I have to be careful writing this post.  Sunday was a lovely day down on the plot – bright sunshine, warm, good banter, cold beer – really the sort of afternoons specifically designed for being on the allotment.  Unfortunately, Pilla didn’t get to enjoy any of it as she spent about 12 hours stuck inside working.  So I’m going to try and downplay how nice it was…

I got there before lunch and had a couple of good jobs to get on with.  The big one to tick off the list was to create some new little flower beds around the far corner of the plot and up near the apple tree.  The far corner of the plot is an odd little spot, we had thought about putting a pond there (and still might put a small one in at some point in the future) but because it’s open to the space outside the site we get a bit of litter blown in and it had become a bit messy.  We want to attract some wildlife too and it really wasn’t going to in the state it was in.  We have a few old floorboards behind the shed, they have been on the plot since we took it over – the longer pieces got transformed into the fence but we still have some left.  It took me a while – lots of cups of tea and thinking time was required.  There was also a lot to see today – something must have been in the water in Abbey Hey recently because there has been a fence building spree on Site 3 – so I had to go have a nosey.  As much as I like my pallet fence gate, I am definitely a bit jealous of Debbie’s new home made gate.  It is faaancy!  So here are our new beds, hopefully I’m going to add a few logs to the log pile to make it a bit more wild.

The beds also took a while because Chris brought me out a cold beer when I’d almost finished.  This is exactly what you need when you’ve been building things in the allotment all day.  He’s also given me a latch for the cold frame so we can prop it open properly. Legend :).

After they were done I had a few smaller jobs to do.  We’d been to the plot on Saturday afternoon to plant some horseradish roots (in bins – they are virulent growers) which needed to be distributed around the plot.  I then cleaned out the Pearson bins and filled up the manure bay.  It’s taken a good amount of manure to get it two thirds full – this will hopefully provide us with enough rotted manure in the autumn for the whole plot.

 I also planted some more seedlings.  Some of the seedlings have finally appeared – maybe they heard me moaning about them last week.  I forgot to take any pictures so you’ll just have to take my word for it.  So far there seems to be little difference between peat and no-peat but it’s early days (thanks for the GW info mum!).

Our shallots have really come on leaps and bounds and the rhubarb is growing at a quite frankly frightening pace.  It has become a monster.  It’s looking pretty tasty already!

Tammy was spotted throughout the day enjoying the warmth of our greenhouse and the nice bed that Pilla created in the dark depths of winter.  She alternated between sleeping in her bed and stretching out across the pallet we still have in there.  She was incredibly warm!

We have a busy weekend next weekend with Paris and all –  however we have both booked Monday off work which should be for me to recover, but I’m sure I can do that at the allotment, right?