Picked and packed

Well, I have so many spring onions ready to eat I am spreading the veggie love! I picked and 'packed' these beauties for the folks at work.

I also got another crop of asparagus after only a couple of days. This stuff grows mega-fast! Not a problem though, I love it! Might have to get a harvesting volunteer to keep on top of it whilst I am on hols. I am sure I can find someone who likes asparagus! Having it again for tea tonight - yummy :) There's the asparagus festival on near me at the mo (started today) so I am thinking of popping up there this weekend with my aunt and uncle, who are down for a visit. We're also going for a woodland bluebell walk, I think :)

Tonight there wasn't much light at the allotment but I was there for a couple of hours until it was too dark to see (even though I still wanted to stay!). Made a start on my strawberry row. It is totally overgrown with grass and it is going to take a while to weed. I also marked out where I want my paths so my lovely lottie neighbour, John, who has volunteered to cut my grass, can see which bit needs cutting. This should also help my friend Paul know which area to strim! Aren't men handy ;)

I didn't take any photos of the lottie tonight as, to be honest, my clearing looked rather feeble and pathetic! But as you allotment folk know, lots of effort goes into something but you don't always see a big result straight away. It was also dark!

Asparagus and spring onions cleared

This is part of what I was up to yesterday. I wanted to weed around the crops I have growing to take away competition for nutrients and to see what I've got. This is the asparagus and spring onion bed after I weeded it. You can see top right what it looked like before - very weedy! I hand-weeded as the asparagus is coming through now and I didn't want to damage it.

I have helpers coming today - my friend Claire who came with me the first night I saw the allotment and Paul who will be watering for me whilst I am on hols. I am hoping it will be fun and we get a couple of the large beds ready for planting.

I was going to measure the plot so I can plan what goes where yesterday but my tape measure has gone walkies, so I will do that today as Paul has one I can borrow. I don't want to put things in without planning so I need to measure asap.

I met another neighbour last night, from the opposite side of my plot - Bert. He seemed nice and I think he was worried I was digging up the asparagus! I expect having an allotment is like living in a village - everybody knows what you're up to. :) Bert was telling me Rob, who had my allotment before, "kept it like a palace". Hmm, no pressure there then!

Today's job - begin clearing the land

So, back after an Easter away I was itching to get started on my plot. Tonight I tackled the plot at the road end of my allotment. This was covered in dead squash and needed all the dry strands and fruits clearing before I could even think about digging. As you can see there were quite a few to get rid of. I filled two buckets full.

And I am afraid that is where the work stopped! My friend Paul came over to see my new plot and I had to give him the tour. He was very impressed and I have to keep him sweet - he has had experience of allotments and is offering his services as digger/waterer/company which will be great :) His mum also is very into gardening so I hope to get some tips. That is one of the things I love about gardening - inheriting tips and tricks, along with passing tools and advice along.

I also met more plot neighbours and someone else who just said 'hello' as he walked by. I am feeling very welcome already which is lovely :)