All plotted out

Check out all that dirty potential! So here it is.  After months of boring everyone witless, we’re boring ourselves to death with rakes and shovels.  Plenty of raking, digging, manuring, boarding, and bracketing – full weekend, not such a full blog. 

The plot is very slopey, in both directions, which is confusing our plans.  We have been arguing over which direction our trendy raised beds should point.  We finally agreed on the direction for the first three:

 

Holly absolutely loved it – all that space, so much to pull up!  Harvey would have loved it just as much.  Plenty of sunshine all day for lying around after you’re all run-out.

We have been blessed with the most wonderful weekend (weather-, not back-wise).  On Day 1, we arrived at about 11am.  After panicking a bit about where to start, and arranging a nice (too) big place to sit, we managed to dig over and build some beds – a long one along the back for runner beans (and the early broad beans, which will be going in at the end of the month), and two shorter ones (for root veg, I think). 

The allotment holders are very friendly (or nosey), although they appeared mostly to be picking and eating, not weeding like us.  (I suppose it’s the time of year, sigh).  Richard gave us an assortment of seeds, suggested onions if we wanted to get something in the ground, and boasted about his strawberries (just finished fruiting).  Two teenage boys locked themselves in a shed, and didn’t come out for a couple of hours.  Muriel and Stephen told us that after years of intensive savoy production, our plot is all cabbaged out, then boasted about their squash and raspberries (STILL picking).  We looked at our bare mud and wished vegetables were faster. 

By 7pm Holly was licking her lead hopefully – even she felt she’d been out long enough.  We sat on our £4 garden chairs and looked at what we’d done.  Then we walked 100ft to the other end of the plot, and squinted hard to try to see the beds we’d done.  Three red hot air balloons passed overhead, and we waved, and ate dark chocolate.  Then we went home for baths and boil-in-the-bag dinner.

On day 2 we went to the garden centre (again).  We taught the parakeet how to wolf-whistle on command.  We asked the fencing man how much it would cost to gravel over 25sqm.  (£150)  Then we filled the car with planks (again), unloaded at the plot, dug a lot more and built another bed, scattered chicken poo on everything that didn’t move, planted onions and garlic, and stretched some 75p netting over the top.  Pretty good for two people who are making it up as they go along, huh?