weeds. It would also allow me in the future to put up netting to further reduce undergrowth from the field getting through. I replaced the woodchip back again and spread it over the cleared bit.

By this time the fire had died down, while neighbours had started their own fire. They had the same idea of clearing bits away and burning before the end of the month.

It will take many weeks/months to do the whole side, but I hope it will make keeping the undergrowth coming in from the field a lot easier. I’ll leave it as just a wider path for a while, if it’s a success then maybe next year I can make the beds a little bit wider.