I thought today I'd start with a retrospective of the allotments, showing their condition when we first took them over, and comparing it with where they are now, I hope you enjoy!
Plot 2 - our first plot - October 2006!
8' high of weeds, brambles, thistles, bindweed and mares tail, a veritable jungle of vegetation that took 6 months of hard work, chopping back, laying paths and double digging!
............ and as the same area looks today, 3 years and 9 months later, quite a change!
Buried at the back of the plot was a shed, that although looked to be in reasonable condition, did actually fall down 9 months later, so ended up on the Bonfire Night fire at the plot! Where it originally stood is now part of the sight of our 1st Apiary!
There was a pond in there somewhere!
And as it is now!
Full of enthusiasm and without a clue!
After 1 days work slashing and burning the weeds we found some structure did exist, with a couple of paths being marked out and edged with wood, but the beds were 30' in length, so a lot more path works had to be done to get the plot into a fully workable condition!Plot 1 - our second full sized plot - May 2008
I didnt get to take any piccies before Lee started work on this plot, as the guy who had it before came on and said to Lee, I havent got the time to do it anymore, take what you want, and Lee replied, Ill take the plot, and immediately set to clearing it!
As each bed was dug over we covered them with cardboard until we could get some crops in.
And as it looks today, a bit of a change!There's plenty of piccies of the transformation of both the plots (and the 1/2 plot we also had inbetween finishing the basics on Plot 2 and getting Plot 1) in the archives, I've just taken a troll back through them, a walk along memory lane, and spent a few minutes reliving some hard work and a lot of fun! The archives can be found via the link to the right of the page, I hope you enjoyed the pictures of the plot as it once was, that it brings back memories of your own hard work in transforming your plots and gives at least a smile to those who've been there and done that!
I'll try for another update later on today, with some piccies from around the allotment site and hopefully a beekeeping update, but for now, thanks for reading!
4 comments:
That is so amazing! I bet you're glad you took the pics when you first took the plots.
what a change. alas, it is amazing how quickly a well-tended plot can be reclaimed by nature. 2 of my neighbours have given up their plots and it hasn't taken long for them to be untamed and unrecognisable. so much hard work, but definitely worth it :)
Lol, thanks Shayla, just goes to show what a bit of enthusiasm, a lot of ignorance and a heck of a lot of hard work can acchieve! Yje original pics were taken on my old cheapo digital camera, hence the poor quality images, but I couldnt afford a decent one then, not even 2nd hand from ebay!
Agreed Steph, our Plot 2 (the first one we took on) had been idle for the summer, that was all it took to get to that condition, akes a lot longer to bring back under control and to deal with some of the problems, such as bindweed, dock, nettle, thistle and dandelion, we're still pulling it put by the bucket load, but its getting weaker, another 7 years and we may have it under control! lol
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