Not amused

It wasn't the positive start we'd hoped for today, an unhelpful member of staff at the council did not follow through on what she had promised in a phone conversation with my husband yesterday so although he signed the contract there was no copy for us, which is required before we access our plot and no access key. The poor receptionist who the papers had been left with seemed to know very little about it and we couldn't get hold of the designated by phone all day. It is so frustrating as while we have time off work it would have been good to go up there and start doing a bit and today was a lovely sunny day too which made it even more frustrating.

On the up side I have just placed my first order for potato seed, onions and garlic from Thomson and Morgan. This year we are going to try growing Red Duke of York as an early and then Charlotte potatoes because I just love them and use them a lot in salads and also Nadine as a general purpose potato. I have also ordered Red Baron onion sets and some garlic bulbs to plant. I am still going through the kitchen garden site to select those things that I will be growing from seed but at least I have made a start. It is confusing to a beginner the way that everything is grouped but I think I am starting to get to grips with it. I get so excited when I see all the things we could grow that it is hard not to get carried away, I need to remember that it is our first year and we must pace ourselves.

Hoping for a response from the council tomorrow so we can actually go down there and make a start but in the meantime I am sourcing things to help, I have advertised on freecycle for bits and bobs and this evening we are going to raid the sheds and garages at our parents houses to see what we can find to get our allotment going, scrap wood, chicken wire, netting, canes etc. We have loads of tools which my husband has cleaned and sharpened and we're hoping that the wheelbarrow left on site might be usuable enough to at least get us started.

In January and February we are going to struggle to get down to the plot that often because of poor weather and dark evenings, come the spring when the evenings lengthen we expect to be able to go 4/5 times a week which should be enough to keep everything going, I hope so anyway.