Allotment, April 6th to 18th

April 6th.

Time to get dirty.

The first thing we did was to move those boxes to the back of the lot.
Much better.

Oh, yay!

Rhubarb!

I felt slightly criminal digging up perfectly good berry bushes.

However, I have berry bushes in my own garden, and these do not fit in my plan.

Oh, I left one black currant :)

I also found thyme!

There are all sorts of stuff coming up to surprise me.

The bushes that border my lot on this side are pure thorned evil.

I'm bringing my cutters next time to trim them back a bit.

April 10th.

My seedlings are looking good.

The Turk's turban pumpkins were ready to be repotted.

April 12th.

All the ground needs to be turned.

All of it.

Luckily only half of it this spring.
It's a monstrous job.

It's clay.

We found a pile of sand on the lot and spread that in.

Not a huge deal, we are building raised beds.

I could have chosen a lot in slightly better condition, but what sold this one to me was that round thing there right next to this one.

The water point.

No need to rig hoses. It's right there.

Mmmm.. they could do with a coat of paint.
At some point.

How have I missed these earlier?

The allotments have their own beehives!

Brilliant.

April 14th.

Repotting seedlings.

 April 18th.

Hauling half rotten wood from the forest for a hugelkultur bed for the pumpkins.

Permaculture.

The idea is that while the wood rots it creates heat and also retains water better.

I dug down shovel deep.

Then filled the hole with the wood, piled it high.

Then added the turf I dug up, but upside down.

Added compost.

Still soil, more compost to come.

I like experiments.

This one is right at the back of my lot.