What a difference a day makes

Conscious of the work that I needed to do and that time was moving on, yesterday I took the day off and spent it on the allotment getting those important jobs I really wanted to get done.....and what a pleasant day to choose. Not sure it turned out to be the warmest day this year, but it was warm and sunny, particularly in the afternoon, but thankfully I didn't get burnt.

My plan was to finally dig the area to the bottom of the plot, next to the compost bins, double dig it, get rid of all the roots and level it off a bit so that I could use it for planting this year. Well, finally after 4-5 hours of hard work, I managed to get it done...phhheeewwwww. My back is killing me now!



I'm so glad to get this done, as in my first year, I cleared the majority of the plot and this area was where all the turf, roots and rubbish was piled up in a mound and I now have a few bags to take to the tip. Great news.

Having got this done, I then cleared away the leftover cabbages and started my seed planting for this year. Yesterday, I planted the following;-

Peas (around the wire mesh, much like last year)
1 row of dwarf french beans ( we like those, so will plant more)
1/2 row each of Broccoli, Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Savoy Cabbage
1 Row of All Year Round Lettuce
1 row of Cos Lettuce
1 row of Tetona Spinach
1 row of Spinach Beet

I have plenty of room now and as I mentioned before, my Dad is busy growing a number of plants too, so if these seeds come on then they can supplement those I get from my Dad.

I repaired the Sweet Pea frame and was going to plant them too, but then realised I didn't have any....oooopps.

You can see all the planting in the following photo's.




Finally, I cut some of the grass and positioned my new blue water barrel, so thanks Dad, yet again, next to the shed and as you can see the strawberries are flowering nicely and the raspberries are shooting up. Excellent. Next job is to build the frames and get the netting to protect the fruit, so we can actually enjoy it this year!




So along with the frame, I'll continue planting and weeding, try to find some guttering for the water collection and stain the shed too. It's amazing when I look at the plot now to how it was at the start and the photo on the blog just makes me appreciate how much I've done, along with help from my family, so thank you. The last 2 photo's just show the plot from the top looking down. Oh, it's going to be a great year this year....I hope.