i ended up keeping some of the fleece (well actually wasn’t real fleece, more like that weed suppressing membrane) on two rows to warm the ground and force faster growth.

this time around we picked really obscure varieties, made further obscure because shozu failed to upload the photo above, which had the descriptions. so from memory and left to right we have: gypsy mixed with highland burgundy, skerry, salad blue, shetland black, gypsy mixed with highland burgundy and finally dunbar rover.

aren’t they great names? the taters are heritage varieties which can go from blue and purple insides, to black skins with blue rings in white flesh. we’ve had the shetland black before and really enjoyed them.

since my plan for main crops was postponed, i decided to prune the rasps. hopefully i wasn’t too harsh. i made a half arsed attempt to weed the area around them, but it needs more work.

there’s still so much to do and we’ve not made a start on any seedlings. but hey, i guess when you stick food in the grow, you’re technically in growing season eh?

• feed the compost bin with our kitchen waste (yes, can haz compost bins!)
• harvest taters
• pick some raspberries
• weed around the toms
• water everything

foolishly, i thought i could do this in half an hour, it was more like an hour and a half!

i’ve still got to water the rasps and weed the toms, i may have to do that today.

but, the effort is still worth it for the rewards:

sadly the horse tail obliterated our carrot and spring onions. we have a small row of carrots growing away. the beetroot is also doing well.

last weekend we enjoyed a bumper crop of raspberries and there are plenty more ready for this week. the woodlice have pretty much claimed the strawberries as their own.

we got a nice lettuce head growing, which to our surprise has not been nibbled by slugs.

we’ve started growing a few more in pots with copper tape around them, no point hoping for continued good fortune.

finally the best news saved for last, our taters have started to flower

and of course when flowering begins, so can the harvesting!

they tasted lovely, very creamy and sweet. can’t wait till we can harvest more!

anyways.

before heading to the lot, i needed to get some more tools as we were going to reassemble the shed and if possible buy timber from travis and perkins to make the raised beds. so off to b&q to get a rake, claw hammer, a toolbox saw and galvanized nails. whilst i was there i did a quick reccy on clear plastic to replace the broken window in the shed, a 4×2 foot would cost about £14!

in addition to lot diy-ing we wanted to burn down the pile of dry grass and weeds. so after placing bricks around our pile of grass, small bits of wood (without paint) and various dried out parsnips we lit it. i was surprised how quickly it took and soon we had a nice roaring fire.

it was at this point when some crazy kid came over and wanted to help us with our fire. my main concern for this urchin was that he might become part of the bonfire. furthermore his claims to be an “expert” in fire making were seriously doubted after he started to pull at bits of new grass and trying to put them on the fire whilst a strong wind blew. he seem rather pleased that he “landed” a few on the fire itself.

luckily the parental units did whatever they do to call their offspring back, that or the child grew concerned about how violently i was stabbing the dry bits of grass with my fork that he went back to his own plot.

so with fire blazing it was at this point our other lot neighbour malcolm came over, probably to distract us enough so that the fire would die out as it was smoking him out something rotten. he came over to have a little chat and find out what we were planning growing. during the conversation we mentioned our plan for raised beds. it was at this point that he advised us against it, simply because the soil here is sandy and all the beds would do is dry out the soil faster. it was interesting to hear one of the old skoolers talk about how raised beds have only become fashionable since shows like gardeners world started featuring them. also he pointed out how the old timers didn’t have raised beds and it was only the n00bs.

with this in mind, me and mrs. booyaa made a strategic decision to ditch the beds, mostly because we anticipate we’ll struggle to keep up with the watering demands during summer and if the beds are going to exacerbate this issue further then let’s eliminate the problem now.

whilst talking with malcolm we got on to the subject of potatoes and onions, turns out the allotment shop has a clearance sale on the taters and onions and since we no longer had to wait for our beds to be built it seemed a good time to buy them and stick them in the dirt! in addition to the javelin variety of taters we bought we also got the guy who runs the other allotment shop to bring us some charlottes on sunday.

lou made a start on prepping the soil, whilst i denailed the shed, it was a very trying time for the multi-legged 
inhabitants of the various nooks and crannies that made up the shed. eventually i was ready to raise the shed. in a word: tricksy. the shed seemed to have a mind of its own and would often move where the wind was blowing. despite being difficult, with only me and mrs. booyaa assembling it, the shed eventually was up. i wouldn’t sleep in it, it’s far too rickety and doesn’t feel at all stable. my in-laws will be over for the last may bank hols and my dad-in-law is a wiz with diy, so i’m hoping we’ll be able to make it stable.

finally to end the day we planted the taters.

today (sunday) i just popped in to setup the compost bag. i dumped our two weeks worth of veg scraps, coffee grounds and tea. i forgot to get paper to layer the wet. the bag is a stop gap until we can build our permanent bin.

facts and figures
our current expenditure is about £148
time spent on allotment: 14 hours