Allotment Update

We have been spending all our spare time at the moment when we are not on the road here. It is in full swing at the moment, our plants our sprouting, the weather is changing but this is what we have been doing the last few weeks and months. 

We saved a bit of money and treated ourselves to a a shiny new Shed from Argos and managed to pick these pallets up from our allotment guru bill. 

Adam and our family spent a long time helping us get them level, the ground was an old compost heap so the soil wasn't compacted which made it a bit tricky but he got it bang on in the end.

After much deliberating we finally decided which way to have the shed looking out over the apple tree and down to the chickens

Then came the really "fun" part if you can't tell I'm defiantly using fun sarcastically 

View from the door 

When it was finally finished "weeks later" we decided to paint it a bluey-greeny colour something to brighten up the plot, 

Ta-da!

 All finished on the outside its like having a beach hut in the allotment we are like proud parents. 

We put in some flowers to draw the bees in, we are huge bee fans if we could we would love to keep some here.

Sarah putting in the flowers which we later moved because it didn't look right

Flowers - Violas, Delphiniums, wild flower mix with - ox eye daisies, cornflowers ,calendula and poppies (at the moment its hard to tell what is flowers and what is weeds) 

Herbs - Sage, Lavender and rosemary

Me planning where to put everything this year its so confusing but I'm a strong believer in a good plan, trail and error plus a bit of hoping

Our onion sets doing amazingly

Adam looking over the potato plot

The onions new bed 

Potting up my seeds

Beets went straight in the ground and we are just now starting to see some lovely seedlings coming up

All our seedlings have come up and are looking lovely so pleased 

Clearing our fruit bushes ready to mulch in march and we put in a little path made from found bits a bobs from the rubble pile

chickens enjoying there freedom and the warmer weather

Our baby rhubarb settling into its new bed after we moved it in the winter, it was growing in the middle of the path so he has now its own lovely bed. 

Before we painted it this is a little bird house we put together. we want to encourage as much wildlife as possible to the plot i hope to have a pond and a little hedgehog house to. 

Thats all for today but i will do some more updates when its in full bloom of summer or sooner but if you have any questions please do let us know and we will love to reply either here or on our Instagram @sarahandthebearadventures 

Our Allotment

 When we are not adventuring and exploring the wilds of England we like to escape to our allotments,  the dream would be to live off the land using our rich soil and changing seasons to grow our own source of food. We took on an old allotment tucked away in the corner, it needed a lot of love and care to bring it back to life. Over the last few months we have been clearing it ready for this years crops. 

This is our plot we have split it into two halfs one side is for our 8 chickens and the other is for growing.

The chicken coop 

The plot had been left for a number of years and needed work to clear however we did a little walk around in late autumn and managed to tidy a few bushes and trim some back for this spring already. 

We have a beautiful old wall at the end and are surrounded by forest. We have seen an abundance of wildlife from woodpeckers to deer, we hope to clear this and make it into a lovely wildlife section including a little frog pond and insect hotel.

Going to take some clearing Adam is going to need to build those muscles

We have a couple of fruit bushes that have already made a home for themselves including a blackcurrant, gooseberry and thornless blackberry. 

We have 8 chickens that live on our allotment each one has there own personality and are obsessed with worms, lucky for them when we are digging up plenty for them, however they often getting under our feet, even sitting on the shovel to get the first chance at them. 

Fresh eggs are a perfect to keep us going on our adventures, we average 7 eggs a day

We make sure our chickens have a good life giving them lots of space to explore and obstacles to play on 

With spring approaching we have decided to start digging out plots so we can start planting later in the season 

Bear gets to work digging our first plot (its never as easy as it looks even after many times) 

Sarah braking up the mud to make our patch soft and ready to plant our first crop of Garlic 

We have our first ever crop to plant this year we decided to plant garlic as we use it often in our recipes and it helps keep other pests away. 

After a long day of clearing and digging we sat down for a cup of tea and some dinner we have big plans for our little slice of the countryside and over the year we will be posting our progress and transforming our plot into our place to escape the modern world, feel free to comment and offer advice or even ask us questions we would love to here from you.