Getting down to work

Three small girls, decked out in wellies, long-sleeved shirts and trousers (good coverage from the stinging nettles and brambles that are pretty much our primary output at the mo), digging in some freshly turned-over earth, singing The Wonder Pets "What's going to work . . . TEAMwork!" pretty much sums up all my fantasies about Allotment Living come to life.

With the completion of the hard rotovating work (thank you 4Mark!), this Saturday represented the day we could finally get going in our new garden. With Louise starting her summer holidays en Francais, Sarah and I dragged our darling families to The Promenade to get some dirty fingernails. Dinis (Sarah's SO) came along and did a manful job taking away of one of our primary hassles, i.e. taming the wildly over-grown pathway in. Sarah and I focused on trying to turn our 23ft x 110ft plot into something special. Or at least, something that looks less like a worm's paradise.

It was extremely quiet today at The Promenade - none of the other allotment owners seem to be around. Not sure why that was; it was overcast and threatening, but I assumed Allotment Types wouldn't be put off by that. Plus a lot of them have extremely sweet looking sheds, which we can only fantastise about. The creation of Shedzilla, or the Shed-Mahol, is a hotter topic of conversation than the rest of the allotment put together. While we cut back the brambles, tried to remove the 100 pieces of glass the rotovator seems to have unearthed, sprinkle grass seed and put down black weed block, the conversation keeps coming back to the dream shed. It's starting to sound like a boho chic, vintage, seaside-hut type of establishment, with solar power (gotta make tea!), Cath Kidston sofas and a significant play area to keep kids, yummy mummies and dads happy in the rains. I'm starting to explore some designs (the guys at Shedblog seem to have a good starting point), but think it's definitely going to be the priciest thing about Allotment Living.

It begins

So we've done it. Three sane (well, mostly) women, all of whom have enough responsibility to know better, have got an allotment.

It's huge (25x25), overgrown (untended for six years) and - to be truthful - a bit daunting. All three of us work. All three of us have young children. When and how is this project going to get off the ground? And will it end up more of a burden, than the Cath Kidson-inspired idyll we dream of? Only time will tell. The only thing we feel 100% sure about is the plot's name: Fred. And the fact that, here in wildly-domesticated Chiswick, England, we've now got our own patch of earth to alter as we can.

We've taken care of Stage One the easiest way possible . . . . by hiring two guys to make our brambles into a (sort of) green field. It's shocking what two men and some heavy machinery can do in a day. Leaving our men and kids at a Friday night BBQ, we wandered over and took a look at what They Hath Wrought, and were happily surprised.

What was previously 6 foot tall weeds is now all potential. So what happens next? Stay tuned!