My Allotment!

Despite forecasts of rain we've not had anything but an occasional shower that dries virtually as soon as it falls! So not trusting the forecast for rain the next day I went up to the allotment to do watering. Good to see the flower seeds coming up I sowed last week and my beans and courgettes doing well.
misswinterfinch asked me to blip my allotment so I shall give her and you a guided tour! The first extra shows my original first plot. I'm loving my new path made of the stones I have removed from the soil - it will be lengthened   as there are still stones in the beds - particularly those to be dug over once more! At the end of the path you can just make out  my alliums, Swiss chard and gladioli! You can see my fruit cage top right behind Flora, in front of her some raspberry canes up which my sweetpeas are growing. The plastic bottles are protecting my squash! Top left is my old raspberry bed, below that the old, covered strawberry bed and what is left of my herb bed - a very large rosemary and just to the left my sweet Cicely which has just burst into white flowers! The carpet is covering another bed of raspberries!

The next photo is the view looking up towards my next plot! Bottom left is my new strawberry bed, it's it's first year so slim pickings this year, then the canes for my climbing beans and the beds infront my broad beans and 3 beds of peas! Infront of the square compost heap in the centre of the photo you can see my potatoes flourishing! My plot goes up to the canes with orange tips of my Fellow Allotmentors plot!

The next photo is taken near the top of my second plot, I am standing by yet another raspberry bed - damn things grow everywhere! You can just see the edge of a redcurrant in the left middle edge of the photo, next to it is a blackcurrant and behind them 6 other beds which have yet to be dug over and planted with brassicas! The final photo shows the view standing near the end of my second plot and you can see the two fruit bushes top left and  the brassica beds to be, currently covered in Aquilegia, grass, herbs and dandelions! To the right are the two  iris and below them is my new flower bed. The middle of the photo is more of my squash in their cloches! At the top of the photo you can just make out my purple shed with the open door!

As you can see, there is a lot still to do, and a lot of things that have spread like the lemon balm, evening primroses, lady's mantle, foxgloves, forget-me-nots and daisies! If it looks pretty and flowers it stays and I plant round it - hence the squash plonked here and there! When I first started 10 years ago I vowed I would never use unsightly carpet - but the neglect of the last two years has made me change my mind! Come the end of this current growing season I intend to cover the raspberries in the bed in the first plot and dig them out next year - they are too old and as they are autumn bearing the fruit goes mouldy in the damp weather. This means I have to dig the beds where the carpets currently cover! There is a lot of digging to keep my busy for the rest of this year! More time in my happy place - ideal!
P.S. Just published and have to say the words the main blip  "looks better large!" Why is that for some photos?!