Two Days Rest

Work, (the stuff I get paid to do), and the visit of a pal who I taught with in Saudi, together with the shortening days, have meant no allotment time since Sunday. For the first time in months I woke up this morning to no stiff muscles. It's given me time to work out a list of what I've still to do.




This is more or less how it looks at the moment, the only fiction being the border, which is various kinds of fencing just now, but which will be a hedgerow. The overall plan is to incorporate the fruit bushes into the hedgerow, clear the "shed", midden, and old greenhouse foundations, extend the path right to the southern hedgerow boundary, and have a new shed, frog-pond and poly-tunnel in the SW quarter. The NE bed will then become the E bed. The basic growing plan will be that the northern end will be vegetables in crop rotation, and the southern perennial herbs. But essentially I want two big beds with a path up the middle. 


Et, voila! That's how it looks in my mind's eye for next spring. There's still a huge amount to be done, mind:

  1. Finish relaying the north end of path.
  2. Dig over NW bed and plant with winter field beans.
  3. Clear old greenhouse foundations.
  4. Dig over NE bed and plant with winter field beans
  5. Clear the old midden.
  6. Empty and demolish old "shed". 
  7. Level and dig over southern end, plant with winter field beans.
  8. Plant hedgerow.
  9. Extend path to southern boundary. 
  10. Dig pond.
  11. Erect shed.
  12. Erect poly-tunnel 
And all of that will have to be done at weekends as the nights draw in, and be subject to the autumn and winter weather.  Bloody hell. One of my allotment neighbours said he took on a plot like mine and it took him four years. Time will tell if I'm being too ambitious in aiming to get it done in one. 

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