Digging

3 hours of child free allotment time meant one thing today, digging, digging and more digging! I love having the children with me at the allotment but find myself limited to tasks such as weeding, planting and occasionally seed sowing, as you can imagine they also only stay tolerant for around 1.5hrs before we come home again, so when they are otherwise engaged, I have to make the most of it. I normally manage a 3 hour childfree afternoon every week. It is never quite enough time to tick many jobs off of the 'to do' list but I really relish every moment.
We still had 2 veg beds to dig on plot B, both 4ft x 10ft before we can really start digging over on plot A.
We seem to have fallen into a routine with the bed digging: We start with a first dig, turning over the soil/ grass whilst removing any trace of perennial weeds, then a week or so later a 2nd dig takes place, to break up the large clumps, and double check for perennial roots.   We usually end up digging it over a few more times before it is ready for planting or sowing, depending on whats going in them.
Today was all about the first dig, here is a before and after picture(see below). As you can see 2 hours doesn't get you far! But there is only about 5ft left to go haha! The most time consuming part of the job is getting out those weeds. Our plot suffers mainly with 4 perrenial weeds,
*Dandelion, competes for nutrients and water, and spreads a gazillion seeds (epecially appealing to small children) they are not too hard to deal with but the tap root often goes deep and it will re grow if you leave even a small bit behind. They seem to grow into entire seeding plants overnight!
*Mares tale, the roots go really, really deep and snap really, really easily, they don't really compete for nutrients but they do get in the way, taking up space when they open up like little ugly Christmas trees.
*Bind weed, although it is a pretty plant, it strangles everything else! It grows and spreads like crazy. It has long, deep roots that spread, again it will re grow if a tiny bit of root is left behind.
*Creeping buttercup, spreads like crazy, the roots spread underground and there are lots of root on one plant (seriously google it!) they don't root too deeply, but are a real pain to dig out, they also grow back if a bit of root remains, can you see the common theme here? Sigh!
They are all a big pain in the bum, but I figure that if we get out as much as possible now, we will have to deal with them less and less each season,  you can see from the picture that I managed to fill half a big trug just with these weeds today, mainly the roots, just in this small patch, so you can imagine how much of the things we have already had to deal with, and how many of them are waiting for us on plot a!!!

Rain, Rain go away!!!

The rain this week has definately been welcome in the respect that the plants have loved it, trouble is, so have the weeds! I managed to sneak to the plot for a much needed, baby free 4 hours yesterday and ended up spending 3 of those hours weeding. It is a good chance to spend time observing the plants and seedlings a little more up close and personal though isn't it? I spotted some baby butternut squashes and a baby cucumber, as well as realising that a few pumkins plants needed securing onto the arch they are growing over.
Our strawberrys are not doing great. We were given enough runners from a fellow plotter to fill a 6ft x 6ft bed but we have lost about half of them. We just didn't get a chance to water them enough while they established and we had some really hot days at the time. But whilst on my epic weeding session I saw that most of the survivors are sending out lots of runners so we can replace the dead ones with those.
I also spotted a row of snow peas germinating. I had sowed some Dellikett peas directly in April,  each and every one of the things failed! I ended up sowing them again in modules and transferring them to the plot last week. It is such a relief to see success with some direct sowings. Now we have more space I am planning for bumper pea crops next season and really didn't  fancy doing all the sowings in modules.
I did leave wishing I had time to dig another bed or 2 but hey ho it is working progress.
We have plans to take the four children to the plot for a few hours tomorrow. A neighbour spotted that we had given them each a bed of their own and kindly brought two big planters with a treasure trove of plants for them to pkat, what a lovely gesture! There is tomato plants, sweet peas, sunflowers, poppies and nasturtiums. The children are so excited to get planting! They have also sown their own seeds in pots at home so we are keeping our fingers crossed that they grow, if they do maye they can have a post if their own.
But for now I am going to get back to new new kindle purchases, 'Veg Journal' and 'How to grow winter veg' both by Charles Dowding, I am really liking the no dig idea......

A Re-think

When we planned Plot 28B we had no idea we would end up with next door. So this is the area we came up with outside the shed door,  a row of composting bins, followed by a 1ft flower bed, followed by a small seating area. To create the seating area we put weed guard down first the chucked stones on top. 

It wasn't quite what we wanted, for a start, munching lunch right next to stinky compost bins would never have been ideal, and I had dreamt of lots of cottage garden flowers as well as cutting flowers and various bulbs. Unfortunately space was at a premium so no more than a row of flowers would have to do. Once we took on the extra plot however, we were no longer as limited for space for anything! All the ideas I had shelved could now be a possibility and I spent a few days re-planning and drew up a new plan for both plots. That included a change around of this area.

Today's job was to move 2 full compost bins, as well as two empty ones to the other plot, after levelling off an area and weed guarding it first. Of course nothing can ever go completely smoothly, and I spend about 2 hours digging out a bucket full of broken glass! Once the bins were in place I then had the joyous task of moving lots of half composted compost, complete with angry ants and plenty of other crawlies. I also added 9 bags of fresh pony manure to the end bin. I saved a space for a husband project on the end, so keep a look out for a post in the future.

This means we can extend our seating area, and have a bigger flower bed. Finishing this should

be one of our next jobs I think!

It wasn't all about the icky jobs today though, I went home soaked with hours of rain and sweat, exhausted, with aching muscles, but with this trug full of beauties, to make it all worth while!

The Broad Beans were kindly gifted to us from a lottie neighbour.