I knew there was woodchip available at the plot but I had not been able to get there since before Christmas due to the weather. Today I had to drive Tom into work for 7am and it was not raining, it was still dark too. I waited for an hour and went up just as the sun was rising just after 8am. The woodchip pile was not only still there but had been added to, so much so that for those trying to drive a car into the plot they would have to drive over a bit of it. It seemed people had done so.

I collected multiple wheelbarrow loads, enabling me to clear a bit of room for the cars. Before I put it down on the plot, I dug up the old path (weeding as I went along) and put onto the bed. This had been down for a year and was very much composted down. Apart from the effort of shovelling the woodchip and walking up the hill with the wheelbarrow, everything else was quick and easy. A bonus was how good it looked afterwards. I do question if/why I need a path on the edge when there is a grass path anyway, but I remember in the summer the bits along the edge of the plot used to be really weedy and/or overtaken by long grass. I now have a strimmer, so maybe this might be the last year of doing this (I’ll woodchip a path along the top instead).

I also put some down by the compost bins and did likewise with the old path (adding to the strawberry bed). I need to finish some of the other paths next time.

The site committee sometimes have deliveries of plastics bags with fresh manure in, all for 25p a bag. I’m never sure why it has to all be in plastic bin liners and after a while it all looks a bit of a mess with old plastic bin liners getting trod into the ground with bits of manure that have tipped out, the whole thing looks like a massive dog walker’s party. I don’t normally get involved as finding someone to pay is hard, and also it’s pretty fresh meaning you don’t really want to use for at least six months. This time, along with the massive pile of woodchip, there was a massive pile of black bin liners with manure in, and an awful lot of spilt manure. I decided to shovel this up as manure that would just get trodden into the ground and add it to my compost heap.

While at the plot, I tidied bits up and came home with:

• swede (small)
• carrots (small and not the best)
• beetroot
• parsnips

The early start was good, by the time I left the sun was out and the sky was blue, the first time for months (and of course the first time this year!)