At long bloody last

Progress so far. The fruit cage is at the top left.

 

I open nearly every new post with the same(-ish) phrase: “I’ve been hellishly busy on the allotment”. Not only is it boring, but it’s true. Just now, I’m juggling three distinct elements, none of which are complete. There’s the conversion of what was a neglected site,  then there’s getting seeds in the ground and, thirdly, I’m trying to keep on top of the weeds.      

Five out of the six raised beds are built, and I’m currently finishing off the fruit cage. Just got to get the netting on, and I’m done. It’s taken a lot more work than I thought, and I had to concrete eight posts into the ground, then put beams around the outside to hold the net. It’s the only major structure on any of the allotments, and I’m sure everyone else thinks I’m crazy. Probably a lot of that has to do with the fact I’m spending far more time and money than anyone else.       

One of the reasons I’ve waited until now to write my latest post, is I wanted to see the plants springing to life. For a long time, nothing seemed to grow at all, and at one point I was getting really fed up. Winter was never coming to a proper end. Then the weather took a sudden turn – the air heated up, and finally we got some action. The change was remarkable. There was only two days between me being pished off and wondering if it was all worth it, to me getting excited again.      

The Master Plan

  

How the plot will look eventually (we hope)

 

  Since acquiring the new allotment I’ve done little except dig. Out of the six major beds, I’ve now completed three. This is despite spending every spare weekend hour with a spade (when the weather has been kind enough).        

However, Janek and I did complete one job very quickly – planning the allotment’s new layout. On the day we took the keys (to the shed), we got out the measuring tape, and spent the evening drawing up a plan. Like I said in my last post, we will be taking as inspiration the “ideal allotment” from Caroline Foley’s Practical Allotment Gardening.        

Pictured above is what we came up with. I’ve ordered nearly all the plants and seeds from Dobies (not to be confused with the Dobbies with two ‘b’s. That’s for genteel coach parties. In Dobies with one ‘b’ , the ‘b’ stands for bitchin’).