Kitchen Garden Forum

I don"t know why but I find earthing up potatoes most tedious.I can dig all day long and not be bored,hoe until the sun sets,rake until my muscles ache but I put off earthing up potatoes for as long as possible.
I earthed up 3x6 metre rows of first earlies today and it did cross my mind that it would be easier and more efficient than the traditional earthing up to grow them through black plastic sheets but my"mentor",Dilwyn,would throw a purple wobbler!!A traditionalist is Dilwyn!
Who else has a phobia about doing certain,but necessary jobs on the allotment??

I usually find planting onion sets really tedious for some reason, but this year it wasn't so bad. Possibly because there weren't as many as usual.

Cutting (and eating) the first asparagus was BRILLIANT

Drinking a mug of tea, when i could have my hands in the soil instead.

for me it's hand weeding because i have a bad knee so it gets to my back. Especially as my next door neighbours lawn is more dandelion than grass so turn your back for one minute and you have millions of little dandelions growing in your raised beds - still its all good exercise i suppose

Anything which involves bending down is tedious for me - with a bad back and a bad knee I always seem to be trying to position myself so I can get up again - so weeding, tranplanting and dibbing in leeks are all things I have to do in small batches.

Hi Snooky,
Earth your spuds up as you go when you plant them. I saw one person locally planting earlies with a bulb planter into unmanured soil they went in about 3" deep. Wonder how many she will harvest! I doubt that she will earth up 'cos that means doing some work!
She is one of the local "I'm Organic" set and her 'man' has injured his back.
JB.

Planting. I hate planting, which is crazy I know. I sometimes get Seedling to do it for me whilst I carry on weeding (if she's at a loose end).

I too have a bad knee and thus can't crouch down, kneel down or do anything other than a straight leg bed. So, I use a kneeler as a seat and a long handled hand fork. It's brilliant. No knee pain or back pain to speak of and I can happily weed all day.

I like doing most things, but weeding certain beds gets me. I have one that's waterlogged and I know it's pointless to weed it as it will not grow anything but wild garlic and I'll let it go to weeds again and have to strip it all in a few months anyway.

I'm also not very good at anything that requires building, it always goes wrong and takes 6x as long as it should. I hate asking the guys on the plot to do it for me as I'm a proud feminist, but they know I'm cack-handed so usually take over before I hurt myself.

Oh, I forgot to add "picking gooseberries" to my list of tedious tasks. No matter how careful I am, I always end up covered in scratches.

I think I can adjust to most of them
Watering is dull, especially after a hot day when you are covering the whole plot.
At the begining of the season I am dedicated and enthusiastic (almost) about the weeding but as we roll into autumn my enthusiasm wanes (badly)

Oh, the worst tedious job is getting the stones out. Reducing the gross mass of stones!

It has to be hand weeding onions for me. I never seem to leave quite enough room between the rows to use a normal hoe (I always have casualties when I've tried to take a short cut in the past), and the onions always seem more willing to come out than the rotten weeds!
Vivien

I don't have an allotment. I like digging but hate breaking the lumps up afterwards, mainly because I find it painful on wrists and elbows.

Chantal wrote:Planting. I hate planting, which is crazy I know. I sometimes get Seedling to do it for me

Can you let us know how much Seedling charges and what her availability is over the next couple of weeks

I don't have an allotment but I hate watering my garden. Any other job is fine.

Weeding and planting I also can't get down on my knees so every thing has to be done with bended back, then its the backache, into the shed for a 5 minute break and a pain killer other wise nothing would get done.
Bren