Last year when I moved into my new home in Diss, Norfolk I saw a Facebook post on the local community notice board regarding local allotments and had signed up to be put on the waiting list.

A year of waiting and I am now the proud owner of a quarter plot! (SO much bigger than it sounds)

Unfortunately the plot had been quite neglected and needed a lot of work but as the weather in the UK has been good lately, me and Harry have been able to get stuck in and strip away all of the grass and weeds so that the plot is now flat. Once we had a flat ground to work with we used lawn staples to secure weed membrane and started mulching creating a no dig, low maintenance allotment plot that is accessible no matter the season.

After an epic fail to get some secondhand palette collars from Marketplace into the Clio we finally sourced 5 raised beds ready for planting and worked them around the mulch and membrane.

All of this was achieved in just 4 evenings worth of work! A massive thank you to my wonderfully supportive parents for lending tools and time to make sure the turn around of creating a useable plot was so quick.

Typically my health has taken a nose dive this last week and I haven’t managed to get back down the plot to lay the rest of the mulch and fill the beds with compost, but maybe next week will be better.

Despite not being at the allotment this week I have managed to maintain the vegetables in the greenhouse at home and have had a few successful harvests including, cucumber, courgette, golden raspberries and broad beans! Once the plot is ready for planting I will transport my veg to give them more space and hopefully better yield but for the meantime I am pleased with what I have grown from seed in such a small spot in my garden.

Growing from seed has been so rewarding and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for the plot. My intention is to grow all my veg for Christmas next year but this will of course take time and research, so be sure to read along and learn from my mistakes.

The next step is to fill the beds with compost, mulch and put up some fencing but before that I need to refocus on my discectomy recovery as it has only been 5 months since surgery and I am getting painful reminders from my back that I am still not able to do many everyday activities.

For the meantime I will keep watering the garden, praying things continue to grow and I continue to recover.

Until next time – Gardening novice Chloe