22 March

I went to continue the weeding this morning, but I have no photo to accompany this post as I had to leave in a hurry. I did however measure the plot (pretty much exactly 8x5) and the glasshouse, so I am going to be able to start planning properly.
I had a few nice surprises:

• someone had left me some cabbage seedlings. Don't know who, there was no note
  
• 2 strawberry plants, not much but it's a start :)
  
• something I haven't identified yet which must have been sown by my predecessor (they're more or less in lines) has started to emerge in one of the corners
  

Bad surprise, which shouldn't have been a surprise though, was that water had got in the glasshouse, so making it watertight is going to have to be one of my priorities.

Regarding the mystery plant, I had another go and I would say the smell is fairly grassy, and the taste bitter.

Wildlife: Green woodpecker was still very much present, going from tree to tree. A robin was singing on top of a pole on a nearby plot. An Egyptian goose flew above as well as some big gulls.
Not exactly the allotment, but on the way there, it was lovely to hear the sparrows chirping in some of the back streets, which made me think I ought to get some kind of voice activated dictaphone kinda thing to make notes as I'm cycling along.

first day

I got some tools and gloves on Wednesday, so this morning I went to the allotment in order to start on the weeding. Sky was blue, weather looked nice as I left home, but as I was walking I could see this big band of grey clouds that looked very threatening. Thankfully rain held until I was back home :)

Before:

After:

What I removed:

I still need to get a composting bin, in the meantime a big heap will do. Not in there however was most of the nettles as I took these home to make soup.
Ground felt good, I found lots of earthworms, I am quite happy about that.
I also got a few books at the Library yesterday, to help me plan. I forgot to get a tape measure this morning so more precise planning will have to wait.

I do need to decide what to do with this rosemary. It does look a bit poorly to me.



Lastly, anyone knows what this is? It is at the base of the rosemary and I have left it for the minute.



Wildlife: The amount of birdsong was really good, and it I learned one thing today is how much I need to get better at recognising them. At least one call I recognised was that of green woodpecker, which I still haven't seen on my patch this year. I also saw it fly to a tree in the middle of the allotments.
Had a ladybird, of the Harlequin variety, possibly the same I saw last week in the 'greenhouse', and a bumble bee flew by as I left.