A mild Saturday morning in January and it’s time to get back to laying the ground work at the allotment if we’re going to be ready to start planting our veggies this coming spring. After a brief chat at the gate I grabbed the tools from the boot of the motor, laced up my boots and headed on over to the plot. Having spent a number of evenings over Christmas drawing up my plans it was time to start marking these out in the ground. This was not going to be a job done and finished in a day but rather more of a continuation of works already started and a signal of intent to start turning the plans into something real.
First things first was to finish digging over the ground in the areas between what had already been done. The recent heavy rains and unseasonal temperatures made for easy going and the fork slid through the ground with great ease. This completed the circuit as it were, where three of the four main beds are to be located. Each measuring approximately 6000mm x 1500mm and can be subdivided as necessary to suit the number of different crops being grown. Once dug the soil was raked to even it out and then covered with weed suppression fabric as had been done previously. To stop any perennial weeds that may be lurking in the soil from re taking hold between now and planting time.
With the outer beds dug and covered it was time to turn attention to the how to get around the various beds. On the plans I had drawn up this was going to be via a pathway of some kind although the make up of the path is still to be determined. In the spirit of making the allotment pay for itself and to be done for as small a budget as possible. With this ethos I mind it was time to start making use of the many bits and pieces that had been left by the previous tenant. I therefore entered the empty fruit cage and proceeded to untie lengths of orange nylon twine. These would do to string a line from one side of the plot to the other and mark out the edge of each bed and also the line of the pathway. I needed something to tie the twine to. It didn’t take much to find some old metal poles. These sank into the fertile ground with ease. Now for the path. I scoured the pot and managed to find a number of complete paving slabs. These will do nicely. Not enough to form a complete path but enough to make stepping stones and mark the route. With this done it was time to take a break. It was lunch time after all so I paid myself with a well deserved “Ginsters” and Scotch Egg all washed down with an energy replenishing Lucozade. Job done I stood back and admired my handy work. Not bad for a morning. Things are starting to take shape nicely.