2 steps forward and 3 steps back.....

...well that's what it feels like... the past few weeks have been hard work on the allotment mainly due to the weather and the fact that I am also ripping out a kitchen at home!!!! (Still I need to crack on as the football and rugby season is nearly upon me!)

But still I think things have progressed. Since my last post I have borrowed the next door neighbour's petrol strimmer and cut back the 6 foot high grass/weeds. And I have put weedkiller on 3/4s of the allotment - I used Roundup as this was recommended by other Allotmenteers!

On the other quarter I have started to dig this over in the hope that I can get a few seeds in the ground before summer is over. I have ordered a few seeds/tubers and fingers crossed me and wifey should be tucking into a few veggies before December.

The highlight so far has been that I have inherited a couple of fruit bushes so we have already had a bumper crop of red and blackcurrants.

Over the next couple of weeks I am planning to slowly dig another quarter of the allotment, but insetad of planting in this I am going to sheet this over and start to plan for next spring...........

The Hut is clear

Well I have made a start and have cleared in and round the hut and dumped most of the contents in a skip. The tools which the previous owner left are now in the shared group shed.

I had planned to start strimming the weeds but unfortuately I had a problem with the strimmer - so this will have to be saved for next week!

Where shall I start!!!!

God knows!!! after a bit of head scratching it finally all sinks in how much work I have to do before I can plant a single crop. Though not to be deterred I have come up with a plan.

Stage 1 is to clear the contents of the 'hut' and chuck all unwanted items in the skip! This includes bits of carpet and a few bags of old plaster.

Stage 2 is to strimmer the whole patch using a petrol strimmer (no electricity on this allotment!), scrape up all the mess and put it on the compost heap. This alone will take a few hours.

My plot is 10 pole and is the standard allotment size plot, for those who don't know what a pole measurement is - 1 acre is made up of 160 Poles so you get about 16 allotments in an acre.

For those who don't know what an acre is - 1 acre is 43, 560 square feet and is a piece of land that is 209 feet square/70 yards square. So a 10 pole allotment is 70x70/16 = 306 square yards which is about 1/30 of the size of a football pitch. Bet that helps!

The wait is over!!!!

After a 2 month wait I have been given the option on an Allotment in Henley-on-Thames.

I am a novice to allotments, but for the past 6 months I have been growing a few veg in my back garden, but as I was slowly taking over the garden, the wife suggested that I get an allotment!!!! Maybe she just wants to get rid of me!

In this blog I will try to describe what I have been doing in lingo that a novice gardener can understand!