Almost finished with the digging

A good session down at the allotment a couple of days ago and I'm pleased to say that the digging over of the entire plot, which I began last month, is almost finished. I should have taken some "before" and "after" pictures so you could have seen the state it was in before I started digging, but suffice to say that it was waist-high grass and who the hell knows what else. I think there were a few gone-to-seed leeks in there.

On Tuesday, Bob cleared out a load of pieces of glass, wood and various other detritus from the very back of the plot. We never got that far down in 2007 when we were first growing stuff here, and it looks like previous owners used it as a dumping ground. No adverse effects on us from toxic chemicals yet but there's still time. :-(

One piece of good news is that we discovered three pallets nestling behind a bush at the back of the plot next to us, which is totally overgrown and disused. We're gonna use those three. plus another one Bob has at home, to make a square compost bin. I have a 4-pallet compost bin in the back garden here and it really is the best thing you can have. Large capacity, plenty of aeration and you can just swing one of the sides open to get all the compost out when it's decomposed. We do have a standard issue black plastic council compost bin on the plot but it filled up almost instantly when I started digging the plot out.

Also, this weekend I'm planting some broad beans in pots. Bob put 130 seeds in the allotment last January but only about 5 came up - we suspect mice - so we're gonna start the plants off at home this time and transfer them to the plot when they've sprouted, gained some height and been hardened off a bit. Always good to have a reliable supply of broad beans especially in the current harsh economic climate.

Now that the ground is thawed out...

The first couple of weeks after New Year were a dead loss in allotment terms (unless one was thinking of going down with a blowtorch) as the ground was frozen solid. But now temperatures are back to a global-warming-influenced 5 or 6 degrees, which means that it's time to carry on digging the plot.

December was a hive of activity for me, if not for many other allotment holders. After receiving a letter from the District Council that the plot was going to be repossessed if I didn't pull my finger out and get it to a presentable standard, I cleared something like 80% of the plot in about 15 hours of digging. I don't have the exact measurements to hand but it was goddamn hard work whichever way you look at it.

But the plus-side is that Bob can now get started on the less strenuous stuff - final clearance of the weeds and getting the first seeds of 2009 in - while I finish that last back bit of the plot, which was always wild even in 2007 when we had our act together on this thing.

I'm gonna do a digging session or two next week so I'll post some camera pictures of how it's looking at present. Dull, but you gotta start somewhere I guess...