It's all starting to take shape now. We've dug and prepared Beds 1-6, 7 has been turned over, and weeded, just needs fine weeding and preparing to plant winter veg (kale, cauli(?) and brocolli) into, bed 11 had been prepared and sown with various salad types (and a packet of unspecified meadow flowers from the library given to my youngest).

Above is a wide shot of our allotment. All the sleepers in the front are going to become a community garden for the site, should be good. My plot basically runs from one side of the photo to the other and from just beyond the sleepers to where my hubby is standing.

This is Beds 1-6 looking up towards the hill.

Bed 1 (furthest) - Pumpkin & B-Nut Bed 3 - Cabbage & brussels Bed 5 - Leeks (so far)

Bed 2 (nearest) - carrots Bed 4 - sweetcorn, peas, toms & chard Bed 6 - Squash (sunburst F1), sweetpeas & cucumber

The frame for the kids is up and getting masses of use, and they are enjoying making their own fun. We go to the allotment about three times a week at the moment and it's enough to keep on top of what we are doing and keep making progress with the digging. All in all, we're feeling chuffed with how things are going!

Beds 5 and 11 have now been weeded thanks to hubby and I think I'm going to move my poor leeks from home into one of them. I sowed some more Rondo peas in Bed 4 - probably too late but I'll give it a go. Sowed more carrots in Bed 2 and they've started to come up, and this time I sowed LOADS, hopefully enough for me AND the slugs.

My greenhouse now has all the panes in it, I needed to buy 9 new pieces of glass and tape a load more, but looks great - just need some staging now!

The swing/slide combo for the kids is up, and getting loads of use. We initially had it in the middle of the allotment as it was the flattest place, but I just didn't like it there - it was out of place on an allotment and just not right. We moved it to the side and it's more out of the way - much better!

It's been rainy for the last few days so haven't been, but hopefully get there tonight or tomorrow.

At home, we've got baby butternut squash growing and our first toms are ripe - yippee! Hubby had first taste (I don't like uncooked toms) and he said it was smashing!

This is the little fella on the right of the top piccy going a lovely shade of orange!

The rest of the garden is a little sad looking, as the stuff is coming out and not being replaced (it's going back to space for the kids to play in since we've got the allotment now). But beans are doing well (even though they're not climbing very well for climbing french beans!) as are my onions if they can survive the constant attack from kid's feet!

It's been AGES since I last blogged, I've been to the allotment a fair few time though and feel like we've done loads. It's actually beginning to look like an allotment now rather than just a plot of land. We bought a greenhouse and put it up (I broke loads of panes of glass getting it there though :o() and have made a den and bought a swing/slide thing off ebay for the kids as they need something else to do (they're pretty good at entertaining themselves, but somewhere to play is going to help I think!).

The plot's really coming on now, 5 beds have been properly dug over (beds 1-4 & 6) and beds 5, 7 and 11 have been roughly dug. We've put a compost bin and the greenhouse up and and arch to grow sweetpeas over (if there is enough time left this summer). I planted some Sunburst squash seedlings (hopefully the slugs won't get them and I still want to get some late peas in if poss.
The bed plan so far!

We've still got loads to do, but it's really taking shape now!