Made to Measure

On Monday this week I took my first trip to the allotment of the year. I was wondering what would greet me as I've not been there since new year's eve and we have had lots of rainfall since then. Although the ground was waterlogged in places, it was fairly easy to dig.

I started by getting the edging straight between the small amount of grass that will surround a little flower bed and the bed that will house the potatoes this year (bed no. 3). The fork glided into the earth and it was very easy to get a straight line. The grass was coming out in clumps and as it was full of bindweed and dandelions I must confess that I put it all into a sack and transported it down lock, stock and barrel to the bonfire site. I made 7 trips to the bonfire and on the way encountered a fox at the other end of the plot.

With the edging straight I turned my attention to digging where the potatoes will go this spring. I dug about one-sixth of the plot before it was time to leave and go home.

On Wednesday I was able to go to the allotment again and as there had been torrential rain on Tuesday, the potato plot was rather slippery in places. I made an edging line out of string and 2 skewers and have now got a nice straight line to divide off the potato bed from the 2 beds next door, one of which will house beans, peas, beetroot and chilli (bed no. 2) and the other will house broccoli, cauliflower, swede and courgette (bed no. 4). In between the beds will be a path made of bark chippings etc. of approx 18" width.

Each bed will be the width of 6 paving slabs so it is quite easy to mark out at the top, the thing is that the paving slabs at the bottom of the plot where it adoins next door's path are a totally different size, so you have to have a fairly "straight eye" and not be confused by the different slab sizes!

After all this measuring out I then started to dig the top of bed no. 1 which will house onions, garlic, leeks, carrots and parsnips. I managed to dig about one-tenth of this bed as it is much longer than the potatoes bed. I came across many worms and millipedes and some curious white round things which I guess must be eggs of some sort. They were quickly added to the bonfire plot as I didn't know what might hatch out in the future.

Now that the four main beds are basically marked out, it is a question of digging them over. Only bed no. 3 has not been dug since we took over the allotment and although it is quite compacted with us walking all over it last year, with all the rain that we have had it is not as difficult to dig as I thought.

However, there is still a lot of digging to do......................