Make do & mend ..

Guess where I've spent all afternoon, yep, up on the plot. It's that time of year. Everyone's itching to plant up their allotment, unfortunately some were a little too hasty and paid the price. A frost two nights on the trot and quite a few seasoned gardeners have lost their early crops. Potato & runner bean plants have been scorched, nobody seems to know if the plants will recover. I'm lucky in as much as I was'nt ready to plant up over the Easter weekend which is the traditional time to get planting, so my seed potatoes were'nt showing above the ground. It was manic up there yesterday,  a real hive of activity. Virtually every plot is being worked now so it's really coming together as a site. It's lovely to walk around checking out all the garden sheds, many of them patched up here & there, using whatever is around, different methods of growing, bed shapes, very neat raised beds, bamboo cane supports for runner beans, mine are coppiced hazel, Netting for peas, much of it brightly coloured plastic net, blue & orange. That jars a little. I much prefer to use natural aids, so again I will use hazel twigs when I get to plant my peas. Today I cleared another patch, moving some raspberry canes, erecting support with the help of hubby for the blackberry plant that was scrambling all over the ground. Feisty thing,  tried to get it's hooks in me. Then we cut up some lengths of surplus carpet to lay on the paths, hopefully it will suppress the weeds. Rosebay willowherb, dandelions & of course bindweed are the thugs on my plot, & then the soil which is heavy clay, but I love a challenge. The I saw a school friend from primary school days, she's sharing a plot with her sister. The last time I saw Gerry must have been 8-10 years ago. Another satisfactory day :)