Amy's area..

What a strange day we have had today weather wise. I was up at the allotment at 09.30 this morning and there was a light drizzle, but nowhere near enough to put me off a bit of a digging. Then within half an hour I suppose the inevitable happened and there was a terrible downpour which lasted about 15 minutes, I will be eternally greatful to our shed for providing shelter. The showers were on and off every 15 minutes which is really annoying since it was my day off and my main day this week I  had allocated to spend sorting out the allotment.

Dinner time came and I picked Amy up for lunch at my grandparent's house before returning to the allotment where there was CLEAR BLUE SKIES and SUNSHINE but a horrendous WIND blowing. The weather really was throwing everything at us today. But we did manage to get things done.

I finished off digging the 2 beds on the right hand side and I also spread some homemade compost from home over the bean patch. Amy pottered around in the shed sowing seeds for Kale, Kohl Rabi, Lollo Rosso and a a couple of courgette seeds in the hope of an early crop like last year. Amy also planted some raddish seeds in one of our salad raised beds that I filled with a bag of compost this afternoon.

Anyway, it's time to show you Amy's little area that she wanted..

It's not completly finished but the foundations are there. On Friday evening my Dad came down to the plot and helped me move the slabs in to place. We actually had the chairs out on it earlier but we put them away before I took the pictures. The 2 salad raised beds make the border for the slabs and I think this area will look great in the summer. We are going to get a table and put some pot plants in and around the area to make it a perfect hangout for those sunny summer days. Amy is pleased anyway so that is good!

It's nice to be able to show you another perspective of the allotment from the slabbed area...





You can see the beds on the right hand side which I finished today. One of the beds on the left is covered with cardboard to surpress weeds until we need to plant our potatoes out and the uncovered bed is the bean bed where I spread the compost today. The runner bean trench is also there and is now full of rotted manure, grass clippings, banana skins, apple cores, tea bags, shredded paper etc. A perfect mix for the beans to thrive. Again you can see at the back the tarpaulin covered area for the pumpkins and root beds. The soft fruit bed is being tackled tomorrow if I remember to take my gloves up with me.

It was definately nice to sit back today and reflect on how much we have done already. We can't wait for the seeds to start germinating now...

Thanks for reading,

Martin