A big deal

Sunday dawned bright and clear. I had a nice breakfast of a bacon and egg sandwich with brown sauce and a steaming mug of Tea. I stocked up the brew box and set off the do the trailer run. The trailer run done I went back to the lottie. I got the brush out and gave the patio area a good sweep. It looked better for it. The recent dry weather and sun had dried it out so the smeg of the winter could be removed quite easily.

Dave P and his lad, Harry, turned up. I asked Dave to give me a hand marking out the path on the new allotments. Harrybobs claimed the sledge hammer. Dave put the pegs in the barrow. We walked over to the new area. Dave wandered off in the lottie with Harrybobs in tow, the sledgehammer was getting heavy but to his credit he did not give in. When setting out the plot in the first instance I used some reference points. I was able to sight between them. Dave just had to place a post roughly on line, I sighted across the markers, Dave moved the post to the final position and Harrybobs bashed them in. The last few posts were hard work for Harrybobs but again he did not give in even if it cost Dad a few bruised fingers.

Bed 3 looked so well just with a superficial tidy up and the fact I had bought the seed potatoes, destined for bed 3, I decided that I should build the edging for the bed. The string line was already strung. I dug out the few dock and other weeds in the top portion of the bed and fitted the first two boards. They went in easy enough. However H dropped by so we had a brew and watched the birds as we sat in the hot sun. The wind still had an edge to it so it was sun bathing fully dress and with coats on in the proper English way. Once H had toddled off the last section could be tackled. But first I cut myself a 2m staff, picked up some more pegs, the marker paint and the sledgehammer. I went back up to the new lottie, put the staff against the pegs Harrybobs had planted, put the new peg at the end of the staff and banged it in. I did this each peg. Walking back from the far end of the plot I sprayed the top couple of inches the pegs of each peg. When I looked back from the roadway the path stood out from the undergrowth. It has given the plot some structure.

The bottom section of the bed 3 took a great deal of raking and weeding. The weeding had to be done because the bed needed to be used and because in fitting edge boards the extra soil was to be thrown on the bed. There was no point burying the weeds. The last board was easy enough to fit but required a lot of soil to be moved and that took time. I had just got the last plank in and started using the mattock the level the soil of the new path when Steve shouted over that the kettle was on. I went over with my mug and tea bag. We had a chat as we supped the brew. It was very welcome. After that I roughly levelled the soil and stamped down the soil of the path and made it level as best I could. The further to the middle of the plot I got the sticker became the soil and that was not a good combination for easy work, in fact it was rather heavy work. However I got there with a lot of huffing and puffing. I was left with a ten foot by six foot area that was not weeded. I decided to push on and as the sun started to decline I got it finished. I went back over the plot and using the fork raked the soil to give the seed bed a uniform finish. The sun was dipping and with it the temperature. I got all my belonging into Degsy ready for the trip home.

Today was big deal because the edging was the last of the infrastructure for the plot. I now have four edged beds which gives and path access round all the plot and down the middle. The compo bin area looks smart and I have seed potatoes, Arran Pilot and Rocket, in the shed ready for Easter bank holiday weekend. I might put some in next week. It is still cold but if they are in the ground they can get on the with growing. Steve asked if I was ahead in comparison the other years. I think I am and still have all day Saturday next week too.