There have been some changes on the allotments since my last blog post which I’m shocked to see was in April, I knew I had neglected the blog but didn’t realise for just how long! Sorry about that. Anyway, back to allotment stuff…..

I sourced some locally grown lawn turf in May and Plot 5 now has lovely grass paths! I love the look of grass paths on allotments, the colour is very calming and the clippings are great for composting. I certainly don’t miss how the paths used to be, muddy and slippery in winter and full of weeds the rest of the year. My second plot is in the exciting planning stage now and I’ve decided on a different look for plot 11w, I’m going to build raised beds and put wood chip on the paths. It’s taken a long time to get to this point and now I can finally start imagining what it will look like. My fruit bushes from plot 5 and a rhubarb crown gifted to me will be moved onto the plot in autumn. Here’s a quick reminder of how plot 11w used to look before I took it on: And this is how it looks now: Good progress has been made with clearing the ground and levelling, I have measured and marked out where the raised beds will go with string and canes, this is a great way to test your allotment layout before committing to anything. I can easily manoeuvre a wheel barrow around the plot and access the beds from all sides for weeding and planting. The pallet compost bins have been in place on the far end of the plot since spring (as you can probably guess from the random daffodil!), originally there were 3 but recently I managed to squeeze in one more to the end of the row. You can never have enough compost bins and they’re going to be a great asset to both of my allotment plots. My bins are fixed together with wood screws and baler twine holds the fronts on (not pictured) which makes it much easier to remove the front pallet to gain access to turn the heaps. So as you can see I have been a busy bee on the allotments!