After a very busy day 12, we returned to light but still significant news. It was carpet clearance day, now I do have photographic proof, but that photograph has our number plate on it, so as I don't have the skills to blur the photograph, you will just have to imagine a car filled with carpet, it has been one of several trips made to the tip, and we still have quite a bit more to go. I did however take the photograph of down the allotment. So another before and after is due.
This is our lasses finest work, I moved the slabs about, but when it came to laying the slabs our lass sorted things. It is a fantastic transformation I feel. But also shows how the allotment has changed as well. Not bad in only 12 days on the allotment.
* It has been brought to my attention that where I said "Our lass sorted things" What I meant to write was "Our Lass laid each slab, whilst preparing the ground and ensuring it was level"
Our lass did a grand job.
As I look through the emails I have sent, there are some striking before and afters. So will post the contrasts periodically throughout. Here is the first one. First photograph on an angle doesn't quite show all what had been growing on the right hand side.
As you will see from the photographs, the first green house has been cleaned out and the flooring put in, paving around the edges and bark chipping in the middle, all a bit of a cheat, didn't fancy putting bags and bags of sharp sand down to try and level everything off, did wonder if the bark will bring in disease but our lass asked on a forum and found other gardeners use it in poly tunnels/ green houses. I will report back next year. We then started making use of the pallets, it can work as a back drop to a work area, as well as somewhere for the clematis to climb up. It also fences us off from others as we want to sit in the sun, whilst also marking out the boundary of our two other compost bins. Our lass also got to dig a little bit more today, just can't stop her. Last but not least, brought several barrow fulls of horse manure up the hill, it is not rotted, and we are going old school, and leaving it on top, for it to be dug in later on.
I had been sending photographs to our lass each day, and the header of this blogpost was the header used for my email to her. It seemed a day where we had started different jobs but not actually finished any one of those jobs. Our allotment we believe was owned by someone called "Frank" (In reference to a local carpet shop called Franks) a running joke due to the amount of carpet, carpet underlay and in this case artificial grass. This had annoyed our lass for quite a while so wanted to know what was underneath, as it was getting treacherous under foot, and to simply get it sorted. I tackled the greenhouse as this was going to be my domain, somewhere to grow our lass tomatoes as well as other vegetables/fruits which needed protection, You will see from the before, it needed some attention as well as the removal of quite a bit of carpet!
On the 10th September 2020, we had finally moved all we wanted from the old half plot to our new full plot. The sunflowers which had been a bowl of contention back at the old plot, were something I wanted to make a display out of, and the bin was the best way, I struggled and moaned until our lass got some twine and created a mesh across the top to keep them upright. We also planted the rhubarb our lass had sent off for, and we moved some raspberry canes from the old half plot. It was a good day to be feeling fully moved in.
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| Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb |
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| Raspberries |
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| Not quite a Van Gogh |
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| Preparing for rhubarb in the corner and raspberries along the fence |
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| This will all look a lot different in the coming days. |
Today had various jobs, One is where we softened the look of the compost bin, with lavender and a pot of pansies, Our lass moved up the strawberry runners from the old half plot and starting to clear the back corner under the apple trees.
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| Strawberry bed being prepared |
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| Compost bin softened |
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| Corner before |
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| Corner on its way to being transformed. |
When taking on an allotment, one of the first things they tell you to sort is a compost bin, (The very first job is to take lots of photographs) at the time that we took on the allotment, there were three differing bins spread around the allotment, One of which was right near where we wanted to sit out in the sun. So today, was going to be the removal of the last crime scene and placing of our first compost bin, as you can see moving the big one in front of the green house to it's new location. Also idea evolve, we have gone from having three bins in a row along side the green house, to having them to along the fence, to have we have it now and how you will see in the future. But this is what we have done on day 4.
Day 3 sees our lass complete the digging for my potato patch and we starting to fill in some of the holes in the shed, It is a far superior shed to the one we had before, but it needed sorting. Also day 3 was rainy, If I remember correctly, I was moving stuff from our old half plot up the hill to the new allotment.
Our lasses digging knows no bounds as more bind weed is taken up, it was something our lass wanted to get on top of before it got out of control. You will see in the second photograph where the path has gone to from the third photograph, we also inherited a couple of apple trees and lots, and lots, and lots, and did I mention lots of carpet.
Our lass is a tour de force when it comes to digging, and all I ever seemed to want to do is clean up, so it is no wonder that the first photograph of before and after, is of two beds our lass has dug over, to try and attack the bind weed, and me having swept up the slate, which for some reason is randomanly scattered on the path way.
This will always be the most important moment, and you will need it for the future, when you are trying to compare, to see was all your effort worth it? This really helps in any down moments or to lift the up moments further, so you can see just how far you have travelled on your allotment journey. We gave the allotment the nickname of the "Crime Scene" due to lots and lots of yellow tape everywhere.
