bed time

Wow it's been a tiring but productive day up at Site 2 today. We really cracked on with levelling and marked up all our beds and Cloddigger started boarding out. The plot is looking fantastic now. But oh my goodness we're both paying for it now after 3 hours of raking, picking up stones and rubbish, hammering and sawing. Still it is so worth the effort. We had a lovely comment from one of our allotment neighbours who stopped by to see how we were getting on: "Looks like you've got Ground Force in", he said, "Nice to see the plot coming together so well". How lovely was that?

Mum planting up cabbage, Dad and Cloddigger boarding out



All our beds are marked out and mostly boarded - just need to get some more timber cut to finish them off


My Folks' half with beetroot planted in the nearest bed and cabbage in the next bed


Just need to decide now what to plant up first. Going to consult with my planting calendar to see what is suitable to go in the ground now...

the levellers

We spent last Saturday afternoon on Site 2. It looks really good now that it has been rotovated but there's still quite a lot to be done. We decided to make a start on our half by clearing out some of the larger stones and other detritus which had worked its way into the ground. There is a lot of broken glass on the site which, according to some of our neighbours, is probably as the result of an old caravan been broken up on the plot at some point.

Not too onerous a task as the soil is nice quality and is easy to rake over to turn up the rubble to the surface. Just time consuming and involving a lot of bending over!

Cloddigger doing what he does best!


After a couple of hours, we'd managed to clear and level about half of our share. To the left of the picture you can just make out two lines of orange string marking out the pathway dividing our half of the plot from My Folks' half



beginnings of the main path coming from entrance gate across to the shed.

Once we've finished the levelling, we will mark out the beds and internal paths and then (all being well!!!!) we will be ready for planting.

fencing, painting, rotovating & levelling

Thought I'd create a short photo montage of the work carried out on Site 2 over the last few weeks. Cloddigger and I can take absolutely no credit for what you are about to see - it is all down to my wonderfully enthusiastic parents. So, Mum and Dad "Thank YOU" for taking this all on whilst we've been busy with Site 1.

ground awaiting rotovation, no fencing up


Some of the pallets that My Folks managed to source (with thanks to one of our fellow allotmenteers) which have been used to finish off the fencing around the whole plot


whole plot completely enclosed - no pesky rabbits for us (we hope!)


soil after being double-rotovated and in the process of being levelled off. A lick of green paint has smartened up the shed and should extend the lifetime of the fence

Next task is to head up there this afternoon to start laying down paths (with any luck) and re-measuring so we can begin mapping out how we're going to set out our beds. This has been rather like watching a beautiful butterfly slowly emerge from a cumbersome cacoon. It's going to be interesting to see how the plot develops once the beds go down and we begin planting up winter crops...

the fruits (veg) of our labour

Fabuloso - we're now starting to bring home fresh veggies on a regular basis. It is exciting that we've been so successful in our first season as allotmenteers.

peas and tender baby carrots


some of the 8+ kilos of potatoes harvested so far - there's plenty more to come!


the sweetcorn is starting to produce cobs. Roll on late August / early September when they'll be ready for picking - yum, yum !!!

in the garden at 07:30

Ok so this isn't strictly speaking an allotment post, but I just wanted to share some images with you taken in my garden this morning before breakfast.

how exciting is this? the first tomato ripening. This is a Tumbling Tom planted in the mini-roof garden


this isn't the best photo I took of this alium, but I just love the way you can see the sunlight streaming into the garden

I have no idea what this flower is but I just love the colour and shape of it. If you could enlighten me as to what it is, then please feel free to post a scrap in the compost bin below!