Happy New Year!

This article was orginally published for Cambio Ltd. on 14-01-2013. Access it here.

So it’s the beginning of a new year and once more the department is filled with slightly dazed postgrads, harried looking lecturers and technical staff who look as if they haven’t missed a beat. The kitchen sink is once more filled with coffee grounds, and the lab fridge, cleaned before the Christmas break, is beginning to fill up with unlabelled tubes and iffy-smelling cultures. My supervisor arrives looking uncharacteristically relaxed and tells us to have a laid-back week. Facebook tells me I have graduated from the university, and I have a little cry.

                      

I take some data over to my main supervisor who surprises me by saying that she thinks there’s a paper in it, and that she thinks I can submit my thesis in September. My response to each was a somewhat incredulous “really?” with the latter drawing the additional comment “what, this September?!” My writing up plan has suddenly undergone something of a seismic shift. Being finished in less than nine months is both thrilling and utterly terrifying. Eeek!
 
Sadly this means I have rapidly developed final-year syndrome, which is characterised by long days in the lab, implausible multitasking and a slightly crazed expression. The sudden realisation that after 27 months wondering wandering in the wilderness, the end is now actually in sight. By my supervisor’s calculations I can have my practical work finished by the end of April and then start writing. Needless to say I did not have a laid-back week!

I can see why my department is so keen to have PhD’s concluded within 3 years. In my previous jobs projects lasted for a set time, and then reached a natural conclusion: I submitted the report, I sent the materials to the printers, I hosted the meeting. In contrast, any scientific research has the tendency to resemble an unmeasured length of twine, and it takes experience to judge where to draw a line and publish before moving on.

As an inexperienced scientist I do not yet possess this skill and so am reliant on my supervisor’s experience to judge it for me. Having a deadline helps. It dawns on me just how important having guidance is in completing. In its absence I can see why some friends have taken 5-6 years to submit: there is always one more experiment that can be done. But does it really contribute to your research, or is it just preventing you from finishing anything?

Allotment - annual review

In the 4 months since we moved allotment we have spread cardboard and 4 tonnes of compost, moved as many of our perennial plants between allotments as we could handle and attempted a new plan with regard what to grow and how to grow it this year.

I have also been laid in to by a grumpy old man about fly tipping (when the allotment was covered in cardboard and tyres), had our nice new cloches stolen and lost a whole lot of chard to some sort of critter (my money's on deer). Not to mention that I've had more than a few arguments with Jon about how to do things on the allotment - he just won't do things my way, tch!

Having an allotment is truly a labour of love. There is no way I could put up with all the heartbreak and ill feeling otherwise. When slugs eat your entire onion crop, or rubbish compost lays waste to whole trays of seedlings it can be hard to get back to the patch and just keep going.

But keep going we have. It's been an interesting year and I've learned a few new things, which will be incorporated into our growing plans for this year...

1. We are not going to bother trying to grow tomatoes, peppers or aubergines from seed again. We just don't have the knack. We generally only need a couple of each, and for the time and money (and stress!) that goes into producing sufficient plants it's actually cheaper and less stressful to buy them.

2. Onions grow well from seed, but not when you crank the central heating up. This was our my own stupid fault, as our nice cool plant nursery got turned into a nice warm office while I did my PhD transfer report. The consequence was that they didn't grow too well (unsurprisingly). I will repeat the experiment this year but this time keep them in the poly house outside rather than inside on a window ledge. Ah, the luxury of having a yard now!

3. Beans and peas are where it's at. As far as I'm concerned, after salads this was where we saved the most money, and improved the diversity of our diet the most. This year we will be growing plenty more. Sub-lessons include learning that our yellow mange tout gets enormous and needs as much support as the runner beans; and remembering to harvest pea seeds before they split and sproing everywhere!

4. Garlic and broad beans are best sown in the winter. We tried both winter and spring plantings, and the difference was huge - having the extra growing time in November and December really gave them a head start, and we were picking broad beans by May. The spring planted garlic wasn't anywhere near ready and got left for the subsequent year.

5. Conversely, and perhaps unsurprisingly, onions sets do not thrive if planted before winter.

6. Don't make your beds too big. You just can't get into them to weed, and you lose loads of plants as a result. It's much better to have more, smaller beds which are easier to access.

7. When you are allocated an allotment and they offer to rotavate it - DON'T DO IT!! It looks lovely at first, but considering that the previous occupant will probably have let it run a bit wild before it got taken off them, the seed 'bank' (i.e. the store of seeds in the soil) will be enormous. All you will do is allow a large number of weed seeds the necessary light to germinate which will give you a massive problem later on.

With this in mind, it is onward to a new growing season!