Our first weekend.

On Thursday 15th March 2012 Luke signed the paper work and we officially began our allotment journey. We paid a bit extra for a plot that already has raised beds, a gate, a shed and compost bins, along with a few other odds and ends and a lot of weeds.

From the gate:

From the shed:

As you can see it's all a bit overgrown. There's 11 beds (3 big square ones, 1 long rectangle and 7 'regular' rectangles). There's also 2 smaller climber beds. We're not planning on using all in the first year.
So far we're planning on:
1 regular rectangle bed for strawberries and rhubarb. This was weeded and dug over this weekend. It was full of potatoes, so we harvested 8.5kg of potatoes on our first day!
1 square bed for root veg, also weeded and 3/4 dug over.
1 regular rectangle bed for herbs.
1 regular rectangle bed for lettuce, spinach and garlic.

1 climber bed for raspberries, weeded, dug over and 2 raspberry plants planted this weekend.
1 climber for beans or peas, weeded and dug over this weekend.

1 grow bag for tomatoes.

There is also 1 regular rectangle bed with celeric and beetroot growing, we haven't really decided what to do with this yet. The beetroot looks very small. We dug up some celeric tonight. It was our first time eating it and it was pretty nice. 

Our plan is start planting next weekend and dig the next 2 beds. 

Tomato seeds have been planted in our house and will be moved to grow bags in a few weeks.

Our compost bins were 75% full when we arrived and are now full. We've dug a big hole in a bed we're not using and putting weeds etc in there. We'll then cover it over in a week or two and leave it to compost. 

Our other plans for the allotment in the future include ripping up the black sheeting on the floor, planting grass and laying stepping stones. 

We're going to get a bbq & chairs at some point too and sort out a seating area.

Rachael.