A Rake and Progress

Things are really moving along at the new site as the mass clean-up job continues apace. We've hit the total jackpot in terms of plot neighbours as our (actual house) neighbour Bob and various others have put in some serious amounts of work during the week, setting fires with the brambles we'd hacked down and raked up, laying paths and pulling up no end of the utter shit that has strewn this patch for some time. It was the most heartening thing in the world to get to the plot on Saturday and see how much had happened without us; we couldn't be more grateful.

January

February

As you can see from the pics above, we've cleared and burned all the brambles and gotten rid of a lot of the rubbish. We've still got a lot of crap to shift, but at least we're fairly confident now that most of what we're standing on is actual ground, having pulled up myriad layers of wood, smashed stained glass windows, mattresses (?!), not to mention buried bin liners stuffed with rancid shit and other even less savoury bits and bobs. Suffice to say that heavy leather gloves will be the norm for quite some time to come. We've even started to think about how we might want to lay the plot out. I'm well chuffed how much we've got done in what amounts to no more than about 12 to 15 hours work, although that does tell you about how much help we've had too.

As well as sorting the outside bits, there is some serious shed infrastructure that needed a sort out. As these used to be pigeon lofts, there's a fair dose of pigeon shit to clean out. Ever the one for glamour, Kasia got down to it.

The shed that Bob built

A much cleaner bit of shed has been boarded out and painted by the aforementioned legend that is Bob. Compared to the leaky and cramped hut we've huddled in to avoid the elements on our previous allotment, this is like the bloody Ritz! Just need to get a camping stove and we could just about move in.

Although there are no doubt a few more grim discoveries to be made once we actually start digging, there is also, underneath of the mire we've shifted so far, some fantastic compost-like soil. Give it a few more weeks and we can maybe even start thinking about what plants we'd like to grown in it. Can't bloody wait.