Yep, It's been that long.....

Been so hectic in the run up to Christmas, with illnesses and marking, that I haven't made it up to the allotment till now. It has definately been negleted!

The renewal for the plot came through, so I asked if I could share or split the plot. They've split the plot, and reduced the rent, so I'm quite pleased. It is now not very big, but still big enough for me.

Most of what I did on Sunday was just tidying up. I think the rhubarb is coming up - yay! I put my daffodil bulbs in (bit late, but here's to hoping.....).

My siting of the grape vine proved to be an error. I set it against the fence, but then they sprayed weed killer all round the fences! It survived, but I wouldn't say it flourished this year.... I have now moved it to the middle of the plot, where I am going to put up a wire to attach things to (raspberries etc).

Here's one of my blackcurrent bushes. I'm hoping they will provide a reasonable crop this year.

2nd Stint!

Today I spent about an hour on my second stint at the gooseberry bushes of doom! Here's my progress:


I have to post progress, otherwise I'll just lose heart at how little progress I seem to be making! Can you see the difference? (See how I talk as though someone is listening?!)

I also pruned the grapevine and blackcurrant bushes. The blackcurrant bushes only needed dead wood taking off, and there wasn't very much of that. Here's a picture of the grapevine, just for the record:

I need to weed around it sometime. Yet more digging. I hope the pruning is done OK. It's not quite how I thought it would be. Oh well, we'll see.

Grape Vines!

We eat quite a few grapes, so when I saw a grape vine in Wilko's, I bought it. A bit of an impulse buy maybe, but free (ish) grapes? Can't turn that down! I am curious to see how well it grows though. Staffordshire is hardly Mediterranean weather...... It went in the ground a while ago now (June?), and it's looking fairly healthy, so on to next year and some fruit! (hah!)