One man went to mow...

Next step in taming the allotment - mowing the meadow which has grown around the raspberries. Unfortunately I don't have a 1-mile extension chord for the lawn mower, so had to go shopping. Fortunately Focus had a petrol strimmer with 20% off, which because I bought it today had a further 15% off (bargain) - mostly paid for by my 2am call out last night (boo hiss!)

So one hour or so of two-stroke buzz later the meadow is largely gone but the raspberries remain. Useful for clearing the paths up there too, and much more potent than the old electric strimmer we had. Now planting should be much more straightforward!

Rotavated!

So Alun rented a rotavator over the weekend, so I chipped in and had a go too. Rotavated the plot I had rounduped a few weeks ago and in about an hour and a half had the 300-odd square feet nicely tilled. Now to do some planting...

In case you're wondering what a rotavator is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_tiller

Friday's update

Went to allotment on Friday with a couple of bags of grass clippings, to do a little mulching and found out how things are getting on... the potatoes are coming through, and we have a spectacular crop of dandelions on the uncultivated half of the plot. Something like a dozen plants per square foot, unsurprising looking at the field next door.

So, I then went to get a giant size bottle of roundup and sprayed the lot, will be interesting to see how it does. Quite a lot had gone to seed, so will be repeating at least once...

Onions etc. doing well - now need to dig plots for the leeks, squash and sweetcorn.