The 40-Minute Disasterclass: Wind 1, Brassica Cage 0
I only had 40 minutes on the plot this weekend, and I arrived to find my brand-new brassica cage completely destroyed by the wind. After previously losing a polytunnel and a greenhouse to the weather, it was incredibly disheartening. But you can't let the wind win.
If last week’s update was fueled by 50% blind optimism, this week’s was powered entirely by spite.
I only had 40 minutes to spare for the plot this weekend. The plan was to pop down, admire the glorious "Fort Knox" brassica cage I built last week, put in some onion sets, and head home.
The British weather had other ideas.
The Reality of Allotment Wind Damage
I arrived to find my brand-new brassica cage absolutely flattened. Destroyed.
I’ll be honest, it was incredibly disheartening. If you’ve been following my gardening journey for a while, you know I have a cursed history with the wind. I have lost a polytunnel. I have lost a greenhouse. I swear I fasten everything down like it’s preparing for atmospheric re-entry, but if there is a rogue gust of wind in the county, it will inevitably find my plot.
Staring at the tangled netting and snapped canes, I genuinely didn't know what the problem was. Is it my knot-tying? The aerodynamics of the plot? A personal vendetta from the weather gods? When you only have a few hours a week to dedicate to this hobby, watching your hard work get shredded in a matter of days is a tough pill to swallow.
Planting Onion Sets and Harvesting Rhubarb
When you're stood in the mud looking at a ruined cage, you are tenpted to go home and cancel the whole season (and it did make me sulky for more of the day than I would care to admit).
I couldn't fix the cage in the 40 minutes I had, so I made it safe and focused on things the wind couldn't destroy.
I shoved 38 onion sets into the ground. Good luck to the wind trying to blow away an onion that is buried up to its neck in heavy, wet soil. It took me less than 10 minutes, but getting them in felt like a tiny victory against the chaos.
I also managed to pull the first few stems of rhubarb. Rhubarb doesn't care about the wind, it doesn't care about the rain, and it thrives on neglect.
Not every weekend on the allotment is going to be a glossy magazine spread of trug-baskets and sunshine. Sometimes, it’s a 40-minute disasterclass in damage limitation.
But I got the onions in, I got the rhubarb, and the cauliflowers underneath the flattened netting are... well, they're technically still alive.