It feels so good to have completely cleared my first (small) patch of land. I’d managed to grab about half an hour up the allotment yesterday and I’d cut back some very bushy weeds but didn’t at that point have my fork with me, so me and Boy Lacer came back today with the fork (and the spade, in case those roots were very tough). We’d dropped Girl Lacer off at school first, so had dumped the spade and fork on the pushchair and Boy Lacer walked (which was spotted by the headteacher at the front gate who commented at how well he’s walking, which was nice and a bit surprising and well not really at all surprising really that she knew Boy Lacer had issues in that department). Once at the allotment Boy Lacer played with the handy toy car he keeps secreted in my bag for toy car emergencies whilst I forked, pulled and raked. Boy Lacer (in between playing with the car) was offering me gardening advice “my friends*, when they dig, they put their foot on top of it (on top of the fork or spade) and push down”, I thanked Boy Lacer for his advice but actually the ground was surprisingly workable and the fork slid into the soil easily, I actually think the soil might be quite nice, if a little stony and full of weeds.
The dubious apple tree - I need to consult some of my many gardening books (I know it's an apple tree, it's more of a case of is it healthy and worth saving?)
After I cleared the ground me and Boy Lacer, well to be honest mainly Boy Lacer built the compost bin, it’s one of those wooden slot together kits (it worked out cheaper than trying to buy the bits to build our own). Although I’m already looking at the amount of waste the allotment is generating and thinking we’ll need more than one, so although it will do for the moment, when planning the allotment I’m going to make sure there’s enough space left for one, maybe two more.
We also met our one of our allotment next door neighbours, a lovely lady who gave us some of her prize winning runner beans and was very friendly. Can’t wait to go back.
Another view across my plot; behind all my weeds, in the distance, is a bit of Richmond Park wall
* Boy Lacer has recently taken to starting quite a lot of sentences with “my friends . . .”, I think he’s copying me and Girl Lacer telling anecdotes, although in the case of his gem of gardening wisdom, I think the friends in question may be Fifi and the Flowertots and Dirt Girl.
