In the beginning
Well here it is, September 2009 and we have acquired our new allotment. After a relatively short wait at approximately position number 12 on the waiting list we were informed by the allotment committee that they had decided to create some new plots and they were able to offer us one. Needless to say we bit their hands off and rushed to site to take our pick of those on offer. Unfortunately new was the word to look out for, this we discovered was literally the case, “this plot had never been worked before, or if it had, it was thirty or forty years ago” we were informed by the chap we met. However we were not put off and eagerly set about working it.
What a surprise we had in store. The later part of 2009 had been particularly hot and dry and coupled with the fact that the ground had not been turned in many years we discovered it was more like concrete. Naively we hired a turf cutter to remove the top layer of weeds and grass…..this just skimmed over the surface. Naively again we decided to hire a rotavator, getting the biggest machine we could find so that it would make easy work of the job…..this just bounced over the surface. We concluded the only way forward was to dig the ground by hand and we sat back and waited for mother nature to soften it with rain.
