Progress
It's all action on Plot 138b. She Who Does Not Dig and I headed down to the plot on Monday afternoon and were blessed with pleasant weather. After a quick chat with the charming, if slightly eccentric, man whose plot is a couple along from mine, I measured and divided the plot. 4 veg and 1 fruit is the plan. Brought my camera so you can see the plot in its virgin state.
It's the non too impressive looking strip to the right of the blue rope. It's not out of control though, the soil looks well drained and with a bit of manure should be happy to churn out lots of veg for me. Digging and weeding the first bed seemed a reasonable aim for the first session so we set to it. It was bloody hard work, and took us 4 hours. She Who Does Not Dig was digging hard, and complaining about missing tea even harder. We got it done in the end though, just as the sun disappeared. Very satisfying to have got the whole bed done. Here's a picture of She Who Does Not Dig most definitely digging.
And here's a photo of the first bed after our efforts. The bed is fully weeded and dug, although we failed to make any impression on the thousands of small stones. They'll have to wait for another day. Would a sprung rake be any use in getting rid of all the stones sitting on the surface? It's depressing seeing so many on the surface, so it'd be nice to get rid of them to make the bed look prettier, and if I could do it with a rake then I wouldn't have to compact the soil.
This morning we were heading off to London for a few days so I made a quick trip to the allotment to put in the runner beans I'd bought at the weekend. Putting up the frames was very satisfying. They give the plot much more structure and make it look more like a garden. Having green veg in, promising food to come, was also satisfying. Planted the peas as well, it looks like this is the legume bed. Hopefully they'll survive the lack of compost and soon be heavy with lovely food.
Back home I transfered some oregano to a larger pot - I'd bought it at the weekend to add to my treasured herb collection. I also split the sweetcorn I'd bought at the weekend and put them in individual pots. I was reluctant to do so because everywhere says that they hate having their roots disturbed but with many plants in a small pot it was unavoidable, they weren't going to grow at all as they were and were going to have to be seperated at some stage. Away from the plot in London until Friday now, but I'll be back at the weekend to make an attempt at a second bed.
It's the non too impressive looking strip to the right of the blue rope. It's not out of control though, the soil looks well drained and with a bit of manure should be happy to churn out lots of veg for me. Digging and weeding the first bed seemed a reasonable aim for the first session so we set to it. It was bloody hard work, and took us 4 hours. She Who Does Not Dig was digging hard, and complaining about missing tea even harder. We got it done in the end though, just as the sun disappeared. Very satisfying to have got the whole bed done. Here's a picture of She Who Does Not Dig most definitely digging.
And here's a photo of the first bed after our efforts. The bed is fully weeded and dug, although we failed to make any impression on the thousands of small stones. They'll have to wait for another day. Would a sprung rake be any use in getting rid of all the stones sitting on the surface? It's depressing seeing so many on the surface, so it'd be nice to get rid of them to make the bed look prettier, and if I could do it with a rake then I wouldn't have to compact the soil.
This morning we were heading off to London for a few days so I made a quick trip to the allotment to put in the runner beans I'd bought at the weekend. Putting up the frames was very satisfying. They give the plot much more structure and make it look more like a garden. Having green veg in, promising food to come, was also satisfying. Planted the peas as well, it looks like this is the legume bed. Hopefully they'll survive the lack of compost and soon be heavy with lovely food.
Back home I transfered some oregano to a larger pot - I'd bought it at the weekend to add to my treasured herb collection. I also split the sweetcorn I'd bought at the weekend and put them in individual pots. I was reluctant to do so because everywhere says that they hate having their roots disturbed but with many plants in a small pot it was unavoidable, they weren't going to grow at all as they were and were going to have to be seperated at some stage. Away from the plot in London until Friday now, but I'll be back at the weekend to make an attempt at a second bed.
1 Comments:
You will find stones forever, I firmly believe that you will never get rid of all of them, as soon as you think 8 buckets is all there can be, it rains and more surface, pick as many as you can but in my opinion they are a bit like weeds one of those things sent to try us!
By welsh girls allotment, At 04 June 2007 19:30
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