No more letters from the council...yet....

The deadline for us to have cleared the allotment of weeds passed on Monday, and as yet there have been no more nasty letters threatening us with eviction. This is probably due to all the planting we did at the end of last week.

(It has taken until now to make a blog posting due to the silly old PhD write-up getting in the way)

We have planted:
A gooseberry bush


A blueberry bush:


An olive tree:


And some broad beans and some peas:


The huge metal poles for the broad beans have been selected in the recycling spirit of allotmenteers...they were found amongst the rubbish that was left on the allotment. Unfortunately they are about 10 foot long, so had to dig a hole about 4 foot deep so they wouldn't fall on anybody's head.

After planting the olive tree we did wonder why we had planted it in a pot rather than straight into the ground....especially as it looks such a small pot in the photo...but the packaging said it was an option, and I can assure all worried readers that the pot is much larger than it looks in the photo!

All Dug Over!!!

There were times when we thought it would never be finished, but at last the allotment is all dug over!!

Obviously such an event deserves more than a mere picture in the blog....so we have VIDEO!!!! YEY!!!!

It's only a short video, but it allows you to appreciate the amount of work we have done over the last couple of weekends...and also answers the question I am constantly being asked:
"David, where are you going to put your brassicas???"

Improvisation is the allotment watchword!

Another exhausting day at the allotment, but whilst there was plenty of digging and clearing, the highlight was the resurrection of the third composter...the amputee we thought would never compost again!

Whilst its new access-hatch (the head of a spade we dug-up) is not quite as neatly fitting as the original that went missing in the dreadful storms of 2006, it'll do for now.

Tomorrow morning we are hoping to finally finish digging over the whole allotment...but there again that's what we thought about last Sunday and again today!

What weeds?

A letter arrived from the council at the end of February:

The highlights of which include
"plot...neglected...clear...of weeds...[or]...notice to quit"!!
In fairness the plot is looking a bit run-down:

But in our defence, we have been waiting for the onset of spring before digging it all over and planting lots of exciting bits and pieces!
Anyway, last week we dug up over half the allotment ready for planting (unfortunately I am not allowed to be a full-time gentleman gardener/blogger until my PhD is finished, so this is the first opportunity I have had to make a posting).

There is still lots to do before the March 25th deadline, but there have been definate inroads made; and yesterday saw a lunchtime trip to Woolworths result in lots of bargain seeds and plants ready for planting, so we are looking forward to another hard-working weekend...just as soon as I finish this entry...