The First Crop

A momentous day!! The first crop was dug into the soil, "Autumn Bliss", to lesser beings this means raspberries. They were supposed to go in in November but we've got our fingers crossed that it won't actually matter. Fortunately no "old boys" were on hand to point out the error of our ways, they can have a good laugh at our expense when they next see it. We hammered in a couple of stakes at each side of the plot and my new assistant Amy threaded through some twine on the holes I'd drilled through, it looks OK for a first attempt. While this was going on Tracey continued to get her wellies dirty turning over the wet soil. We used a mix of horse poo and soil improver mixed up in the dug hole.

Progress is shown pictorially below:




"New assistant" Amy tests out her new wellies, bought on the pretext of being needed for the allotment when in fact it is revealed later she is off to the V festival in August and will no doubt need some 'trendy' wellies for the occasion. Good old dad falls for it again. Seen making herself useful with twine and good eyes needed to thread it through the tiny little holes I'd drilled in the stakes.




The finished article, well nearly, my trusty team of trainee "Alans" have done it again, guided by their leader and mentor. Not bad for a couple of beginners.









A steaming pile of horse doings. One of my team stumbled on an ad in gumtree for loads of the stuff and all for free. We popped round there and filled our boots as soon as we could. Thanks Nick.









Finally proof positive that I do in fact do my fair share of the work too, quite happy to get my fingers dirty.

Pictures

This was taken on Saturday 18th Jan and shows progress to date. Note the remains of the couch grass left to scrape away.  See also the proud addition of my compost heap cobbled together with 4 Pallets scrounged from a Builders merchant courtesy of my little brother.  The shed (£75.98 in B&Q) was bought for 20 quid,  a knockdown bargain courtesy of a a major garden centre chain and the rain damaged box it was contained in.  It houses a few tools but nothing of any value in case it gets up and walks away.

You have to look twice at this photo.  Yes its a blonde getting stuck in and getting her hands dirty.  Note the pink gloves, this particular blonde also has an aversion to wellie boots so all in all shes doing quite well really.  Top Girl.

Start 'em young, thats what I say.  Obviously it would be more useful if the young lad here was carrying a spade or a fork instead of a rifle but its a start, at least he's here.

First Visit

29th December 2008

On the first time I ever went to my little patch of soil in a place called Towerfields in Great Baddow I had forgotten my plan which showed me where my plot was located, I knew the number of the plot but as this was not marked out in the site I could not be sure which was mine. I spotted one which was covered in a thick layer of dead twitch grass and hoped and prayed it was not mine.  During my next visit with my plan in hand this time I discovered that the straw-like plot was indeed mine, not a scrap of soil to be seen under a thick carpet of dying grass....oh dear this was all beginning to look like a lot of hard work.

On Monday the 29th December I arrived back at the plot alone with fork and spade in hand and set to work. I'd remembered the combination to the lock for getting myself in but this was not required, the lock had gone and all and sundry could happily make their way and grab whatever they could. To this day the lock is still nowhere to be seen. In complete isolation I got down on hands and knees (no gloves!!) and proceeded to grab handfuls of grass, fortunately at this end of the plot it seemed easy to pull it off the top layer and I soon ended up with a pile of the stuff in the nearest corner