Allotment Update

Quite a bit of a change from the last time I spoke about our plot.

One husband now incapacitated and unable to do a huge amount of anything let alone gardening until he sees a consultant next month to arrange surgery so it's all down to me now for a while.

Anyway I've dug a trench for our chicken wire fence which needs burying a few inches down to prevent rabbits digging their way in.





Which brings me on to the main development - see that pile to the left hand side? Well that is what is left of next doors dilapidated pigeon loft plus our bonfire pile. Our visit on Tuesday this week was perfect timing as a council man and his digger were just finishing off putting next doors rubbish on that pile so I asked him if he would take our rubbish pile too. The weather hasn't been particularly good for bonfires and we would be waiting a long while for it to dry out anyway.




It was mentioned that the pile would be there for a day or two and if we wanted anything else removing then we could add it and they would take it away.

The rest of our plot is overgrown grass because we've done the hard bit with digging weeds (most of them anyway). Those nettle roots are crazily long and I have every confidence they are going to take a long time to totally remove. There was a corner though at the top that needed clearing of yet more nettles but more importantly rotten wood. I couldn't let the opportunity pass by to have it taken away and got to work.

This is before



and after



this is what it looks like from the top now the pigeon loft is gone



Much better but I was a bit miffed that the council man had dug over next doors plot so I asked the council why I couldn't have mine done. I got a message yesterday to say that a team had been in and it should have been done. We went up today and I'm actually quite glad they haven't done it like next door. They do look to have done something though. Just not dug it over. The most likely explanation is they have driven over it while they were removing the rubbish.




We had a walk round to the bottom allotments on our way home and a couple of plot holders who signed up when we did had hired a man and a little tractor and their plots were looking good. I'm not sure what sort of machinery the tractor man was using but it made the soil nice and fluffy and level. Definitely not like the deep ruts the council has left our neighbours with.

So I've arranged for a gardening company to have a look and quote me for doing something similar and I guess we'll take it from there.

Next door were there aswell today and they are talking about going halves on a proper fence put up by professionals. Not sure we can afford that! I'm guessing we will be sticking to our original chicken wire and hawthorn idea. I really love the idea of a hawthorn hedge.