Breakfast at the plot!

we were "up the plot" early on Sunday morning. Took some bread and marmalade and most toast!
The bean trenches have been dug and manured, the poles and sweetpeas are in, just waiting for the last frost and then pop the beans in. Will we get a last frost? We did last year the very night after I had planted the beans.
Broad beans and peas coming on. The flowers keep falling of the beans and no pods developing. Asked Basil from over the way and he said lack of rain. I don't think that it has rained here since March.
A view up the plot,
The strawberries are looking very good, covered in flowers and beginning to develop little green ones. Hurry up and turn red

TOAD OF TOAD HALL

Look who I found at the allotment this morning - Mr Toad!
We had covered the new raised bed with cardboard after digging it over and adding some cow muck. This morning I took the cardboard off and noticed that the earth moved, just like the compost bin heap moved the other day when I was convinced that there was a rat in there. I am not keen on rats, so I don't know why I just moved a bit of compost to see what had made the earth move? And there sat a toad. Quick! Quick! come and see the toad! I called to Lukey. He came and picked it up and a quick photo before popping under some more cardboard behind the compost bin.
A few weeks ago I visited someone who has a "bug hotel" and since then we have been planning to build one.


Maybe something like this, but a little smaller. We have some wood and roof tiles so hope to make a start next week and then we will have a proper home for Mr Toad.

The story of the porch.....continued

The new porch is so nearly finished and yet so much to do. The main part is built and finished and we are now on the final run.
This next stage was to sort out the drainage. There needs to be a soakaway for the rainwater that collects off the roof, this needs to be 5m away from the house. The hole in the ground needed to be 1 m deep and filled with stones and a pipe laid from the house to the soakaway. Last week a skip and a ton of small stones were delivered. The trenches were marked out and then the digging begun!!! It has been a bit dry here lately also we have parked the car on here for some years so the ground was a bit hard!!! But after 3 days work the trenches were dug, the hole was dug. The pipes were laid on gravel ( with a suitable drop so that the water atually runs away). The hole was filled with stones and it was all filled back in.
What is still left to do:

1. Lay the new path
2. build a step
3. dig over and weed the garden
4. dig up the old log edging
5. lay new log edging
6. lay new weed control membrane
7. cover with stones
8. fit the drain pipe

And then the outside will be finished...... Just the inside to do!!