Saturday 10th April 2010

It is Saturday and today again the weather was perfect for being down at Plot 27.

Today's task was to plant the currant bushes and create a strawberry bed. First of all I had to dig up one blackcurrant and one red currant from our garden. The blackcurrant wasn't too troublesome but the red was determined to stay exactly where it is. So I shall have to wait for Nick to help me out.

Arrived with a car full of essentials. Unloaded and began work digging out the trenches for the currants. Then planted and watered. I now need to stop planting as the water I can carry from my butt at home is limited and although Alan and Eileen have said I can help myself to the water from their butt in the front garden I am conscious that they need the water too. Yesterday the taps were fitted and we can only hope that at the beginning of next week we will have a working water supply.

I then added some compost to the first of the large raised beds and added a blackout mesh, which deprives the soil of light, no weeds, but allows the water through. At this point Nick arrived and he set about digging out the runner bean bed. I decided that I would dig over between the raspberries and loganberries and while doing so thought that at present there would be room for a row of seed potatoes. The plants are quite young and have yet to fill out so this would be a bonus.

The Allotment site was buzzing today, the first day of the weekend. Lots of new faces all anxiously looking at their plots and wondering how they were going to tackle it. Most of the visitors set to work straight away and the guy diagonally opposite looked as though he were heading down to Australia when at one point he disappeared into quite a substantial hole... The ground we are growing on used to be a brick works and there is lots of debris buried under the soil and he managed to find one huge piece of rubbish. Makes me wonder what lays buried beneath Plot 27...