Baby due in middle of growing season!

[teapartyfan]

what to do?

I have a toddler aged 20 months and another baby on the way in May. Inconveniently that's just the time I'd be getting my french beans and pumpkins sown and all sorts of things planted out. We have a 1/2 plot allotment in a small village with a kindly and supportive atmosphere (i.e. they tolerate a slightly unkempt plot already). I have a lovely husband who works like crazy to keep us fed and housed, and while he's willing to work on the allotment at weekends, I have done a lot of it myself this year with toddler in tow. And when baby arrives, we'll be all hands to the deck just staying alive.

I'm sure others have been there. How to make it through next year without the plot turning into a jungle? Cheating tips or reality checks gratefully received!

Find someone to share it with? hand it over to the other 1/2 owner? sublet it for a year? give it up and go back on the waiting list for when your baby has grown up and left home? cover it over with black plastic and mulch until may 2012 (or a green manure?) pay a gardener to garden it 4/hours a week for the season?

Put a load of potatoes in - if you get a blight-resistant variety if this is a problem in your area, these will grow really robustly and their foliage will smother out a lot of weeds. If you just leave them and don't earth them up, you will still get a crop, just not as many! So you will be about 7 or 8 months when the potatoes need planting - either dh could help or you could just get a long dibber (fork handle type thing) and make a hole and drop a potato in to save bending. You can tell I have done this before .

If you have too many spuds, I am sure your fellow allotmenteers will help you find a home.

You might be surprised at how much you can get done with a sleeping baby out in a carry seat with you and a toddler helping or at pre-school! Things like pumpkins and courgettes will get going without too much weeding, ditto climbing beans so don't despair. If your allotment is quite close by, you only need a few minutes to get out and sow a row of whatever.

The other thing to do might be to think of planting some permanent fruit bushes - now is a good time of year to do this. If you put down black fabric around them for weed control these should be low maintenance.

I've managed to keep my garden going whilst my children were small - wouldn't win any awards but never mind. It was important for me to be able to get away and do something of "mine" every now and again. When they were young, it was snatched half hours here and there, and now I have two great helpers. (I still don't get to garden 4 hours a week during the season but we manage)