Tonight I am going to chill in front of the TV and doing NOTHING! I am really tired this evening and am looking forward to unwinding and relaxing before a busy week starts once again.
Saturday morning started with a bright and sunny morning, rain was forecast for mid-day so I headed out early for the Lottie. it was a lovely bright and warm winter day - the thermometer on the lovely new clock is working 11 degrees;-
I had decided that I was going to concentrate on Plot 95 and really try and get as much as possible completed - it would be easy at this point to flit between the 2 plots doing a bit here and there, but I felt a purpose and a push on Plot 95 was the way to go.
The middle recently cleared bed had been 1/2 dug, I spent a couple of hours digging this bed and levelling it out. It sounds like a lot of time but it is slow progress. Dig a bit, sift out roots and weeks, dig a bit more, sift out more roots and weeds and on it went. Finally it was done, I planted 3 bulbs of garlic and 24 shallots in a section of the newly dug bed and have temporarily covered them. Hopefully the cover will be enough to stop the birds digging them out until they start to shoot. I was chuffed to get this bed sorted - this is part of the bed which was been left since I took the plot over, so a real achievement to finally have it in some sort of shape.
A bit of tidying up and then a phone call came from My Boy - he and his friend Aaron were collecting the greenhouse frame for me and there was a problem - the frame was concreted down and they didn't think they would be able to remove it. I collected a couple of drinks for them as requested and drove over to meet them. I was delighted when I arrived to find this......
They had managed to remove the frame from its base and were in the middle of dismantling it! Three young men, a big bag of tools and soon the partly dismantled Greenhouse was loaded into the the tipper truck and was on its way to the lottie. I did enjoy watching them puzzling over the dismantling and loading into the truck - they all worked really well together and a massive slap in the face reminder of how grown up and clever my son is now and how ancient they made me feel!!
Anyway the adventure continued.. we arrived at the Lottie I rode in the tipper truck and it was a bit scary!! The ground is very soft and muddy after the snow and rain recently - the truck didn't like it and slipped and slid all along the lane. Finally we arrived, it took me a few minutes to unclench my fingers from the grab rail and then the greenhouse was unloaded and unceremoniously dumped on Plot 96 until next weekend. The next challenge then arrived - the tipper truck was completely stuck in the mud and couldn't get out. Me, with my girlie mum head on, started to have a bit of a panic - the boys, didn't flap at all and just got on with it with me still panicking and standing around looking and feeling completely useless!! The solution, My Boy used his 4 wheel drive pick-up truck to tow the 2 wheel drive tipper truck all the way through the allotment site to the main gate - good job there was no-one else around!! They all thought it was brilliant, I was just glad it was sorted so easily and to be honest it was a bit of an adventure!!!
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| A distance blurry picture - can you see the greenhouse in bits! |
Today has been different again - but fun! My eldest nephew wanted to come to the Lottie with me, I drove over to collect him and the youngest nephew decided to come too! Off we set, parked up at the lottie gates and all carried bits and pieces to the plots. I had stopped on the way and bought one of these;-
It is an exactly replica of my Joseph Bentley digging spade just in a smaller child friendly size. The boys were delighted with it!! It was put to good use - the eldest nephew dug out the trench bed for the blueberries - virtually on his own!
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| Hard at work |
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| Blueberry bed underway and perfect size digging spade. |
He is 9 and very clever and really enjoys manual activities - he got stuck in and took over! The trench was soon dug, lined with pond liner which I then tried to puncture with a fork for drainage - the oldest nephew watched for a few minutes and then asked if I thought it would be easier to take the liner out of the trench to put the holes in - of course he was right, he is very good at telling me what to do and is always right too! The trench was lined with cardboard and the youngest nephew and I refilled it and planted the blueberries. We all had time for hot chocolate and cakes!!
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| Everyone gets a job! |
Next the bean trench was dug - not by me!! Another brilliant job by the eldest nephew, the little one planted some more shallots and next the cherry tree was planted on Plot 96, I dug the hole, we all had a go and hammering in the tree stake and the oldest nephew refilled the hole a joint effort! Just as we were having another hot chocolate the boys mum, my sister-in-law, arrived closely followed by their dad - that is the most people working on the plot at one time
ever! Half of the soon-to-be potato bed was dug over and we started to clear the brambly bed between the 2 plots. What a brilliant afternoon with so much getting done in a short space of time. I expect there will be a few aching backs tonight though! It was lovely having family with me today and I really appreciated the help and massive push the lottie has had. In fact standing looking at it at the end of the afternoon Plot 95 is almost completely ready for the new growing season and for the first time since I took it over there are no really major jobs to be done. More pictures to follow as my camera ran out of battery before we did today!
