Well, after a few hours here and there this week, the allotment is starting to take shape! Wednesday I managed to take four large blue garbage bags full of bits of old black plastic and other junk plus the bike trailer full of rotten wood bits and iron bars to the dump. This is just a couple minutes down the street by bike! Then another 3 trips to get rid of the weed pile!

I'm glad you can't smell what was under all that plastic! Thursday I managed to fold up the very big piece of plastic that was covering the ground. That's that big thing on the left hand side in the photo! What was under that 5 x 22 m sheet? More plastic, old plastic, large pieces of thicker plastic, plastic bags...you get the idea. Old plastic seems to fall apart, disintegrate, break into more pieces. So, more walking back and forth to tidy that up while the clay mud cakes to the bottom or my walking shoes! Just like back on the farm when we walked through the fields with rubber boots on. One minute they're on your feet and the next, one is suddenly left behind. Stuck in the mud!

The first green thing has been planted! At the bottom of the garden I planted a small Shumac tree and a few even smaller. The parent tree is in the garden where I was working this morning. The little ones grow from the roots so this tree can soon fill an area in the garden. We will first have to see if this new tree gets through the winter! Fluweelboom or Azijnboom in Dutch. Originates in North America! Grows to about 4.5 meters tall. Don't know what it will do here! A nice tree to create a place to sit in the shade in the summer!

Now I just have to make a phone call to ask about getting all that plastic and garbage from the garden removed and who can I contact about a rotatiller! The winter rye is waiting to be seeded!