Allotment jobs for March...

A before photograph - not looking too hot, right?

What we call The Raspberry End - still in need of a little love!

We spent two lovely afternoons at our allotment this weekend giving things a good sorting.  March is usually a time for having a good tidy around, turning over the ground ready for new crops to go in, pruning, mending and making sure everything is looking good.

You can also sow some vegetables as early as March.  These include:

• Beetroot
• Broad Beans
• Early peas
• Brussels Sprouts
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Radish
• Parsnips

This weekend we put our Broad Beans in, but so far I think that's pretty much it.  We've been concentrating on moving our fruit bushes about a bit so that we have specific (fairly low maintenance) beds which consist of just one thing.  We now have a very appealing looking gooseberry bed and a bed of blackcurrant bushes with a little added asparagus.

Let the digging commence!

It's good soil....

Some crops need to be rotated each year as they take a lot out of the soil.  Mostly we try to avoid planting anything that requires too much crop rotation, although the big exception to this is potatoes.  We have to have a little get together to discuss where we're going to house the potatoes each year as they have to be moved about a lot.  We have an allotment book so we can jot down what has gone where every year.  It's incredibly handy, as I can never remember once we've dug everything up

Lots of digging and marking out going on.  Some very neat paths, I thank you.

I got busy with the strimmer and cut back some of the grass on the pathways and around the edges of our plot so that's all looking pretty good. I did a little digging, but the men - grrr - did the majority.  Though on the Sunday afternoon Mr Husband Sir was very preoccupied by a football match that didn't go his way, so he spent a fair bit of his time checking his phone and rolling his eyes!

Pesky football...

Marking out ready for the Broad Beans...

Time for a break...

That Baby and Woolly ran around and entertained themselves with talk of creating mud hotels and mud restaurants.  This Baby had a little sleep in her buggy and then joined us on a picnic rug with a few of her toys.   It's lovely to see them getting involved, enjoying the fresh air and getting some colour in their cheeks.   It's not so easy to dig and entertain a small child, but we seemed to do ok.  Some friends popped up whilst we were all there for a bit and said hi, we shared a beer, a flask of tea and a left over bottle of wine.  I swear the other allotment holders think we're party animals!  I suppose we are in comparison, a lot of them are getting on a little!  They're lovely folk though, always happy to give us tips or leftover plants to put in.  We're very lucky.

This Baby plays in her muddy little marshmallow suit...

I was there too!

 All in all I'm pleased, we've made a lot of progress and things are starting to look ready for getting busy when it's time to plant out.

Potatoes in next!  I love our plot.

Looking pretty tidy!  Oooh my strimmer :)