The fight back begins....with tea

Last weekend I found a little free time to go to the lottie. I have to admit it is a mess. I decided the fight had to begin at some stage or to walk away. I decided to fight back. I started by opening the big compost bin to turfing into it the gone-over flowers and grasses from around the bin and the adjacent patio area. I also shovelled in the compost I ran shovelled out a few months ago. I have no where else to put ten barrow loads of compost. It least it will kick start the compo bin. The up shot was front of the lottie looks better and I have some room to work.

Over the summer I have been dropping off horse muck every fortnight. The result is a big pile of the stuff. It is nicely worked down by the worms and is ready to be dropped on the plot. I feel some major mulching coming on.

Yesterday [Saturday] morning I to meet some folks about a market pitch in Castle Donington. It was less daunting than had imagined. There was tea and bacon butties to keep out the cold. I was done by twelve noon and set off for trailer duties. I met Allotment buddy Steve at the lottie and immediately stopped for a brew. Steve favours a Kelly's kettle, I favour a Trangia. In this case the Kelly was already bubbling so it would be rude not to take tea. We had a sit at the top of my plot placing ourselves gingerly onto my garden seat. The weather has given the planking a beating over the years and it days must be numbered. It is just a case of when the comedy chair collapse happens. Steve had to go and I set about digging up some spuds. The soils was wet but not too bad. I got a nice crop of spuds and a cleared a patch of soil to boot. Just another 400 square yards to go and the plot is perfect.  

When dropped out the trailer I went over to see the bees. I topped up the feeders and observed the fronts of each hive for five minutes. Even though the nights are colder the sun still has some warmth especially with the clear skies we have had recently. The bees where coming and going with vigour. Some of the bees were bring back pollen. They need pollen to make the food to feed to the larvae so pollen = larvae food = eggs = queen, so all is well for the time being.