in gravyland

We’ve cleared the bit above the rabbit-proof fence and have made room for ten rows of potatos there, and after a lot of digging, mostly not by me, planting starts. That leaves the really steep bit far up the back of the allotment for grass and maybe a cubby-house for the kids one day?

I planted two rows of spuds today, 1 ft deep, 18 inches or so apart, can’t remember the variety though. Alister or Colin must have planted the first three rows. It is getting steeper up there, each row is a little harder to get in place and there are a lot of upside-down turfy bits that make it a bit tricky.

The garlic is looking ok. Bottom of stems are going purple-ish.

To Do up there:

• Tie up the rasberry canes again. The last lot fell down an became ankle traps for those going past.
• Plant some herbs and beans and stuff.

I planted this collection of perennials today in the third wide bed going up — the bed above the garlic.. November is probably a bit late for planting, but we’ll see I guess.

This bunch is called 3 seasons collection from Spalding Bulbs.

Alistair came down as well and we dug in another bed .. so they are pretty much all done now. We just need to work out what to plant. The garlic planted at the end of September has come up — about 3 inch green shoots now. Most of the 40 have come up.

We’re sharing an alottment with a couple of mates. Three families in all. Seems about the right amount of people to keep it going. So far I’m loving getting out there and gardening together.

I want to keep a bit of a diary here so we get a sense of what we’ve achieved and what worked and didn’t. So here’s the first bit of that. NB.. this is what we all achieve together, not just our bit.

Last weekend

• Weeding beds and around beds, removing long grass and big, weird weeds. Great big fleshing flowery things. What were they?
• Picked a few runner beans, but they were a bit woody. Inside, some beautiful coloured beans — purples and pinks and spots. They turned into an art project.

This weekend

• Dug out some not-too-bad compost and built up a bed with some top soil to plan garlic in.
• Planted about 40 garlic bulbs.
• Put topsoil around the raspberries.
• Put topsoil in other beds, more weeding of beds.
• Pulled out bean plants that are past it.
• Built a trellis for one row of raspberries. Need to build one for the other row.
• Bea found a couple of raspberrys to eat. Yum.