views of other plots at our allotment site – my favourite shed is the green one with a real chimney pot!
SATURDAY 5th MAY 2013
We went for a short bike ride and rode by the nearby local allotment. We stopped to read a sign on the gate encouraging people to apply for plots. A couple tending their plot asked if we were interested and offered to show us around the site. We said yes please and went in. There were a few plots that had become free… we hadn’t even considered having an allotment plot before this but it seemed quite appealing. Particularly as there were also half plots available which we thought might be a more sensible option for us. The lady (who happened to be the site steward) told us to have a think about it and how to apply if we were interested.
MONDAY 7th MAY 2013
We thought about it decided that some regular outdoor exercise along with the added bonus, over time, of turning a piece of weeded land into a plot of fruit, veg and herbs was something we were prepared to put some time and effort into. I hope we’ve made the right decision!
TUESDAY 8th MAY 2013: Yikes! We’ve had a positive reply. We nipped over to the allotment to choose our plot with the steward, she said we would soon receive a contract in the post for signing.
THURSDAY 10th MAY 2013: The contract has arrived already!
FRIDAY 10th MAY 2013: We collected the key from the Town Council for a £10 deposit and paid £17.50 for our half plot No.38b for a year. We are officially ‘Allotmenteers’ – woohoo!
SATURDAY 11th MAY 2013
This is our plot, it’s full of grass, stingers and weeds – but is apparently ‘not too bad’.
There’s a dilapidated compost bin made from rotting pallets so we’ probably need to repair or make a new one.
We have two lovely rhubarb plants – which I’m very pleased about considering it costs £1 a stick in the supermarkets! I’ve read that the flower heads should be cut off to help the rhubarb sticks grow better.
There’s also a pretty little dwarf apple tree – it looks like it may have been trained against something but whatever it was has been removed so this will be on our task list too.
We spent about 2.5hrs weeding and digging and have started to make some progress…
SUNDAY 12th MAY 2013
Another couple of hours of weeding and digging today – almost half way across the plot…
The birds are loving all the freshly dug earth bringing lots of worms and insects to the surface…
WEDNESDAY 15th MAY 2013
Another digging session – we’ve just about reached the first rhubarb plant, so we picked a few lovely bright pink sticks to take home 🙂
THURSDAY 16th MAY 2013
A sunny early evening made it very pleasant to dig another little patch. One of the other allotment holders had an old shed to get rid of so we stopped to watch the bonfire.
SATURDAY 18th MAY 2013
Oh good, we’re beyond the big rhubarb now, being closely watched by our recycled plastic bag and garden string hedgehog. Doesn’t the apple blossom look gorgeous.
SUNDAY 19th MAY 2013
Just a little grass island left and the main part of the plot will be clear. 🙂
SATURDAY 25th MAY 2013
Our colourful new homemade pallet compost bin. The owner of our local Budgens very kindly let us have some of his unwanted pallets to repurpose.
SUNDAY 26th MAY 2013
We’ve created a path up the centre of the plot to break things up a bit.
FRIDAY 31st MAY 2013
Yesterday we shopped for 8ft tall bamboo canes and did our first bit of planting today! Three runner bean wigwams and 3 rows of mangetout. Fingers crossed that they grow 🙂 
SATURDAY 1st JUNE 2013
More seed planting today: Golden Beetroot, Swiss Chart and Florence Fennel. And another patch of second digging on the other side. We bought some plants that were labelled as 2 x globe artichokes but there were 12 in the strip. So we were either very lucky to get 12 for £2.99 or they aren’t Globe Artichokes… time will tell!
SUNDAY 2nd JUNE 2013
We have two new plot visitors. A welcome one – Boris, our homemade outdoor creature and an unwelcome one… a mole 😦 He left a raised trail all the way through the last patch of freshly dug earth. Today we planted purple carrot seeds, red onion and white onion sets, tiny shallot plants and purple spring onion seeds. We also put 4 (hopefully) glob artichokes in and a few strawberry plants.
TUESDAY 4th JUNE 2013
The digging is finished – hooray! We did the last bit of planting today – courgettes that I grew from seed at home. We’re planning to visit a couple of school fetes at the weekend to see if we can pick up some plants to fill the rest of the space with. Boris has settled in nicely and has already made friends with our scruffy robin.
SUNDAY 9th JUNE 2013
We went to a local fete yesterday and picked up a box of 7 tomato plants for £1, plus a gooseberry bush, butternut squash and strawberry. So they’re in now. We’ve also been making some colourful rattly windmills from plastic soft drinks bottles in an attempt to make the mole go away – it’s not working yet 😦
AUGUST 2013
Just two months on from the last entry and we have a fully grown plot with lots to eat already! We’ve had a vast quantity of courgettes and have been doing all kinds of creative cooking with them… chutney, cakes, muffins, bread, stuffed, fried, battered… and they still keep coming. We’ve eaten mange tout, purple carrots, golden beetroot, swiss chard, runner beans, broad beans, lettuce, spring onions, rhubarb, strawberries. It’s brilliant 🙂
The sweetcorn, fennel and potatoes will soon be ready and we have masses of tomatoes waiting to ripen. I can’t wait for the butternut squash to be fully grown – it was really exciting to find the first miniature perfectly formed baby butternut about 2cm long a couple of weeks ago. They’re about 15cm now so are growing quite rapidly. A few crop pics follow…
Sweetcorn
Butternut Squash
Apples
Courgette, Mange Tout, Golden Beetroot
Mange Tout
Tomatoes
Swiss Chard
The sock garden 
Looking good guys 🙂
Thank you 🙂 We did our first bit of planting today – runner beans and mangetout – time to keep a watch out for slugs.