Well the rudbeckia really want to live! In just 5 days there are already about 30 poking through in the seed tray. Good thing Mum likes them! On the other hand the Nigella don’t seem to want to come up – I think have overwatered the propagator. Some of the dwarf beans are up, and are now on the second tier of the cramped south-facing ‘nursery’.

At the plot everything looked calm and lovely in the sunshine – but that rapidly went pear-shaped. I’m rebuilding the bottom part of the plot to put the fruit bushes in, and realised the decking boards on my 2 lower beds have completely rotted. My spade went through one (by accident) like it was butter. Then I thought I’d take off a bit of the path to woodchip it and found out the whole thing is lined with old, icky carpet which is sunk into the ground. With huge blackthorn running along it and weeds growing through. *rse.

So up sticks and at it – the carpet’s mostly up – there is carpet under carpet – and at least it means that most of the weeds didn’t make it through to the bottom layer. Though the couch and the blackthorn are having enough of a party under there! I’ve started digging 1 spit down so the path will be a little lower than the beds after barrows of woodchip, and I loaded up Maud with some new decking. An Mx-5 isn’t the most sensible car for allotments, but can take 6 x 2.4m boards a trip with the top down…

I met a few new people today, 2 women have taken on the derelict plot near mine and seem very friendly. There’s an ‘Improve the Field’ meeting in the pub tomorrow evening, which should be interesting.

If I haven’t seized up, I should be able to finish the path tomorrow. Putting in the first new bed might take a little longer. I hope the rain forecast this week isn’t too heavy or I’ll have a swamp there again.