First Visit to My New Allotment Plot

On Saturday afternoon, I paid my first visit to my new allotment plot to do some work on it.

The site on which it is situated is a very urban one, in the middle of a housing estate. It is overlooked on virtually all sides by flats, so you almost feel a little exposed and in full view when you're working on the plot. It's probably less of a problem in the summer, when the vegetation around the fence grows more.

This is the site entrance coming from the direction I approach it.

And this is my plot at the far end against the fence.

Here's the view looking back up the site from my plot.

There are quite a few raised beds on the site, there's a communal shed to right of this photograph. and a water trough to the left which will be useful for watering, as I won't have to carry the watering cans very far. 

It's a nice little plot, but it has some history attached to it that I can't go into just yet.  It's not quite a simple matter of me taking over the plot, and I'm currently waiting to see how things pan out.

Anyway, as I've paid my rent and been given a key, I thought I'd better get down to work or I'd be getting into trouble from the committee. 

I took the car there on Saturday as I had to drop off the compost bin, which was too cumbersome to carry all the way there. I won't be doing this in future unless there is lots of stuff to take away or take to the plot, but it does allow really good access for taking away green waste. (The garden waste bins don't always get emptied and some things can't easily be put on a normal compost pile)

I then set to work digging over the plot. It has been divided into various small beds with mud paths in between.  I kept the same layout whilst digging.  It took a couple of hours to dig over half of the plot and it was quite hard work as the soil is much heavier than my last plot, possibly due to not being overworked and the fact it has more clay in it.

The plot looks pretty small compared to my last one, but when you're digging it over it doesn't seem small.  In fact, there seemed to be much more of it than I remembered. Anyway, this is what it looked like when I'd finished for the afternoon. 

I sited my compost bin, but still need to put some chicken wire underneath it before I start using it, to prevent rats getting into it.

I'm hoping to put some sort of paving on the paths between the beds, but I don't want to buy any if I can help it, and definitely not at this point, as I'm not sure what might happen yet. I know this sounds a bit cryptic, but I will explain the situation in more detail at a later date.  It would be much easier to navigate and cultivate with proper paths under foot.  

I sowed some broad beans, onion sets and mustard seeds into the back two beds either side of the compost bin and left it at that.

I had some help from this little visitor who was flitting about throughout my stay.  So cute.

I guess he was waiting for the worms I was bringing to the surface. It was nice to have company though.

As you can see from this photo, there is still plenty left to do another time.

I'll keep you posted on both progress and developments!