Any old iron!

Went up there today to do some more digging, not so good thanks to all the rain recently so started on digging north of "the structure" where there's less clay but other things it turns out. Dug up all sorts - rocks & bricks (expected) weeds (expected) old roller skate (less so) bits of armchair (...) and an old iron (?!?!)

Got some more area cleared - not bad considering recent weather:

And for a change actually planted something - Helen's dad brought down some raspberries (polka) and blackcurrants:

 - the boards are to mark out where the raspberries are as you can't see much. These are to help form a windbreak on the western side of the plot...

Diggin' it

Still going on preparing the ground - slow work but at least we have some good weather. Latest state:

Good candidate for a game of spot the difference! Bit of a shame that it represents a total of about 3 hours combined effort then... Western side of the plot (far left on image) has a touch of the Royal Doulton to it (i.e. it's clay) but rest is pretty good. Far side of the wooden structure above is in a pretty good state.

Nothing planted yet! Way to early to consider this, however on the groundworks still trying to scrounge as many pallets as possible from work to make edging and - if enough wood is available - a fence / windbreak to try to cut down wind blown weed seeds. In case anyone's interested the plot is here.

Birthday presents

So it was my birthday yesterday and amongst the goodies I received I got some flower seeds for the allotment:

We are quite keen to devote part (approx a quarter) of the plot to flowers to attract lots of bees, butterflies and other insects. We have chosen tall-ish flowers so I can also use some of the material for cutting. The flower patch will probably include some herbs too such as dill, rosemary, lavender, oregano etc.
In addition to the seeds I also got lots of biodegradable pots and soft wire ties!

Tag team digging

Emily has a friend over today so we took turns going to do some digging. Soil pretty good which was nice to find - a little bit of clay but not much, and made for nice digging which is good as there are lots of roots to dig out! Progress so far:

Does not look like much but good progress for about an hour of work each. Would have done more but was running out of daylight!

Ground cleared, bin full

So turns out building the compost bin was not a waste of time, as getting from the pictures earlier to this:

Kind-of filled the bin:

Will be needing some more pallets then for another bin then! Also need more cheap / free wood to make some boundaries. Hopefully that lot will compost down... next job is to get some digging over done. Nice afternoon light this time of year for photographing allotments ;o)

The *most important* thing?!

First thing done for the allotment (maybe priorities not quite there?!) was to put together a decent compost bin. From previous post was clear we had a lot of plant material to be composting so a dalek would not do the job. Fortunately this week managed to score some pallets from work and with the help of my assistant:

we built a compost bin:

which has wire mesh from one of those plastic greenhouses to keep the greenery in. Was put together with the latest in Modern Technology namely nails and a 4lb hammer. Now to do some actual gardening...

Having another go...

Went to help someone with their allotment a couple weeks back and found out from another allotment keeper that there were plots going spare. We contacted the council and asked for a half plot and they offered us 17a at the Naldertown site in Wantage. Went up there this week and this is what we found:

To be honest not a bad start - the soil can be dug rather than being good for pottery, and it's not completely overgrown with perennial weeds - though perhaps this picture does not do it justice?! Anyhow we're starting work now so I am sure a lot of updates will follow... From the other corner: