After two weeks of no allotment, I finally got to the plot at the weekend.

I’m still very behind but the front of the plot looks pretty good. I spent 4 hours and I didn’t plant or sow anything, I weeded and woodchipped some more.

I started with watering! It’s really dry, so the strawberries, garlic, asparagus patch, blueberries and, blackcurrants got watered. I did a quick clear up of the front paths and really worked on the area around the gooseberry bushes. The idea is that there is a path from the front of the plot to the asparagus patch at the back not that you can see the path for the grass and the cornflowers!

I started by the asparagus patch and we now have a weeded and wood chipped path around the back of the blueberries to the asparagus patch. Again the idea is that this will link to the path by the gooseberries.

I also weeded what was the sweet potato bed last year. I’m having a year off from sweet potatoes and I’m going to grown sweetcorn in that bed this year.

After some work on the grass is the front bed, it’s rampant and will need constant weeding. This is the problem with no dig and perennial weeds, it’s not quite as effective as the evangelical no-diggers would have you believe. Then it was time for the gooseberries. I managed to free one of bushes and wood chip around it but the grass is rampant.

I look like I’ve been fighting cats. Is there a thornless gooseberry bushes, with eating gooseberries? If not they should get on that!

Also there were red ants in the wildflower bed on the other side of that and I need some nematodes because those things bite and I have sugar blood, so I stopped.

I’m pretty happy with the front half of the plot but I have some serious work on the rest of it. I’m taking next week off so I can spent some serious days on it and there is lots to do but spring is here so I better get a move on