25th May - Bob's take on it...

A splendid day on the plot with seven of us toiling away. John and Peter did a first rate job levelling and filling the latest raised bed. Others watered, planted, weeded. The improvements on the allotment have to be compared with what it was like before we started to be able to see what we have achieved. We now have some cabbage and brussels sprouts planted. Pat has given them a good soaking and they should grow. Maggie cleaned the raspberries and strawberries and despite the drought and that they are new plants, found the first strawberry. We are hoping to get lots of runners as new plants as they are very popular on the plant stall.

25th May 2011

Seven of us working today on the allotment. Watering, weeding, cleaning up the surrounding paths and putting in almost the last of the raised beds on the roadside. The infrastructure is almost complete now, just the compost bins to go in and a small raised bed next to them. Here is a sketch of the last part of the allotment infrastructure to be constructed, it is now partly complete (scan courtesy of Bob, as usual):

We were joined by Bob House today, who has known Bob Roundup (Christian) for years, he did a sterling job with digging and weed (couch) eradication, and will be bringing on some Iceberg lettuce for the raised beds.

Weather is still too dry really to get much planting done.

Just a quick thought

We've now had over 1000 hits on the blog and I can trace that they have come from all over the world. What a good way to commuicate!

At long last, another entry

It has been quiet on the blog, and it is with some degree of humility that I realise there have been no entries for almost six weeks, apart from the one that I made a few minutes ago. A long holiday in Greece may have had something to do with it, but enough of excuses.

Although there have been no blog entries, that does not mean that there has been no work going on. Stalwarts Bob and Adam have been grafting away as usual, with occasional help from the usual others.

The state of play is as follows: we now have a row of raspberries (OK, they have been in for a while, but I'm doing a summary here), a row of strawberries that are already fruiting, three rows of potatoes, a block of sweetcorn and another of ever-lasting flowers have been planted out.

The grass mats have all been laid, but still need to be flattened out a bit as the soil has settled leaving them a bit uneven. The two big raised beds have been built, put into position and have been filled with alternating layers of topsoil and compost (as the picture below - courtesy of Roundup - shows, we had one sq m. each of topsoil and compost delivered the other day).

The last of the muck has been spread on the allotment (thanks Adam), making space for the remaining raised beds and the compost bins to be built.

The Dorset Magazine write up

A good few weeks ago we were visited by a journalist from the Dorset Magazine who wanted to run an article about the allotment. The finished piece, and very good it was to, was published in May. An online version can be found here:

http://dorset.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/the-good-life-31625/