Something's Definitely Happening!

It's been a few weeks since I updated this blog; but only because for quite a while nothing much happened.  Lots of green things were poking their way through the cloddy earth, but being such an absolute novice, I had no idea if they were what I planted or what was already in the earth and are termed 'weeds'.  So I had to wait to see what came up. 

And then 'whooooosh'.. the spinach and the potatoes particularly did their thing in a very fecund way:

We've now planted out most of the space on the allotment, with about 1/8th left for some later planting of broccoli etc.

So we now have: Potatoes (2 lots), onions (2 lots), some very feeble broccoli and courgettes, green beans that seem to be in stasis, lettuce under a polytunnel, I lonely beetroot, carrots, spinach, I fledgling raspberry bush, sweetcorn, peas, and one possibly-majestic-looking sunflower!

So, now I know that whilst my fingers may not be green, they're not totally imbued with uselessness when it comes to creating the conditions for things to grow i.e. stick a seed in the ground that's been cleared of weeds, water it.  That seems to be basically it!

Harvested the first handful of spinach tonight - it looks a lot larger, and tougher, than the supermarket stuff - we'll see what it tastes like tonight.

What has amazed me is how little (so far!) work the lottie has taken.  There was initial digging over, but it's only really been a few hours a week.  And still we'll go up there, do a bit of weeding and a bit of watering and a bit of planting out, and then stand around sort of at a loss for what else we can do.  Gaze into the distance for a bit, enjoy the view, have a chat to other lottie-ers and then wend home because... well... there's nothing else to do.

I've also managed to cut down the time it takes me to walk to there, from about 1/2 hour to 20 minutes; if I keep finding shorter cuts, I'll be getting there before I've set out!  

It's a pleasant walk, past a much-closer-to-home allotment site (3-4 year waiting list!), through a housing estate, down a couple of country lanes, past the Scientology centre that never seems to have anyone around (although a man standing by the gate and who said 'evening' last night was the first person that I've ever seen in and around the very large house and other assorted out-buildings), past a meandering stream, across a field and there the lottie site is!

So, I get to enjoy a  late evening stroll and very soon, hope to be walking back with a basket full of fresh produce to put on the dinner table.....

More, later.