Allotment ponderings

So, year 1 is almost at a close. It's not been a total disaster but it's definitely been a case of 'laugh or you'll cry'. It's been harder work than I anticipated, not least because it's SO bloody difficult to convince my darling children that we need to go down there, so I'm averaging a half arsed effort around once every 1-2 weeks.

At the moment I have very little growing and a lot of bare, very weedy, areas. Next year I AM going to plant way more than I think I'll need. I'm not going to lose all my plants again. I had such high hopes for things and they've just not worked out at all. I'm going to plant longer rows of things and really cram things in with as little space for weeds to grow inbetween as possible. I want an Edible Garden style wilderness where baby plants are as much a space filler as anything useful. Apparently our allotment usually has an annual produce sale, where you take what you swap what you've grown. I'm not sure it's going to happen this year due to the appalling excuse for a Summer but it'd be a good way to get rid of surplus courgettes and so on in future years. For now I'm frantically preserving and dehydrating any gluts :)

I'm thinking of getting a proper greenhouse at home, after losing 2 of my 3 cucumber plants in all the rain, and all my outdoor tomato plants to blight before we'd even harvested a single tomato. Breaks your heart!

My friend's been given notice on her allotment - she either has to clear it up or get rid. I think she's going to get rid. It was a bit of a kick up the bum though because I really don't want that to happen to me so I WILL find the time to make a bigger success of things next year.