Emma & Andy Come To Help

As Kelly was around to look after Jen I was on the plot around 8:00 and proceeded to locate the second and third forks from the in the storage shed, as today I had help on the plot 

Emma & Andy came bearing a McDonalds Breakfast Wrap and Coffee about 9:15. My plan was to get all the remaining beds dug over and weed free, in my son-in-laws mind was getting the raised beds constructed as he brought his battery drill and toolkit with him. 

So a shift in targets for the day. Emma set about weeding and digging on plot 1A and managed to clear Bed 1, getting rid of the bind weed from the Walking Onion Bed and dismantling the runner bean framework and digging up and weeding the bean trench. 

Here is a selfie taken by Emma entitled "Allotment Fun" she took and posted on facebook whilst working on the bean trench showing Andy and I setting about installing the first of the 600mm x 2.4m raised bed frame along the boundary between Plot 1A and Plot 1 

Fleece jacket tied around my waist to keep my back warm as I dug. Emma sent this to the wife (Jenny) who commented that it was too cold not to be wearing it. Like you don't generate some heat working hard turning over damp clay based soil. Take note of the younger man watching how the older gentleman works the fork and spreads the soil around the raised bed

And how both pause briefly to inspect their work before cracking on with the next bed to the right of the one installed. 

Photo taken as leaving the plot at 1pm showing the two beds dig and installed today. The compost from the potatoes in buckets was emptied into the bed on the left and we relaid the path to the left and to the right of the lower bed, but ran out of time to get the path installed in front or right of the bed in the top of the photo. 

Emma cleared bed 13 of weeds and I erected a temporary leaf bin to take the leaves from the two drums that Andy dropped off last week. We didn't get time to do that as Andy was using them as a work bench for drilling the raised beds. 

Emma cleared to Bean frame of strings and bamboo canes and I need to fix the cantilever framed directly to the wall at a future visit and before next growing season.  

The materials stored on top of the original leaf bins was removed and the leaves from one of Andy's barrel containers was decanted into them, and into two of the active Daleks as layers of browns, to the delight of the awaiting worms that for some reason Emma was not so keen on seeing. 

So all in all great progress today plot 1A is gradually getting clearer and put to bed for the Winter months and the infrastructure of beds in Plot 1 has started to happen. I need a few more visits from Emma & Andy to move the infrastructure along so that it's in for next season and the plot inspections.