Never board at the Allotment

Today was an epic long day at the allotment. I arrived with one plan but ended up doing something else. Initially, I went to have a look at the stumpery. It’s looking much better although I decided there was no point in re-organising the logs until we had enough to fill the stumpery.

Pondering what to do next, my eyes fell on the path. Cliff has christened the central path HS2. Hilarious! With the next few days predicted to be extremely wet and accompanied by enormous amounts of rain. Whilst it was dry, I decided to make a start. It’s always the same with any project like this, the first few boards took forever to get into place. By the time I had put four boards into place, I had a system going and the remaining eight boards went down really quickly. The knack seemed to be to dig a slight trench, stretch the weed fabric into the trench, put down the board and pin it into place. Although the path isn’t entirely straight, it began to really take shape.

Once all the boards were in place, I went over to find Tracy to ask her if I could borrow a wheelbarrow. Steve had very generously offered us some of the latest load of chippings for our path. Grabbing a fork and the wobbly wheelbarrow, I set off to the car park. By the time I had hauled three full wheelbarrow loads to the plot and spread it out, I was shattered. Tracy helped me work out how many more wheelbarrow loads would be needed to finish the central path. Another seven loads later and the path was finished! The chipping layer is very deep in places and I am hopeful that it will absorb some of the water and limit the flooding on our plot.

Next I debated about building the side path next to the bog garden. It needs weed fabric and a board put in before yet more wheelbarrow loads of chippings. The ache in my back by now was rather significant so I decided to lay out the boards that mark out the beds. I cut two boards into the right length to make the first chevron. Happily, most of the boards only need shortening slightly and some don’t need any alteration. The sunburst area will need more work which I plan to do tomorrow if the weather permits.

Realising the time, I quickly checked on all our chickens before heading off home covered in dirt, dust and mud. Our plot now looks so much better. The only down side is that the fruit section now looks rather scruffy in comparison!