Goodbye Plot10b

 It's New Year's Eve and as always people look back on the year just gone and wonder what lies ahead. The last year has not been a good one for me and I'm glad to see the back of it.

At the allotment though, things have been good. Today we did our final clearing up on Plot 10b getting it ready to hand the keys over to the new tenants. And I find myself looking back, not on the last year but the last three and a half years since we took the allotment on. I think we are glad to see the back of plot 10b too and are looking forward to having just the one allotment to look after now.  But although it's been hard work we have enjoyed making it into a workable allotment, it's been a great challenge and we've learnt such a lot.

Some before pictures:

It was my daughter Helen's plot, but we all mucked in to help when she took it on. It was in a terrible state, it had been used to keep chickens and had not been cultivated.  People told us the soil would be good because of all the chicken poo, but we found no evidence of any soil enriched by chicken poo, just heavy, wet, solid clay.  There were three chicken sheds and a big cabin.  We kept two of the sheds and used the materials from the other two to make compost bins, raised beds and a growhouse. Richard did all the heavy building work, Helen's husband David dug beds over and made bonfires of all the rubbish. Helen and I weeded, dug over and made plans. The grandchildren helped when they felt like it or just had a great time playing in the mud.

About nine months later as Plot 10b was starting to look good, I was offered an allotment myself next door but two to Helen's.  So we started the hard work all over again. It was a different sort of plot, but still another big challenge. In the last year though, Helen's work commitments have increased and she is not able to give as much time to the allotment, so she decided to give it up and help me with mine when she is able to.

Allotments are hard work and we feel pleased that we have transformed such a derelict piece of land into a useful growing space. Because we recycled a lot of materials already on the plot we had very little expenses too. We hope now that the new tenants will have a good start to their growing year. We are looking forward to concentrating our efforts on Plot 8.

Thank you to all who follow and comment on my blog. I wish you all a happy and productive growing year in 2016.

Plot 10b looking transformed:

Sorting out the pond

We seem to be having a lot of projects at the allotment this year. Or perhaps that's how I view these things that we do. Some of them might be just projects but some of them are real challenges too.  So our latest project challenge is the allotment pond, and it really is a challenge.

When we first took on Plot 8 we were pleased that it had a pond, although we might not have noticed that it had a pond if the allotment officer hadn't told us. The whole of the pond area was taken over by irises and  weeds as well as all the rubbish which you get with a new allotment.

There's a pond here amongst the weeds

We were delighted when the frog spawn appeared, but sad when the pond dried up and we realised that there was a hole in the liner. So we knew that we would need to sort the pond out as soon as we had sorted the allotment out. It's a job which has been put off a few times because of more important allotment work and also because we knew it was going to be a big job and we needed to work out how to do it. But finally this year we got started.

Richard and Helen digging out the weeds

 We decided (well my husband did ) to get rid of the old pond but put the new pond in a different place. We just wanted a wildlife pond and it didn't need to be big, so as we are into recycling and reusing things we recycled and reused an old galvanised tin bath which we had found on the allotment and which was quite sound--no holes. The area where we have placed it is a fairly wet boggy area so we can also plant up a bog garden. We are also needing some space to put a small greenhouse or polytunnel and the area where the old pond was would be ideal.

The new pond

The first job was to dig out some of those weeds and plants which had taken over. That is a big job and we still haven't cleared them all.  But the old pond is almost cleared away to just a hole in the ground and the new pond is in place.  As I said earlier this is a big  challenge so we are still working on it. There is much still to be done but it's good to see the progress we've made so far. I've been collecting plants together for the pond and bog and I can't wait to get them planted up.

Bakeathon

I've been at bit busy for the last couple of weeks. Busy to the point of getting slightly stressed. I took on a baking challenge. I think actually that it was my suggestion, when my husband was counting off the days to his final day at work, that I could make cakes for him to take in for his work colleagues. He didn't want a fuss, no party or retirement buffet, so taking in cakes  seemed a good idea.  Until he said that I would need to cater for about 200 people.  I don't think I showed any emotion at that point. I just said that was fine, then I went away to a quiet place and inwardly screamed.

So I worked out a plan of action.  I would make tray bakes, which could be cut into small portions.  There would be no messy icing which would get damaged in transit and I would have to bake ahead and freeze some cakes.  I decided to make flapjacks, ginger cake, carrot cake, brownies, lemon drizzle cake and shortbread.  These were all tried and tested recipes which I felt confident with.

My husband said that they were a greedy lot at his work and loved cake.  So I then thought that one cake each might not be enough and that some greedy people would probably take two cakes. We realised  that I couldn't cope with  baking any more so to supplement the cakes we would also provide some boxes of chocolates.

After a few baking sessions I said I was fed up with baking and never wanted to see another cake again.  But I carried on.  Sometimes I baked in the morning, sometimes in the evening.  I got quite good at throwing a tray bake together in between doing some gardening and cooking the evening meal or collecting the grandchildren from school.

I kept running out of ingredients so I was constantly popping down to the shops for more supplies. I did start to wonder how many different sorts of sugar there were. There's caster sugar, golden caster sugar, demerara sugar, light soft brown, dark soft brown, light muscovado, dark muscovado.  I never seemed to have the right sort of sugar for the recipe. And eggs, I got through many boxes of eggs.

I did numerous calculations of how many pieces I would get out of the different cakes and when I finally finished the last baking session I had made just under 200 cakes.  Because he was also taking in some chocolates and because I had worked so hard and probably wouldn't want to bake again ever, I felt that I could justify keeping some of the cakes back for ourselves.  We were having visitors at the weekend after all. So at the final count he took in 140 cakes. Along with the chocolates that would satisfy the workers.

Did they like the cakes? Yes they did, they devoured them within ten minutes of them being put out in the kitchens. Will I ever bake again?  Yes I will, I have now mastered the art of rustling up a cake in a short space of time.  I don't recall anything in my marriage vows about baking cakes, but one of my friends said I had worked over and above the call of duty.  I did enjoy the challenge, but don't plan to do it again for a while.