New Helpers at Allotment

That's Sparky & Cleo, the new additions to the household. Getting a rescue dog from the Scottish SPCA has been on the family agenda for years. The time has come. These two were a package, we suspect Sparky (left) is Cleo's daughter. God knows who the father was. Some kind of whippet? A Jack Russel?

Anyway, they've been taking up most of the weekend, getting them settled in. So less constructive allotmenteering than I would have liked. I did get there tonight without the dogs for 90 mins or so. Put in a couple of rows of Desiree (main crop spuds), just a regular bag I'd bought from Tesco. Did a bit of weeding.

Yesterday, the dogs ran around a lot on the beds, and some rows of seedlings will not have benefitted from the treatment. But I'm learning to be pretty Zen about these things. It's all a process. One sackful of spuds will be better than no sackful of spuds. This year, I'm in a desperate hurry to get it all under cultivation, and I should achieve that. Next year is when it starts to become a properly functional allotment.  All crops this year are a bonus. I still look at the Midwest and NW beds, in some wonderment. Last year they were sloping in the wrong direction and waterlogged. This year, they slope the right way, and drain perfectly.

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