Obsessed?

Last night I was in bed reading seed catalogues at 11pm!!! My husband is concerned I have gone mad, six months ago I would have had a lot to say had he been reading a seed catalogue and trying to discuss varieties with me at that time of night but I have really got the bug. I felt quite cross that it was so dark tonight when I came home from work because I drive past the end of the road where our plot is and I would have liked to call in, roll on spring when the nights are longer.

It was the first day back at work for me today after Christmas and an opportunity to tell my colleagues about our new alloment, they were all surprisingly positive and one has even offered to help me scrounge a few pallets from somewhere she knows. She also told me that Wilkinsons and Poundland do some good gardening stuff at times so there may be a bargain to be had if you go at the right time.

Mini now has her own little toddler size spade, a metal one which is really cute, I haven't bought her all the other tools yet as she is only 16 months but she does need a few bits to keep her occupied and she loves to copy what we are doing at the moment so just walking around with her little spade will keep her happy, that's the plan anyway.

Our family have also been very positive about the new allotment, I don't know why I expected they wouldn't be really and they have been encouraging and quite helpful. My Dad and his wife have bought us a great allotment book and are very positive about Mini being involved, my Mum and her husband are coming to visit the plot at the weekend, that one really was a shocker when she said that because she doesn't like to get dirty but at least she is showing an interest and my husbands parents have also bought us a book that we haven't got yet and they've also offered us some stuff from their garage and shed. They're probably all keeping us sweet just in case we pull it off and actually manage to grow some delicious fruit and veg ha ha.

My plan for the allotment has developed some more after looking at the plot again and marking out with garden twine some 4 foot wide beds for the four main rotation beds. I also wanted to have an asparagus bed but I need to find out more about this and the difference between growing from seed or growing from 1/2yr old crowns, I sometimes feel I am making this up as I go along but I have sometimes felt that about my parenting since Mini came along and she's doing ok, so hopefully the plot will be the same.

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.