Thank you for your encouragement. My partner and I went down to the allotment today and spent about 3 hours, laughing and tutting (must of been the excitement because we worked really hard!) at the mess whilst clearing nearly half the plot!

Well techically speaking we spent 3 hours clearing up the stuff cut down (and around) by two friendly fellow plot holders who offered (for a sum) to help us tackle the state of the plot. We now have a huge pile about 6 foot high of cut down and cleared green stuff that we racked up and a huge pile of skip stuff, including about 30 wooden windows, lashings of dubious mixtures in bottles, glass and more glass, ali framed windows, rusty old stuff, loads of shoes (?), etc, you get the picture!

The previous owner had divided the plot into beds with grass pathways between each area, with metal 'fence' dividers everywhere. I have dibbed the two near the end and will have the greenhouse, shed and my raised beds there as I want an area that I can potter about in that looks more like a jardin potager than a field (is this PC on an allotment?) and maybe, just maybe hang a hammock or sip Pimms every once in a while! Whereas my other half has already started digging over the other cleared area to sow directly into the earth in traditional farming rows. So hopefully we will have the Best of both worlds!

I had a very exciting find today, when we got the the plot you literally could not see the earth for all the rubbish and overgrowth everywhere. But after we started clearing it we not only had the pleasure of reaching soil but in the process we also discovered a pile of scaffold boards that I can make my highly anticipated raised beds out of! Hurrah! Plus two dead wheelbarrows and two servicable, but rusty ones that helped loads with carrying all the unwanted mess away! God is good!

Going back tomorrow evening to do some more hard labour, hopefully we will find it as amusing and exciting to keep the pace going!