The Plot Continues

So the fencing was finished, and digging commenced with earnest, not that I had a friend called Ernest to help me by the way, and eventually I had what was beginning to look like an allotment.

All this time, the efforts of us newcomers had been surreptitiously watched by one of the old timers from the old established section and occasionally he would wander over to have a closer look.

“You’ll never grow owt worthwhile on that land”, he would warn us, and when asked for his opinion on sheds and paths he would offer little gems like, “ Sheds? Paths ? you can’t grow owt where there’s sheds and paths !”

As regards the layout, I had decided to simply divide the plot up into 4 quarters and follow a crop rotation plan, with 2 foot permanent paths dividing the sections. Each section would then have six beds separated by narrower less permanent paths for access. With hindsight, I should have made these access paths wider and sacrificed a bed in each section.

Eventually the rough digging was completed, and my intention was to let the winter weather do it's job on the soil and then prepare the beds nearer sowing and planting out time.

It was interesting to see what old things turned up whilst digging, pottery and clay pipe stems for example, but alas no gold coins. Being interested in such things I collected a lot of them and I'll write a piece on them later.

Well, all that was left now was to get sowing in the green house at home and wait for the warmer weather.

In the next blog I'll try to summarise the 2009 season on the plot, not that I want to bore anyone to death, but it will force me to look back and see what I should have done differently.

To be continued.