Potato trenches dug

Most of the work this week has been the continued forking over of the middle of the plot and the removal of the ever present bindweed.

However, this weekend it was time to dig and prepare our potato trenches, yes it is a bit late, but with the weather forecast for most of the UK being snow (and it was correct), we weren't too worried. At this rate our earlies will be going in about a week later than they did last year.

One bonus this weekend was a volunteer (yeah, right). My friend Mark had offered to come down and help out. This was much appreciated and at least there was something interesting for him to get stuck into rather than the endless weeding.


After a brief debate about which way the potato trenches were going to go, we got to work. Sparkly was offering much advice and pointing, which prompted Mark to comment that her GAP top actually meant "Gaffer At Plot".


Hardened allotment veterans will use string to mark out where trenches or lines of veg will be, we didn't have any, the dogleg second trench gives this away.

The weather was interesting, one minute sunny, the next bitterly cold wind and snowing, then sun again!

After a couple of hours we had our trenches. They then had a layer of manure and a layer of straw placed in the bottom. We will also put some newspaper in when we actually plant the spuds.
Two of the trenches are the full width of the plot, one is half and the other two-thirds (stops before the apple tree). There is still some room for another couple of small trenches, but for now we have more than enough space to plant our early spuds.