Today my dad, my son and I went down to make a start on the allotment and it mainly consisted of seeing what we could keep, what needs binning, and what we could reuse.

The old owner had the path come in to the right of the plot before continuing down the middle which I didn't like. I managed to use some of the old fencing to create a fence at the front with a path down the middle. This will allow me to have 6 foot long beds to the left of the 2 foot path, and about 5.5 foot to the right. I haven't measured how long the full plot is yet, so I'm not sure how wide each bed will be. 

My dad pruned the currant bushes and made a start digging over some of the existing beds on the left whilst I made a start digging over the front removing a rotten raised bed which was held together by bind weed! My son created a "bug hotel" out of pots and bits of wood, we will do a better one together I think when we get chance, as he enjoyed playing with the worms and spiders!

Managed to staple some roof felt found in the shed to try and make it a bit more water tight, it's a temporary fix but will hopefully allow it to dry out a bit so we can get some use out of it for a year or two. Got some cardboard down on a particularly weedy patch, eventually I think I'd like to go no dig here, so it may be that we just leave this on this part, or add some more in the future! 

Finished off the visit by planting some tulip bulbs on the left side of the plot along the front fence which Jake, my son, was very much looking forward to and enjoyed. I think it would be nice to try and finish each visit by doing something like that together to keep him interested, although it might not always be possible. 

Won't get chance to head down next weekend, so unsure what we'll get back to, but it's definitely going to take some work and a lot of hours... But will do it in stages, this year focussing on the left side of the plot where the soil looks much better to allow us to get some things planted to grow next year

Ed 😄