I can't lie, this is all Chris' doing. He's been beavering away for the past few months (to my general disdain) working on the fence and sorting out the rest of the plot.

The main plan is to get a lot of fruit trees and soft fruit bushes established this year so as to take up an area of the allotment that wont need to be worked year in year out. I'm pretty chuffed as I'm a fruit lover and the trees include several varieties of apple, pear, plum, apricot and cherry trees, soft fruits; strawberry, raspberry (includes yellow ones), blackcurrant, blackberry, tayberry, redcurrants, whitecurrants, red gooseberries and red & white grapes, rhubarb... good grief the list goes on.

Anyway, over Easter I thought I'd play the role of a good wife and help out with the spring chores necessary for a successful allotment so ended up preparing the ground for some growing action. I also planted some potatoes (which were late first earlies apparently) even though I hardly eat potatoes any more

Check out the cute fence Chris erected single handedly. I'm impressed. Maybe I was a little harsh by making him do it alone.

There is still plenty of planting to be done and I'm trying to be more supportive by helping our for a few hours here and there but the nature of the allotment site means that it is always really windy there which makes me feel ill (for some reason if it's on that cusp between warm and cool I feel quite poorly) so wrapping up is always a must. There is a phenomenal amount of stone in the soil as well which only adds to the workload as areas for carrots need to be sifted to be made suitable.

Chris has also put together a raised bed in which we are going to grow salad leaves.

I just need the temperature to notch up ten degrees, a good windbreak and a cool beverage then I'll be there full time. Until then I'll be hunched up in my puffa jacket and blowing my nose every five minutes sowing the seeds and dreaming of summer.

Sophie