2012
This is the Year!
Warren and I made a decision last September, when the bill arrived for the current year's allotment rental ... we thought long and hard about whether we really did want to keep an allotment, as his back problem doesn't allow him to do a huge amount of physical labour and I was still recovering from a 2-year bout of clinical depression. However, we came to an agreement that we would give it one last go; if we couldn't make the allotment work well for us this year, then we would hand the keys to the shed back in September and let someone else from the waiting list have the plot.
28th January
We have done some work on the plot over the last 18 months, since we first took on the plot, but when we arrived there this morning, this was the slightly demoralising sight which greeted us ... black plastic sheets, lifted by the wind and covered with concrete blocks, wood and rotting plastic sacks ... seemingly endless weeds and piles of stones I had removed from the soil during last year's digging efforts. (NB The nicely turned over patch just beyond the white bucket is the next plot, sadly, not ours!!)
Nevertheless, we ploughed on undaunted, digging one patch over and removing one lot of plastic sheeting ... which was a lot more work than it sounds, as it was covered with piles of stones, weed-filled mud, pools of water and some assorted rubbish (old carpet, plastic bags, rotting weed-suppressing fabric, etc). We also managed to "lift" our toppling shed from one side and shove some of the concrete blocks underneath it, so it is now proudly upright ... I can't tell you how much better the whole plot looks, just for doing that! Here's how we left the plot today:
Much tidier ... and looking far more "manageable" to me, so I won't be afraid to go up on my own now, while Warren is at work!
This is the Year!
Warren and I made a decision last September, when the bill arrived for the current year's allotment rental ... we thought long and hard about whether we really did want to keep an allotment, as his back problem doesn't allow him to do a huge amount of physical labour and I was still recovering from a 2-year bout of clinical depression. However, we came to an agreement that we would give it one last go; if we couldn't make the allotment work well for us this year, then we would hand the keys to the shed back in September and let someone else from the waiting list have the plot.
28th January
We have done some work on the plot over the last 18 months, since we first took on the plot, but when we arrived there this morning, this was the slightly demoralising sight which greeted us ... black plastic sheets, lifted by the wind and covered with concrete blocks, wood and rotting plastic sacks ... seemingly endless weeds and piles of stones I had removed from the soil during last year's digging efforts. (NB The nicely turned over patch just beyond the white bucket is the next plot, sadly, not ours!!)
Nevertheless, we ploughed on undaunted, digging one patch over and removing one lot of plastic sheeting ... which was a lot more work than it sounds, as it was covered with piles of stones, weed-filled mud, pools of water and some assorted rubbish (old carpet, plastic bags, rotting weed-suppressing fabric, etc). We also managed to "lift" our toppling shed from one side and shove some of the concrete blocks underneath it, so it is now proudly upright ... I can't tell you how much better the whole plot looks, just for doing that! Here's how we left the plot today:
Much tidier ... and looking far more "manageable" to me, so I won't be afraid to go up on my own now, while Warren is at work!
