First proper day at no. 75

Helllllllooooooooo!

Well what a really great day we had yesterday at the new plot. Managed to enlist the help of some family and friends, and they were all amazing and we got so much done.

My sister Tiff and her boyfriend Dom came, as did Leia, Suzanne and Carlos at various points during the day. Me and Leia cleared all the rubbish from around the plot and made some piles of things like all the wood, tiles, landfill (hardly any), composting stuff etc. We also cleared the area behind the shed, which I forgot to take a picture of...but it looked great once we had done it. It's now full of chopped down conifer, which Dom did, and in the process he discovered a rose plant, which looked so strange as it had come to life at the top of a really tall stem which had worked its way up to the sunlight at the top of the conifer. Can't remember now what he did with it but he was going to try and bring it down and replant it?

Tiff did a great job on a strawberry bed, don't worry I won't tell anyone how scared you were Tiff of all the bugs...oops I just did... Woodlice are your friends!!

Suzanne, Tiff and I had this 45 minute tour of our neighbour's plot, though to call it a plot is misleading because he has triple the size of ours, and ours is double!!! His name is Andy and he is an incredible guy. He grows every type of vegetable and fruit you can imagine, and the funny thing is he doesn't eat any of it, bar the courgettes, and he just has people come up and harvest anything they want. His shed is amazing, it is like a really cool living room in the form of a shed, complete with I'm not sure what it's called but like a log burner I think, and sofa bed and everything. I think he must sleep over in it quite a lot. He has a seagull called Henry I think, who he feeds and has had coming for years. He is the oracle of the site as far as I am concerned, and I think as far as everyone else is concerned too.

We have changed our original plan which was to rotovate (learnt how to spell that properly, I am a spelling freak and hate to spell things wrong so was disturbed to find out that I had been spelling it rot-i-vate...tut tut) most of the plot, having spoken to a few of our neighbours who said if it was them they wouldn't do it, for various reasons including that it can greatly increase how many weeds you have, dries out the soil and plus actually there are loads of beds that have been worked on as recently as last year, and had few weeds in because all the (bloomin') carpet the previous tenant laid down everywhere!!

Here are some pics anyway.
Oh yeh we came away with:
-chard, 2 types
-one beetroot
-sheesh loads of mint

-x-

Potatoes!!!!

I put the first lot of potatoes into these pots and a bag yesterday. Was very confused by it all, but once Mum had explained and I had grasped the immense simplicity of it all, the pots got their new home. They are...crap...I can't remember what they're called..... I don't mean the potatoes are crap, I mean my memory is crap! But anyway...off now to do some clearing -x-

herb grabbers!

Mum bought me and Baz some awesome things for the allotment yesterday, including a fork, spade, compost, dragonflies (ornamental!), tealight holders, secateurs....And she also very kindly brought us a wheelbarrow, some chairs, pots for the pots from hers which she didn't need anymore, and so we went up there to put it all in the shed. Oh she bought me a lovely lavender plant, lavender being my most favourite thing in the world, which is now home to the two new dragonflies! Yay!

This picture shows Mum and Gloria getting some herbs, mint to be precise, well Mum is getting them while Gloria supervises and tries and succeeds to turn away from the camera I suddenly point her way.

-x-

NEW PLOT!!!!

So seeing as our potatoes are desperately seeking soil and I am desperately seeking my mental and physical well-being, the decision was made to stop waiting until we got some sort of compensation from the council and just go ahead and choose a plot.

So I called the site rep and organised to meet him. I took Mum as moral support (Baz was at work) and I was shown only two plots, even though when you walk around the site there are so many that are obviously not being worked and obviously belong to the site rep's cousin or the Mayor's step-niece or whatever, anyway, they were two we had already seen, so I went for the one that was a lot more quirky and surrounded by oracle-like tenants and had a water tap right opposite and was closer to the entrance. Do not ask me why but this was important to me!! Lazy or what?!

We have been told that we can have two half plots instead of the normal one, which I'm not sure whether we will be able to maintain, but we're going to try and if it's too much work then we can just give it up any time.

I am soooooooooooo excited to have an allotment again, I have been up there yesterday with Baz and today with Mum and her friend. I've already tidied the shed- yes there's a shed although is a shed still a shed if it has tarpaulin for a roof?- and sown some flower seeds into a pot. I've tried to enlist the help of everyone and anyone I know around Brighton to come and help me and Baz this Saturday as we need to get ready asap for them to come and rotivate.

Here's some pics of our new lottie:

Ok the last one isn't of the lottie, but some of these flowers are from it... the bluebells, clover, and a few others which I don't know the names of...

Love and sunshine xxxx

still no plot

So we've been corresponding with the council and sadly we haven't been offered anything worth going for and the latest is this strange one:

Hopefully I have some good news for you. The rep has located a spare plot that adjoins plot 293/1 – if the hospitalised tenant is happy for us to move him onto this plot then you will be able to stay on plot, however this would require our moving the tenants glass house and shed across onto the new half plot as legally theses structures belong to them.

One of the site reps at weald should contact you shortly if this plan meets with approval with the tenant.

So, this is a bit funny cos we can't imagine how the guy whose plot it 'actually' is would feel being next to the guys who turfed him off his plot, not to mention how awkward it might be for us all to be neighbours... And I doubt he would go for this, not that we want to either. It is a bit cryptic as  the tenants glass house and shed- well firstly both the greenhouses (plural) are on Mikey's old one and secondly which shed as there is one on ours and one on Mikey's.  It makes me laugh that The rep has located a spare plot that adjoins plot 293/1, as if all these years this mystery plot stood in some invisible, parallel universe unspottable to the average human eye, and then along comes this person who miraculously 'locates' it. It reminds me of His Dark Materials....

the hospitalised tenant is happy for us to move him onto this plot makes me imagine this really sick guy on a hostpital bed being wheeled onto his lovely new plot, while we gloat and laugh at him across the fence with our lovely plot which he has been removed from.

as legally theses structures belong to them.- not so sure about the legality, we haven't got legal aid yet....

So badly want to be back on our allotment. The pots are chitting on the windowsill, we have sweet pea and heaps of veggie seeds to sow before long and most of all my health- both mental and physical- are taking a hit from not being up there digging and sowing away.......

xx