It rained all day yesterday so i didn't go up the allotment. I went up there today after going to B&Q to buy a sieve. I raked over the plot again and put all the weed roots into a black bag with holes, I will burn all of that as soon as i can. I deliberated with buying an incinerator again, still not sure if i can justify buying one. I do need some black plastic though for the big compost heaps i seem to have made!

I ordered my onions and garlic from Defland nurseries a week a go and chased them up today, they should be here by Wednesday, so i should have them planted by Thursday afternoon. I ordered the 10 bags of compost and they should be delivered by early next week. Jamie should of made the other 3 beds by then too. I just need to order the permeable black weed suppressant to cover the beds until spring, and the paths in between. I am thinking of laying cardboard or newspaper down on the paths in the meantime.

I also joined Abel & Cole again so i get used to the seasons again and i am going to try new veg like Salsify and Kale and globe artichoke so i know whether to grow them or not.

Took pics today but want the next pics I put up to be the finished beds!

Progress at last

Last weekend Jamie helped me finish taking off the turf and i started to dig it over using my shiny new auto-spade which was fab. We got loads done, Rose was getting pretty bored so i decided to take her home after lunch, and Jamie finished the turfing.

On the Sunday we went over there and finished digging it over, weeding as we went along, and then i finished the digging completely on the Monday. I have been waiting all week for my Dad to drop off the wood for my raised beds as the wood was too big to fit in our car. We got it Friday evening and started to put some beds together yesterday. We only completed one bed sadly and I still have to sieve the soil as there are loads of couch grass roots still in the beds, because hubby didn't realise you had to take them all out - he's not that into gardening and is really only there to be my muscle :)

We were going to finish the beds today but it is pouring with rain so have had to skip today :( I just want it all finished and in place.

I decided not rotovate my plot because of all the roots we kept finding. I am going to sieve lightly get all the weeds out then just cover in compost and cover over with weed suppressant until January/February. I feel that next year is going to be a very good gardening year.

What my plot looked like after last weekend

WW, Allotment & Progress

It has been a busy week. I went to WW in banstead and weighed in - Lost 2lb was really chuffed. I have now become a helper and in 4 weeks will stop paying for weigh in because i will then get it free. I also got asked to be a leader. Just need to get down to 10st 8lb before i can apply!

Rose has been going to honeybees in the afternoon for a few weeks now, she has settled into school in the morning and the 2 afternoons a week in the honeybees class seems to be going OK. The only snag is she is very tired when she comes out and is usually throwing a tantrum before we get out of the school gate. In fact as I type she has fallen asleep on the sofa - hard work being 3 years old!

I have designed the new allotment plot and all i need to do now is put the plan into action. I have started taking the top off the grass this morning took me 2 hours to get a small strip done, i was very disappointed in myself. Jamie is helping me tomorrow to get some done and hopefully i will be able to rotovate it Sunday morning. With that in mind I can possibly go and buy the wood i need on the Monday - if not i will buy it next weekend and just pile up the beds during the week. I have also got to buy some thick weed suppressant to stop any weeds growing whilst the beds are overwintering!

This is my plan:

This is what the allotment looked like before we started:

I shall take more tomorrow to show what progress we have made.

I am going to grow my garlic in tubs this year, next year we are buying plug plants instead of doing seeds because we canot go through all that waste again!