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.

Digging in the sunshine

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a wonderful day.....With such a busy weekend, I wasn't sure if I'd even get down to the allotment, but thankfully, I was allowed out after Church for an hour or so.

It was all about getting the beds dug, so with my gloves, spade and fork I set off to get one wide 'spit' done. I set to work on the strawberry bed and even though it was a bit frosty on the top inch or so, I managed to get one 'spit' done and fill a barrow full of roots. They are nasty things and look a bit like the Day of the Triffids. Either that or a nasty Bushtucker trial in I'm a Celebrity...but I'll get as many of them out as I can, to give the plants a chance to grow next year.

I met one of my allotment neighbours on Saturday, by chance, at the Church fair and they are really nice people, so that's excellent news for both of us. Also, my Dad kindly brought the poles and wire for the raspberry canes on Saturday, so they are in the garage waiting to go. Excellent, thanks Dad!

Next time I go, will be the potato bed's turn.......maybe next Saturday morning, as we have our family Christmas lunch on the Sunday. Oh, I hope it's sunny again, that was just perfect on Sunday morning.

Photo's from Thursday 27th November

The leaf compost bin
View from the East, in the middle of the plot, looking 'down' to the West
View from the NE corner, with the happy raspberry canes in the foreground
View from the SE corner looking 'down', with the bags of rubbish in the foreground

Before and After 1 month of work

'After 1 month'....view from NW corner of plot looking 'up' to the East

'Before' ...view from the same area

Tea and biscuits......

Well thanks to the US Thanksgiving holiday, I was given the opportunity to get a bit more work done on the plot. Karen very kindly gave me a lift down there for my morning's workout, as I had the kitchen waste and 2 hugs bags of leaves from Adrian. All pretty quiet down there, although Derek was working away and the Sun even managed to come out for a little while. It was so warm I had to take my fleece off, although it did make up for it and start raining too, but not for long.

As I was hoping, I used my mattock to good use once again and cleared the final two 'rotation' beds, in order that I could prepare each bed ready for double digging. I have to say it did feel good to finally get the grass/weeds/brambles/carpet, etc all cleared so I could actually see the plot and start to get an idea of where all the fruit and veg will grow.

Now for the most important bit. For the first time, I sat down and had a cup of tea (well a few by the end) from my flask and some biscuits. Now that was a nice feeling, my first rest whilst I've been at work on the plot. It certainly did taste good and gave me the encouragement to get the rest done...I'm looking forward to many more of them, that's for sure!

I then set to work on each bed, digging a 'spit' and moving the soil to the other end of each bed and then each time I go down, I shall move from one bed to another to make sure whatever digging I get done, I shall have each bed at least partially ready to go.

I also sorted out the mass of carpet, rolled up the bits I could use and put them in front of the compost bins out of the way. With the remainder, I filled some of my old bags to go to the tip at some point with the other rubbish I had collected.

Finally, I used some old compost bin parts, I found lying around and made up a container for the leaves to make leaf mould and emptied the leaves I had into it. Still plenty of room, so I shall have to get a few more, as that will come in handy next year.

Amazing to think it was just over a month ago I first came down to the plot and took the first photo's. I took some more to show what I'd been up to and now it's a lot of hard work digging and getting out all those pesky roots.

Autumn Bliss....

Amazing, it didn't rain, but boy was it cold. I'm sure you'd call it perfect digging weather, nice and cold but plenty of sunshine...Autumn Bliss indeed.

I set out on Saturday morning wrapped up and ready for action. I set to work on the first bed getting enough dug to be able to plant the Autumn Bliss raspberry canes, which I had soaked overnight. Having used some compost I put the canes in and they looked good and I also got an extra one free, so squeezed in 6 in the row. I still have a bit more digging to do there to finish it off.

However, having got the last of the raspberry canes in, I wanted to get as much of the plot cleared to be able to see the 4 'rotating beds', so set to work with the scythe and mattock and cleared 2 beds on the South side and then starting moving the bonfire pile onto the new bed ready for burning.

I also rolled up a lot of the carpet and piled that up in front of the compost bins, although there is another pile left to sort out, that you can see in one of the photo's. I think I shall use the carpet to cover the path down the middle, otherwise I shall have a few trips to the local recycle/rubbish centre to get rid of it.

Finally, I cut down a lot of the weeds and grass on the second bed on the North side of the plot. This leaves me that bed to clear with the mattock and then a final bed on the North side to clear. With luck I plan to do that this coming Thursday, as it's Thanksgiving, so I get a day off and we are busy this weekend, so not likely to get anything done. Let's hope it isn't pouring on Thursday morning.

Once I've got the beds sorted, I'm going to get each plot ready for double digging and then move from one to another as I dig, as I don't think I'll get it all done before the spring, but if I can get half of each bed done, then that should be enough to be able to grow lots of stuff next year.

Quick update this week as very, very busy.