Getting to work...

Right- prep time!!

 This morning we had a leasurly Sunday morning, not getting up in a rush. Popped to Morrisons on the way to the allotment to grab something for breakfast and then went straight there. Stood for about 10 mins eating breakfast and just looking at the plot. There was a lot to do!! While the back sort of quarter is for a garden area- so I can ignore that part- there's still a lot to do! 

 A few months ago we were in JTF and saw they had rolls of garden liner 40metres by just over 1metre for less than £10. Bargain we though- so we got 2 rolls. And I'm so glad we did! Perfect stuff for the job!

 And to top it off, a few months ago I contacted the lady in charge of the allotments at the council about wood chippings. Someone happened to mention it- and it seems she can simply direct the woodchippings removed from

other council sites to which ever allotment site ask for them. A good bit of recycling! I was actually worried a few months ago that I was going to have to spend a fortune on something like that. But never mind! Not any more!

So before we started putting the liner down the ground was very uneavenly and while the majority of large weeds were gone due to the previous liner we put down, there was still lots down the side by the fence. So I'm sure out neighbours will be happy to see that gone!

So one side of the allotment is 3 rows thick. We took it to sort of where the edge of the path will be running up the middle. This was me taking a little break from some manual labour while my husband did wheelbarrow runs to the woodchippings. 

As I've said plenty times before- we have really thick clay soil. It does seem to have really good drainage- but at this time of year it's very thick, sticky and 'claggy' as my mum would say. Which meant you couldn't walk for more than a few feet without having plenty heavy mud weighting you down!! 

 And yes- my allotment boots are Uggs. They're warm, cosy and pretty old now- and due to their thick soles mud rarely goes past the sole. Makes for a much more comfortable day!

And the final photo of the day!! I'm really happy with it all. The whole area has cost less than £10 as I haven't even used one roll of the garden liner yet, and the bricks and woodchippings were free. So even better!! 

 It was safe to say after all that we were both quite tired and pretty achy!!

Mid winter and a year on...

So, it's the middle of the winter and it's not particularly cold today. Well, it hasn't been particularly cold at all this winter- yet! There's been the odd frosty cold day but not many. Today was around 8 degrees. So not bad really. 

 There has been a lot of rain though- even for us- on the north east coast of England rain wise we're not majorly effected. Yes we have weeks where it just rains none stop- but fortunately we don't ever get effected by flooding unlike other places. 

 This is a year on in the life of my allotment. It had never had an owner before me. It had been empty land for several years and before that it was a car park! So it's interesting to see how the land is effected by the things we do.

The soil is very thick clay soil- and at this time of year it's horrible to work with. You could mould shapes out of it!!

But we went along today- to plan tomorrow when we will begin working on it.

 We would have started sooner but my husband dislocated his shoulder and so has been out of action for a good while now. 

As you can see, it's looking like a bit of a shambles. Though the sprouts are still happy enough.

We plan on starting on the left hand side tomorrow in front of the shed. The council have kindly dropped off a lot of woodchippings at the entrance to the allotment site- so we will collect those as well to neaten things off and stop weeds from coming up in the spring.

My pond seems to be quite happy. It's the area I leave as wild- and it certainly looks wild right now!! But the actual pond seems happy enough- some of the pond plants are dying back but it took a long time for the winter to kick in! We had a super warm November! In the spring I plan on getting some more pond plants- I'm thinking more grassy things. 

We also saw these beetles today. They're called Rosemary Beetles. We've never seen them before, but it would explain why they're on the Rosemary!! They're so pretty- I was quite mesmerised. When I Googled them to identify them it came up with he RHS website; which says they're pests. They're meant to sort of destroy the plant while they eat it in late autumn to late spring- though my Rosemary has never looked better so they may have just arrived! I don't want to get rid of them though. Everything has a place on my allotment- and if it means I have to sacrifice a few plants every now and then to certain insects then so be it. I don't like to consider anything a pest if I can help it.