step 3, weed control!What am i growing?grass!!!aaaargh!

So now this is what they call commitment. luckily I'm still in the honeymoon period of the relationship and i would be down there all the time if my back and children would allow it, but unfortunately not at the moment as it is quite hot. No amount of bribing from ice-creams to watching favourite films all afternoon seems to be working as there is no shade down there. so every time we go back it is as if someone has secretly sewn quick grow grass seed all over my newly rotivated and partially turned soil!
A plan of action needs to be made! We have decided to get weed control or membrane sheeting and have it at 2m widths all the way up the allotment, hold them all down with blocks or whatever we can find, then rotate the plots for now maybe uncover 2 at a time depending on how much space i need. I am also going to try phacelia tanacetifolia, green manure, as recommended by Dee from Green Side Up Veg. I am also going to rotate this so we can be feeding a bit of ground at the same time as using some of the other parts. You can get this at most garden centers i believe. I got mine from Millbrook Garden center. Anyway that's the plan so this hopefully is the last time you will see my allotment looking like a scene from a war film!(without the soldiers(sadly!))

Step 2......all it takes is patience and vision,a lot of vision!!!

When you are faced with 2 children and a husband who don't have the same vision let alone enthusiasm for digging all morning or afternoon you have to become inventive and dig deep in yourself for the want to carry on!

We had to spend two long weeks every morning myself and the boys and every evening with my husband too just pulling out the roots that run at least 2m along the ground. My boys have nick named them the monsters!They really do look like strange alien things.

one of the many champions!

After we had done for as long as we felt possible we gathered all the little piles into one giant heap at the end of the plot:

one of the little heaps of weeds and roots

We then built the boys a little pond (an old washing up bowl and lots of stones), and planted some sun flowers. It was time for Tom the allotment man the man who can and long standing member for over 30 years,to come down with the rotavator!!

After a cup of tea and a local history lesson he got stuck in and made the allotment a lovely blank canvas.This is when you really start to see things take shape. Now we have to dig through taking out any roots he has loosened and he will turn it again.We are very lucky the soil is rich and soft and begging for plants.

Week one.......getting started.

Having walked past the allotments for 4 years it has been an ambition of mine to own one, and now that my eldest is starting school in September and my youngest is happiest outdoors,muddy and running I thought now is the time to take on the challenge. Time for me and basically i feel a skill everyone should learn. Back to basics. By no means self sufficient i am not that deluded but for now learning the basics to survival, probably something i have needed since becoming a mummy.

Little did I know how big a challenge this would be, i knew it would be a slog at times but i had the picture of an allotment that someone had given up recently, something with a little structure or at least some soil that was visible. When Jackie our parish council clerk met me and my 2 boys at the allotments a month ago it was a lovely hot sunny day, peoples plots were really coming to life and I could see all the different ways that people were creating their own little haven. Then she said to me "right well the plot I have for you is down this end of the path, you can probably see the one i mean from here!" Well in fact I could not see a bloody thing, it was covered in 1m high weeds and we had to access it by walking through the neighbouring plot.

It is 30m long and about 6m wide. Don't get me wrong i was blinded by love and all i could think was how was i going to persuade my husband that this is a wonderful idea with so much potential, a life lesson for our boys and a good reason to get outdoors.I took him to see it that night with all the excitement of a 6 yr old going to the toy shop. His first reaction was where is it? Luckily for me he is a wonderful optimist with the need for sunshine as he is always in the office!

Once we had agreed to take it on and i had received the rules and laws of the land we headed down there with a big brush cutter/strimmer and fork number 1!

I have to say that i actually could quite happily have pulled all the weeds up one by one, making sure to get out the roots, but the blisters and numerous splinters from brambles everyday got the better of me and i had to keep Ed happy some how and what better way than to give him an opportunity to use some heavy duty power tools, (even had ear defenders, a helmet and visor!!!woooo!)

This scared my youngest but the grandparents came down to muck in and keep them happy for a while. unfortunately we picked the hottest day of the year so far and so we were all melting under the full sun which is what you want when growing your veg, but maybe not for digging out 1m long bramble and dock roots!We hung up our sweaty socks (and goggles!) and waited for the next day when we could start to see what was there already that we wanted to keep and what needed to come out.

We discovered a large crop of horse radish which we have decided to keep as it apparently keeps away the green fly etc. this is a handy website for companion planting :  http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html .

Also handily we found an old table and chair amongst the weeds which the boys have used as a shelter and a camp!