A few weeks absence has meant things have changed quite a lot since we last posted any photos. We have been really busy away from the plot-two half marathons run, a few thousand miles flown etc etc. But once we had a free weekend we were back with bags of enthusiasm. And 15 tonnes of topsoil.

The upside is that we solved our soil dilemma by getting a delivery. The downside was that 15 tonnes were delivered on a Thursday afternoon when I was due to fly to Palma in the early hours of Friday morning and Neil was due to leave for Minnesota on the Saturday! Both of us left work a little early on the Thursday in order to shift the soil. Seeing as how neither of us knew how long it would take to move 1 tonne of soil, we were pretty optimistic about how long it would take us to move 15. How wrong we were. So in swooped Bob to save the day again! Poor guy was leaving the site to go home for his tea when he took up his shovel and he stayed for the remaining three hours of light until we had moved the entire pile! We sort of wish that we had a photo of the big pile of mud before we started work but perhaps with hindsight it’s a good idea we don’t as even the memory of it sends shivers down our spines! Needless to say that for the next couple of days we were pretty sore and blistered! Next item on the list of things to do was build some raised beds. Neil’s friend Nicola had made arrangements with her builder dad to get some unwanted wood from his work site. This was a bit of a gamble as we weren’t sure what quality or quantity to expect but it really paid off. We ended up with enough for four beds and it is really sturdy stuff. It is a very eyecatching shade of blue-am hoping it may repel produce munching pests! We also got some wood from Neil’s friend Leanne to build a further bed, so now we have five made. A huge thank you to those who scavenged wood for us in true ‘don’t pay for anything’ allotment style. Last weekend Neil made the beds whilst I got shovelling…again! So now each of the beds has soil and following a big delivery of horse muck, a good top layer of manure.

ta da! The fence is finished! Nicola came along to help out a couple of weeks ago and between the two of us we did a whole load of painting, with plenty ending up on ourselves as well as the fence. Annnndddd relax. Phew. A whistle stop tour of the work we have done that has finally made it look like a real allotment. The soil sure does help. The next couple of weeks will be more of the same as far as building beds and filling them up goes. We will keep you posted.