Getting busy ... and mucky

Having felt ill all week, I perked up a little with the coming of the weekend, and dragged myself down allotment for some fresh air.

My raspberry canes and strawberry plants have arrived, so I needed to clear some room to plant them out. I forked over the bed I had my runner beans in last year, added some compost and put in some posts (I need to get bigger ones) and wire and planted the summer raspberry canes. The ground was too wet to clear new beds, for the autumn raspberries so I had to settle for planting them as two bunches in the raised bed planned for the strawberries. This I cleared out of the remaining brussels sprouts and leeks and added compost and covered with a black sheet.

I repaired the damaged compost bin, and examined the contents. I'm afraid it wasn't composting too well, too much woody material and too dry. I transferred the contents to a pile at the back of the allotment which I intend to become a larger composting heap, and cleared out the compost bin. The other bin seems to be doing fine.

The ground was mucky and getting worse as the day wore on, so I had to make a bodge job of putting down some slabs in front of the shed, just laid on some sand. Need to put down some proper concrete when the weather dries up a little.

Luckily there is a few bark chippings left, courtesy of the council, and I managed to get four barrow loads of that down on the paths which helped. Could do with a few more though.

Didn't manage to get the strawberries out though, and with the weather looking dodgy for the rest of the week, I think I'm going to pot them up and keep them in the greenhouse, till next weekend.

Tasks to do next weekend (weather permitting):

1. dig bed for autumn raspberries, and transfer them over.
2. plant out strawberries
3. more bark down on paths.
4. fork over beds for brassicas and cover with sheet to warm it.
5. concrete base for the slabs.

Through the week tasks:

1. Dig out some compost
2. pot strawberries
3. make a proposed sewing diary based on seeds I have.

With the weather being so bad, there was nobody around, I'm hoping to get a contact number for the guy who delivers manure, because I could do with a load on my plot.

The photo shows the summer raspberries out, the autumn raspberries in clumps at the top of the raised bed, which is covered over. Oh and the mud, you can see lots of mud.

PS. The sprouts were excellent, I've blanched some and frozen them for next week.