Busy Sunday, strimming, raking and clearing a small token patch of soil to make us feel better about the rest of the plot.
Met some more new allotment friends, including Gerry, who offered us some pumpkin seeds. All the pros recommend clearing a bit and getting some easy, quick crops like beans and radishes in the ground, I notice!
Jonathan coaxed the Lewises strimmer back to life but we finally had to give up when it ran out of strimmer wire. He and William got about 3/4 of the uncarpeted patch strimmed though!
Next big job is to stake out paths and beds so we have a rough allotment plan and don't waste time digging over ground that will be needed for access or to pop a shed on in future (we have shed envy already).
Jonathan and Issy planted some parsley and coriander seeds in the propagator on Sunday evening but I think we'll keep culinary herbs for the patio at home. I got some trailing geraniums into my patio pots too but the patio needs big work to get it neat. That's for a different blog methinks.
We've started a compost heap on the allotment but need to build a box for it. Apparently a lady came and looked at 38A but was advised by everyone to plump for 5A (she had a choice) instead. The problem with the bottom half of Eda's old allotment was that there is a sizeable earth bank at the bottom end, with no drainage channel cut. So in wet weather it turns into a paddy field. Not that you'd know this right now - the whole site is looking pretty dry and several people were using hosepipes.
When we first saw the plot I found it hard to imagine that it had been under cultivation just last year. But course, as soon as Jonathan strimmed the grass and Will and I did hard raking (grandpa John's bulldog rake was perfect) we soon started to see fine, worked soil underneath the light covering of grass and weeds. It was a good moment!
We do also need to dig out that stubborn hawthorn bush...
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