At Last! Mine, All Mine!

Well, all the worrying I did about last minute hitches was a waste of time.

I got a message from the secretary to meet her at the allotment on Sunday morning to sign up, which I did.

The plot just after strimming (blackcurrant twig bottom left)

The plot was unrecognisable from when we had first seen it.  The waist high weeds and grass had been strimmed off and what remianed looked quite nice.

I have inherited a blackcurrant twig (too weedy to call a bush) another unidentified tree and a large patch of Iris.

The plot is a bit waterlogged towards the back, but the pond is going to be a nice place to sit by and relax once we have got everything sorted out.

I wasn't able to do anything other than look on Sunday as I had promised my wife that I would go to a Jazz afternoon that was being put on by our local WI group and show support, so when I should have been digging I was sat listening to a rather good jazz trio while eating cucumber sandwiches and strawberries and cream. 

I know, it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.

The patch of Iris mark one border of my plot



The weather was against me this morning too as heavy showers hit, but after I had dropped my wife off at work I picked up my son Will and we set off for the allotment, hoping to be able to do something at least.



You can see the standing water to the left





By the time we reached the plot the rain had stopped and it was starting to look like becoming a nice afternoon. 



I was hoping that some of the water that had been lying on the surface had drained away, but it was just as bad as it had been on Sunday

The first point of call was the pond, which was completely covered in duckweed and filled with rotting 'ornamental' logs.  The first job of the day was to try and scoop out as much duckweed as we could to try and get some light into the depths.

Will was totally amazed when a little newt wriggled out of some of the water weeds.

In total we saw about half a dozen newts in the pond, or maybe it was the same one each time?  The water was do murky we could have had Nessie in there and would never have known.

We spent a nice hour or so chatting to one of the other plotholders who was telling us all about the bee hive that had just been installed at the top of the plot, and also a bit about the history of the plot and the surrounding area, but we eventually had to face what we had come to do - to dig.

The first problem was where to start - the ground was so uneven with strange pits and beds dug out that we decided to start in the more cultivated area at the front left corner.

I had previously decided to use the double digging method so we measured out a 4' x 8' strip and got to it.



First problem - the space left by the first spade's worth of soil removed wasn't wide enough to get the fork in properly, so I removed a second strip to the barrow which helped.



Lizard or Newt?



About this time Will suddenly dived at my feet and came up with what looked like a small lizard.  Over the next hour we saw four or five of these, but I am not 100% convinced that they weren't just more newts, but they were about 30 foot away from the pond.  Will is doing research tonight to try and find out.

Second problem - I had let Will mark out the width, and when I stepped back for a break it just didn't look right, so I re-measured.  The width was only 3', so I had then to take out another 12 inches of soil to make it the right width.

It was then that we decided to mark the digging area with twine - in hindsight we should have done that from the start.

Neither of us have ever done any digging like this before, the soil was very heavy and we are both also totally unfit.  The net result of around an hour and a half's digging? 





2 hours of digging



A 4' x 4' bed.



Not quite as much as I had hoped for, but it was looking fairly passable by the time we left.  Plenty of couch grass around, but no real signs of anything much more malign as yet.

I am planning to spend an hour tomorrow morning picking over the top few inches to remove as much couch grass root as I can before finishing the rest of the bed.

I think I will be planting potatoes in this one first - to help break up the ground and also block out any weeds with their foliage - at least that's the plan anyway.