Allotmenteering is the Art of the Possible

I arrived today to find two mallards nosing around the plot, quite the thing

Photography often reveals things unintended by the photographer. Here, for example, I was charmed to see these two ducks wandering around the plot. But the photo shows just how much there is still to do: it's a building site with its rubble, materials stacked temporarily; and the emblem of work-in-progress, the tarpaulin in the background.

Anyhow, despite the building site look, I'm really going to make an effort to get on with the actual gardening this summer. And yes, that is indeed possible. See, I've had this mental image of a shed, an idealised shed, lots of light for seedlings, a workbench. And a couple of hurricane lamps. I imagined being there at night, listening to jazz broadcast on short wave from a foreign city. Which would be nice, but the thing I'm wanting to do is grow vegetables.

So, the building site in the photo - that's where the mythical shed was to go. But bugger the mythical shed, for now anyway. The shed I've been given and started painting, is an actual shed, and it's going there. The next task is to get that heap of rubble in the photo into a level base for the shed. I might have to go at it with the sledgehammer.

Then back to the riddling, clearing the glass-infested no.5 bed, and getting a poly tunnel, using the yellow ribs on the left of the photo, with 8 scaffold tubes and a bought cover, and I can use the poly tunnel for bring up and potting on seedlings. I can, maybe, get this done by mid June. Late, I know, but better than waiting for next year. I've got no real experience with later planting, winter and spring vegetables, so this year will be the year I learn about it.

Voila.

NB, this is not the first time I've had an anatine visit to an allotment.

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