Windy West Beckham Old Allotments

It was very windy at West Beckham Old Allotments on Thursday April 7th – so much so that raking up the hay left by Peter Rushmer’s 7-hour mowing stint earlier in the week was not easy. Various methods to collect the hay were tried – staking down the tarpaulin, with one volunteer holding it up so that the wind blew the hay into the ‘net’; bagging it by hand; putting it into a plastic tub – all eventually to be carried to the piles of hay placed around the 4 corners of the site.

Scything was also not easy, with very tussocky grass, but some of the path sides were successfully cut for up to a metre either side.

Meanwhile, a couple of volunteers dealt with two fallen hawthorn bushes and others planted quite a large number of hedge plants in the south bank of the field. The windy conditions necessitated two coffee breaks and quite a lot of chat. However, we completed the tasks we planned to complete and did a full, three-hour morning - 13 of us in all, so nearly 40 hours’ work, all told.

The next work party is in Sustead on Tuesday April 19th