No dumping no tipping. Hopefully someone has arranged for this to be collected... anyhow back to our plot...
It's all go at the allotment, I'm using spring's increasing daylight and fair weather to spend a few hours there of an evening.
Last weekend friends visited and spent some time helping over on the allotment. They took some pretty darn cool aerial photos and helped me build a coldframe lid for an existing brick structure. How excellent!
Our allotment from above. Pretty cool, right! I might edit something more polished and better optimised later, at the time of writing it's my bed time. P.s. checkout that bald patch! Cor blimey.
The cold frame is a bit drafty at the moment but it should still let me sow more, earlier, especially with a little help from fleece. Before long it will also help me re-home seedlings which will quickly outgrow our windowsills.
The potatoes haven't popped up yet. In the meantime, I sowed some baby bok choy between the rows this week.I also came across this bee, look at it! Tawny mining bee? This is my first time seeing one.I got a bit carried away a couple of evenings. It's lovely listening to the birds at different times of day.Clearing more planting space. Oh my gosh, the twitch! The twitch! I was feeling a bit tired and glum after this, it took ages, and I've so many things to make space for... and a lot of the cleared space has little top soil... and not much has been mulched yet... and I haven't got the woodchip at hand for the paths... and...Today was nice, sunny. I took the day off for my driving test. I spent the morning sowing seeds and re-potting seedlings.Chard seeds are not what I would expect.I don't have a work bench. To sow, I scrabble hunched on the floor. This time I'm happy about that, what better way to appreciate my garden with the sweet smell of hyacinths.Seedlings: Calendula Fiesta Gitana; Tomato Gardener's Delight; Tomato Ribbed Of Parma. Just sown: Epazote; Brussels; Purple Sprouting Broccoli; Cauliflower (mixed seeds, courtesy of my allotment buddy)Laugh out loud, this labelling didn't last. I got happy with the cauliflower sowing and did too many. So I didn't end up sowing chard in this container, to make space for the amount of purple sprouting broccoli I originally planned. Then I think I accidentally mixed some of the seeds around between the cells as I tried to tidy up. What surprises await.Tomato Sweet Aperitif; Basil.Chilli: Santa Fe Grande; Aji.Pea: A few sweet (for flowers, not for eating); a few Sugar Snap (saved by my allotment buddy from a crop he grew last year); Blauwschokker (an interesting, purple variety courtesy of a friend). I have too few of each. If I can get hold of another root trainer this weekend, I'll try to get more going under the new cold frame.Nasturtium, a good companion plant.I've started dumping soil taken from pathways to the area with little top soil (only 4 barrows so far). You can barely visibly tell! My back is quite displeased with this week of work.Laying down some temporary path markers has really lifted my spirit! It has shape! I'm reminded that taking on an overgrown, dump of an allotment is a marathon, not a sprint.
Typically you'd have one big, practical path down the middle of a plot. Instead, I'd like to experiment with two big paths down both sides of the plot, along the hedges, and work with the uneven topology and natural pathways which have formed by the entrance. My thinking is the centre is the most valuable, sunny space. Plus running down the sides with heavy loads such as manure should encourage us to maintain the hedge.
Imagine tomatoes filling the curved bed in front. Imagine brushing past rosemary, thyme, and sage, whilst passing the small centre circle. We can always try something else if this doesn't work out. But if it does work out, I'd perhaps fancy some cordon fruit trees in the curved front bed. What a welcome that would be! They'd also add intrigue, disguising the shape and contents of the plot behind.
Look at me, all excited again. I'm getting way ahead of myself.
