The rhubarb is coming up really well and the raspberry canes are going mad, so we’ll be ok for puddings this year!

Tonight we completed the weeding around all the crops, so it looks so much better now. Just the rest to dig over and a strip of grass that previous owners had as a path to get rid of – we may have to cover that over for a few weeks to help shift it.

Looks like we’ve got ants back in the compost bin… might try the cinnamon technique on them, it worked well in Lisa’s wormery so is worth a try.

Ants can be an indication that the wormery is too dry and we have noticed recently that that’s been the case – so we’ve sprinkled it with collected rainwater.

Another tip was a sprinkling of cinnamon, so we’ve tried that too.

We couldn’t see a queen, though she must be there somewhere – if we do find her we need to get her out!

Measuring up, the plot is in two sections: one is 5m x 5.8m, the other 5m x 3.75m (the previous owner still has part of one side – we’re hoping we may be able to have the extra bit soon too!).

Wildlife spotted:
Several blackbirds
A robin
Ants galore!
A snail with a very pretty shell!
A slug.

As we’re off on holiday, it’ll be about three weeks before we’re back on site, but we’re taking our Vegetable & Herb Expert book and our measurements to plan out what we can sow when we get back!

Unfortunately we uncovered an ants’ nest as well, right next to our little grass path that goes up the middle of the plot, so they’ll have to go!

We did get our first crop though! Oh yes, just one day on the allotment has brought us two diddy leeks and a potato! We also have a rather healthy crop of parsley.