Saturday 19th April 2008 - Weather: Overcast and damp

Managed to convince the family to pop to the plot with me today. Daughter number one wasn't very impressed to start with, but she soon got into the swing of things. Mum gave me her old fig tree a few monthes back and it has been sitting in it's pot on our deck since. Well, I decided to plant it on a corner of the plot where it wouldn't shade or bother anyone, and hopefully, it might produce a crop of one of my fave tropical fruits. I plan to train it as a fan to allow maximum air circulation and sunlight so we get a ripe crop. We shall see. Anyhow, that was the first job for the old man. Once that was in situ, he then created a small bed for the children to have as their own to grow sunflowers and whatever else takes their fancy. I had a large section of 'log roll' which they used to create a fenced area. We then raked it over and it is already for action. The old man then did some weeding whilst I sowed a row of Peas 'Greensage', a patch of early nantes carrots and a small area of spicy salad leaves. At last, a start at sowing directly on the plot. Almost finished clearing the old strawberry bed of weeds as I need to get another 4 rows of spuds in! I may only do 3 and plant the 4th batch in tree buckets that I have at home. All in all, a productive couple of hours. The kids played in the stream, collected stones for my cobble path I am slowely creating at the end of plot 2 and they raked lots. They enjoy raking. I don't know when I will next get to the plot as I am working all of next week, but I might try and cram a couple of early morning hours in over the weekend. Fingers crossed, if I keep ontop of my work commitments, I will be able to then spend a whole day there the following week. I shall keep you informed.