New allotment

The rain had been heavy during the night but it was dry when Juno and I did the 2 mile walk in the early morning light, this time listening to Frank Skinner's poetry podcast. The wind was up but it didn't deter Alison and I from getting on our bikes and cycling the 12 miles plus (round trip) to the new allotment. 

I had totally forgotten about having applied for a place at the Gullivers Farm allotment, part of a community project outside West Moors. However, I got an email asking if we were still interested in a vacant plot they had and decided to go for it, despite it being additional work alongside the site in Wimborne. I just thought we'd see how it went, as the plot is smaller than our current 10m x 10m at just 9m x 7m. 

There was a follow up email today giving us details of the entry code and the plot number which gave us a good excuse to ride there on our bikes. What a good decision it turned out to be.

The plot is ideally sized and it also has 7 raised beds with woodchip paths around them. It is going to be so much easier to maintain and the additional work looks likely to be fairly minimal but we will get a real boost is terms of produce. How exciting it is. There are raspberry canes in one bed and what look to be blackcurrant bushes too. It is going to be so much easier to grow quality greens in these beds with proper protection from the birds, insects, rabbits and weather. I haven't bothered with them too much til now, as I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep them protected ahead of harvesting.

In addition, there are goats and chickens around, a fantastic farm shop with quality produce, a shop with facility to top up jars with herbs and spices, grains and so on, plus a coffee shop, picnic area and a play area too. It couldn't be much better and we can't wait to get started.