Last week at the allotment

As I said last weekend, I was longing to go straight back up to the allotment on Monday but had other commitments so at 8 o clock in the evening, when they should have been safely tucked up in their beds, this is what the poor little Lockets were doing:


They were rewarded with hot chocolate with squirty cream - and a very nicely dug bed!


And then we raced home in a vain attempt to get them in to bed before 9pm.

I then managed to pop up on Wednesday afternoon after my morning at work and got very sunburnt while planting some beans and sweetcorn.


And now we are completely exhausted after spending most of the weekend on the plot- about 5 hours yesterday and 6 today.

The children now have a pretty little wall basket on their shed and I managed to put some very wonky ones on the "grown up" shed - I wonder how long it will be before someone points out how wonky they are?!

Daisy in particular did a great job digging over and manuring the new bed by the children's shed and we also started to reclaim this bed which has been walked over for the last 7 months

- the children had great fun sawing loads of posts for the raised borders - in fact we couldn't get them to stop and now have rather more posts than we actually need!


And I managed to get this bed dug and manured and planted up with leeks, purple sprouting broccoli and red cabbage.


Time for a nice bath and a glass of wine I reckon!

So here's my usual "leaving the allotment at the end of a long day" shot - I wonder if it's possible to notice any changes over the last few posts?

9th and 10th May 2009

All last week I was just longing to get to the allotment and planned to go straight there on Saturday morning but then got distracted by dividing Daisy and Fred's bedroom to give them each their own "room".

Then at 3'o clock I got a call from Alison to say she was up there so even though it had started to rain heavily and the wind was blowing wildly I abandoned the rest of the Lockets to the tidying and was up there like a shot!

The rain stopped by the time I got there but the wind was still strong and I came away after two hours with a bright red face from a combination of wind, sun and exertion!

On Sunday we all went up and got there at about 11.

Daisy, Fred and Alison's son agreed to help for a while at a rate of 50p per half hour (!) so we got them clearing the soil from the children's old bit of garden outside their shed.

(August 2008 - how their "garden used to look")

We'd laid carpet and then, using bricks, had built a temporary retaining wall in an L shape which we had then filled with potting compost so they could grow their own plants. But they'd never really been that interested, preferring to play with their friends than garden so I decided to reclaim some of the space for an extra bed which I plan to plant with a mixture of flowers and veg.

It means they have a slightly smaller play area but they tend to be running around from one allotment to the next so I don't think it really matters that much.

I ended up finishing clearing the area because Fred had an accident while playing "blind man's buff" - not a good idea at the allotment as he fell in a huge clump of nettles outside another plot and stung his hands, arms and tummy and got a massive nose bleed too. Mr Locket ended up taking all three children home at about 1.30 but I stayed til about 5.30.


The bed is now ready for digging - which will be a fairly tough job as there are loads of huge grass roots in it :o(

I also dug out the main weeds from the next bed to get it ready for a good digging over so I can plant my sweetcorn and beans there in a couple of weeks.


The other main achievement of the day was the rearrangement of the area outside the main shed - it seems to be an annual May event as I was looking back through old photos and found I had done the same thing at the same time last year!

I have created another mini bed just in front of the shed that I want to fill with sunflowers, sweetpeas and cornflowers.


So this morning I ache all over and am absolutely shattered - but I'd be back up there like a shot if I wasn't committed to something else today.

Fred's Shop

When we first took on the allotment - back in May 2006 - there was lots of "junk" lying about the place which included the top parts of two old plastic barrels.

Fred immediately appropriated these bits of blue plastic finery and announced that they were his shop.

Many happy hours were then spent by this little boy in his new "building".

But over time we forgot about Fred's Shop because it was no longer around.

So can you imagine his glee when 3 years later he found it again!

The only problem is that he's grown rather a lot since then!

But it's still a great place for a quiet read

- especially if you bury your favourite Beast Quest books under a pile of grass and then sit on them!

Have I ever told you how much I love my allotment?

Lucy x