Infamy!!

Well, wouldn't you know it?! You start a blog to keep a record (mainly for yourself) of the progress you are making on an allotment and all of a sudden your words are in print! Clare Foster, who's new book: 'Your Allotment' recently went on sale, emailed me sometime late last year asking if she could use a quote from my blog in the book she was writing; I said: 'Yes', of course, thinking that by the time she'd written the book my quote would have found it's way onto her compost heap! But a couple of weeks ago the publishers sent me a copy and if you turn to page 16 then you'll find said quote... I'm really chuffed and grateful to Clare for allowing me to be part of what is a fine book on allotmenteering... As you would expect from an experienced author (check her back catalogue out on Amazon) the writing is on the mark, informative and conveys a real love for her subject. One of the things i found particulary helpfull, and not something i've seen in other allotment books, is a good section on weeds, complete with photographs... so now i'm certain that the stuff I've been pulling out for over a year is couchgrass and that stuff that was trying to grow between last year's potatoes was horsetail... thanks for that, Clare!! ;.) (ps: If Clare's in the picture on the inside back sleeve of the book then it's bom chicka wah wah time!! ) The photography in the book is really good too (Francesca Yorke), but I reckon that if i actually got round to buying a decent camera instead of just using my phone then I'd be taking stuff just as good!! (Dream on Rich!) It's amazing how many good photo's there are to be had on an allotment... so much structure and colour to take advantge of, so many things that add motion to pictures... on a sweltering sunny day even simple raddish leaves take on a whole new level of beauty...


We've started preparations a whole month earlier this year, instead of our 4 little beds we've gone for 3 long ones, 2 were relatively easy to sort as we just joined the beds up from last year but we had to dig the last long bed (for now) from fresh. You can really tell the difference in a bed that's been dug the year before and it has really made me start paying real attention to the soil itself, which should really be the first thing you address... We've also edged the brassica bed with the remains of the shed we took down this winter... should help when we get to netting up time.


Me with my bedhead still on (i really do need to start looking in a mirror in the mornings!)getting ready to sow some beetroot... See I told you I did do some work!!


The coldframe didn't last long... It's now going to be a makeshift greenhouse thing, I'm using the windowframe and the remains of the plastic sheeting from last year's green-tent thing. The wind got a hold of it late last year and mangled the poles so we can't put it up again, but waste not want not, eh?! So far we've got the frame up and this weekend we'll hopefully finish the job... We need to, the tomatoes are really going for it on the bedroom window and I'm sure i saw a flower on one this morning!!