March 2012

Not much happening above ground in March, but the roots are starting to stir. The nettles and bindweed are the first up, with some brambles showing signs of life. The bracken roots are starting to bud underground, but not surfacing yet. Slowly digging over the exposed ground and removing as many roots as possible, ready for some planting in April if the temperature stays warm. No rain for nearly three weeks, but ground still moist under the surface.

February 2012

Tried to get onto the site in early Feb, but the ground was frozen with a coating of snow.

Two weeks later and the temperature had risen by about 12'C. the ground was soft and the nettles were showing signs of life! No sign of the bracken yet.
Started to clear the roots before they start to sprout, but looking at the size of the plot I decided to cover part of it with black plastic to suppress the growth until I can get round to it.

This pile is the roots from the top 20% part of the plot. It is going to take a while to work through the whole plot and remove all the roots.

January 2012

This is the site once the digger had done it's work, clear of tree stumps and the old pond filled in. Most of the vegetation has been removed.

A path has been left down the centre and work can now start to clear the old roots and plan the new beds! Roll on spring!

December 2011

There was a lot more stone to move than initially anticipated. The obvious place for it would be to stack it back up on the wall, but would have to be done by hand.

Lee (with his digger) had agreed to try and remove the tree stumps in the new year, level the plot and clear the remaining vegetation.

I just needed to move the stones

Four hours later and it looks a lot better. Shoulders still ache now!
Not the best dry stone walling, but that's the least of my problems.

At least Lee can get his digger on, and then start preparing the ground for some planting.

Will see what starts to sprout in the spring and clear as much as possible before it becomes established and then probably plant some green manure on the bottom of the site and concentrate on the top half.

November 2011

The paperwork arrived in September, but a house move delayed any work on the site. Finally in November we got cracking and started to clear the bracken to see what was underneath

The bracken was fairly easy to clear as it had mostly died back anyway, and was easy to break off at ground level.

It became clear though that the dry stone wall on the left of the site had been partially moved into a large pile. This was going to be a bit of a problem as it prevented any turning of the soil.

As you can see, Dan is posing and not actually working!

The top half of the site was more difficult with small trees and lots of bramble. There also appeared to be some old raised beds, but the wood was rotten.

We also found some old tree stumps, which ideally would have to be removed, but this would not be possible by hand.

It was time to hunt down Lee with his digger.

August 2011

I was offered the site at the end of July 2011 and went to see  if I could find it.

It looked a bit overgrown! But as I'd not had the paperwork through I couldn't get started.

Plot 61 - Hagg House Allotments

I took over the site in the autumn of 2011 and found it very overgrown

The bottom 2/3rds of the site was covered with bracken, while the top was more small trees and bushes

The bracken was about 6ft high with no clue to what was underneath

We started work in November, and managed to get most of the plant material cut by the end of November.

We found a large pile of stone under the bracken which had to be moved back onto the wall before any further work could be undertaken.

This was completed by the end of December 2011