I'm reviewing the situation.....You got to dig a veggie bed or two

Welcome to my Oliver! inspired update. Last night we went to see the show and it was a brilliant production, so thanks to my Mum and Dad for the Birthday present from last Summer. Rowan Atkinson as Fagan, pure genius.

With the new year well underway, I knew I had to dig on and try to get the beds sorted out, so I was lucky enough to be able to go down for a few hours on Saturday, Sunday and a little bit of Monday to see what I could get done. After the first few hours, my body began to complain and I think about 2-3 hours each day is as much as I can do without killing myself.

Thankfully I managed to finally get the 'Potato' bed completed after taking out wheelbarrow loads of roots and stones/flint. Here's a little of what I'm having to deal with.


But, here's the final result. Now just waiting for the potatoes to arrive from the NEW (!!!) Trading Hut, then a bit of chitting and we'll be away. You can see the 'Hut' in the background and very impressive it is too. If you look at the Stanley Road Allotment Blog, you'll see it being built and it's due to open in a few weeks.


I also managed to complete the last section of the bed with the raspberries in, so I may move the Autumn Bliss row, under advisement (!) as it will give them a bit more room and I'll still have spare room for something else to go in there too. Here's a photo of that too.


I have now started on the bed adjacent to the potato bed and will be doing my best over the coming weeks to get the other beds at least partially completed before the planting season begins. I'm just over a third of the way through the whole plot and although it doesn't look like too much is happening I can tell you, there is a lot of hard graft going into it. Especially for someone not used to manual labour!

Here's the latest view from the top of the plot, from the East looking West. Nobody else about today. Not too surprising as the soil on Monday was very wet.

I'm just starting to sort out what I'm going to grow and where, so I'm spending time making plans and notes to help me with the planting, etc so that I'm ready when the time comes and can organise to get the seeds/plants, etc.

All in all, going pretty well, so Cheerio, but I'll Be Back Soon!

New Year....still rooting around

I've felt pretty guilty, as I've not had a chance during most of December to get down to my allotment and get some digging done, but with all the Christmas and New Year fun all done, I should be able to get a bit more done and try to rid my plot of all the roots in the soil and get the beds ready for planting.

Even with the heavy frosts, I knew I had to have a go on Saturday, so with Tom's football called off due to a frozen pitch, I set off with my trusty fork and spade, along with a cup of tea in my new thermos mug and a few left over treats to keep me going and was down in the sunshine by 10.30am. Now, of course it was pretty hard, but once I managed to get the top 3 inches off, the soil underneath was perfect for digging and getting the roots out. Regrettably, I'm left with a pile of frozen lumps of soil, but with luck, nature, will help me with those over time.

However, I did get a couple of my rows done, in what will be the potato bed, so we're well on our way.

With all the bad weather, I'm also starting to think about the shed and what I'm going to grow, so over the next few weeks I'll be getting this sorted out. I did try to get a shed from B&Q we saw in the paper for under £65, but by the time we'd got back from Scotland and I'd managed to get to our local store, they had all gone. I figured, for that price, you couldn't go wrong. Alas, so did lots of other people!

That's all, Ellie's 8th Birthday on Saturday, so this weekend could be tricky...but fingers crossed. Oh what a year to look forward to...this should be fun....and I've not even mentioned the Kelly Kettle.