Working at night on an allotment

[Barry]

Have any of you ever done this? I know it sounds mad, but I am moving between sites at the moment, preparing my new plot at lunch time, then going to the old one after dinner in the evening to retrieve plants and materials.
The plot at night is a really weird experience; somewhere you know like the back of your hand is transformed completely by the total lack of light. I use a wind up torch to find my way around; these look good in brochures and, while they retain an lcd light for ages, you soon lose the intensity of the beam and have to endless boost it by additional winding.
However, most of the time I can navigate without any torch at all and have dismantled entire compost bins (compost and all) just using night vision. Our eyes are better than we give them credit for. What really impresses me is the power of the moon. Two nights ago, I was wholly convinced that somebody had turned on a searchlight, such was the intensity of the light shining down upon me from on high. But to get the best out of the moon, you need something like 50% cloud cover, since moonlight reflected off the clouds raises visibilty considerably.
Another feature I have noticed is that of the mind's ability to in-fill. Believe it or not, your eyes and brain don't record 100% detail; the brain infills outline data using archived guesses, apparently. Well, this accounts for the fact that, on one occasion, I made myself jump quite seriously several times in one night when turning round to see a sack I had just put in a wheelbarrow; it looked like some menacing figure about to leap out and attack me. It didn't matter that I knew this to be harmless, my brain kept insisting on going "Wah!"
Well, I have another month of doing this about five nights a week and by then hopefully everything will have been moved across. In fact, it will have to be since if not I won't be able to get things established before they really start to grow.
All good fun and quite an interesting experience!
Anybody else done this?

[Tigger]

Not exactly, but I have been known to garden at home at night, with the outside lights on and a (caver's) headtorch.

Some years ago we had a regular early morning digger in our garden. He was a friend going through a divorce and couldn't sleep. I flippantly suggested he could use the time he was awake more productively by working in my veg garden, so he did! For many months, we would get up at 6am and find he'd been down there for hours. He then had his breakfast with us and went off to get ready for work.

Pity he found a new romance really.

[Jenny Green]

I've been known to sit outside with a glass of wine in the moonlight and look at the white flowers glowing in the dark. Does that count

[Gilly C]

living in the sticks I find it much easier to see using night vision than a torch ! I hope you are not planning working by moonlight on Saturday it is a total Lunar eclipse ! not sure if it is visible from everywhere Windermere is supposed to get a good view and the forecast is good for a clear night !

[Chantal]

We've got a plotholder who's known as the "Midnight Gardener". He's rarely there during the day, arrives at dusk and goes home who knows when.

[Jenny Green]

Are you sure he's gardening? Or just burying things?

[Chantal]

We've no idea and he gardens in a wilderness. He never clears the undergrowth except for the little patch he wants to use, it's bizarre. However, as he's had a plot for over 40 years and has always done things that way, no one wants to say anything to him about the mess. He could have anything buried up there.

[Weed]

Forty years ago...that was about the time of The Great Train Robbery wasn't it?

Only joking... he must have either chronic insomnia or have been a night worker all his life.

[oldherbaceous]

Or putting it a little meaner Weed, he's a lunatic.

[Colin_M]

Don't know if this counts, but my allotment is right under a streetlight.

During the spring and summer months, there comes a point in the evening when it doesn't seem to get any darker. If I've been deeply involved in something, I've often worked well beyond 10pm, then realised I'm gardening by streetlighting!

I've also wondered how this light might affect the day-length that some plants use to trigger flowering. Most stuff seems to cope though.

Colin

[John]

Hello Barry
There's a total eclipse of the moon on Saturday night. Totality lasts from about 10:30 until midnight so you'll be able to enjoy your night time efforts as the full mooon becomes just a coppery glow. The upper atmosphere is quite clear at the moment so it should be a fine sight if there is no cloud cover.

John

[Weed]

I wouldn't shout too loudly Colin...the Council will be charging you for the use of their light.

I know my Spanish allotment neighbour planted her spuds at night last year by car headlight

Her other half sat in the car whilst she did all the work...obviously he has her well trained

[jane E]

When I had small children the whole of my serious gardening was done after I'd put them to bed. There is something very lovely about a garden late in the evening; the bird song is more pronounced; the smells are stronger and it's quiet. I never got out of the habit of working late in the garden and then when I had an allotment I tended to be the last one to leave. There was one very dear older man who wouldn't go until he'd seen me go because he thought it wasn't safe - and it probably wasn't, but I was engrossed. Keeping him hanging on was the thing that would make me pack up! Now, I get tired more quickly - sign of age!

[Weed]

Jane

I too have hung back if there is a lady gardener on her own on the site..call me an old fashioned male chauvenist and you would be right

Its the way I was brought up...my Mum always made sure that the schools I attended were 'approved'

[Primrose]

I occasionally worked in our garden veggie patch at night before I retired when time was at a premium as we have a back garden security light which triggers when there's any movement. This floodlighting was very convenient, but as it lit up the garden like Colditz, I didn't like to do it too often for fear of upsetting the birds and the neighbours. But the light did trigger around 2 a.m. a couple of years ago in the drought-ridden summer and when we got out of bed to check, were amazed to find two albino badgers digging in the lawn for food. Initially thought we were imagining things and that two baby polar bears were in the garden !