Friday the 2nd June's work up the allotment

I don’t really know where to start after having the weekend away, it seems ages since I spent over four hours last Friday up the allotment!

Well the best thing to do is to just add the photos and type up what I can remember doing.

I spent hours on here yesterday (Monday) but the blogger kept giving me a message that it was busy and to try later! I gave up in the end. I tried at different times late afternoon and evening.

You might think that allotment has shrunk as it looks a lot smaller - that is because my camera case, hanging down, obliterated a lot of the photos. But I did rescue some and cropped them. But if you see a bit of grey, that is the remaining bit of camera case!

The strawberries that I rescued needed some TLC, so here they are in their new bed, which I re-made.

It is not posh like the ones you men have made on your plots – but it is posh for the likes of us country bumpkins up the field.

The white you can see is shredded paper – an experiment to see if it is better or worse than straw.


I did quite a bit of rotorvating, as it was easier than digging as the silly shingles is still playing up, and bending is quite frankly excruciating, whereas with the rotorvator it still was, but was quicker!

So after digging up any dock weeds that had grown over the winter, I set too and rotorvated it all with my big machine. I then went over it with my little Mantis, and finally I raked the area that is to be the grass path.


I sowed the grass seeds, and hopefully before long, I will have a wide path beside the beds to make it easier to mow, and I shall add one the other end of this bed big bed too.

Since being poorly, it has made me realise that I am not the strong fit 18 year old I was, so I am going to be sensible (just for once) and divide the whole plot up into manageable sized beds with wide grass paths. That way, not only will crop rotation be simpler, I can also cover up one complete bed if things get too much for me to cope with and the plot will still look good.

-Well that is the cunning plan!

Here are a few shots of how it is looking now, having hoed and weeded everywhere!


This is the view the chickens have from their meadow


I hoed and weeded between the potatoes and they are really getting big now and the white flowers are in full bloom. Might dig some up this weekend and see what is there


On my hands and knees I weeded between the onions - but they look good so it was worth it.


I am especially proud of my new double width (but seperated inside) compost bin - you can't see it all, there is more to the left of it! I am hoping that it will be big enough to last through the summer - but I have my doubts.