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in the same bed.Lastly, we are finishing the changes by extending the patio, which actually gives us enough room to sit comfortably without being on top of each other.As the new season begins, I'm looking forward to putting my energies into the allotment

it's good to be getting something back into the lovely, clean beds. Hopefully, with the belated April showers we've been having lately, the seedlings will be up and away at a rate of knots, and young plants will be covering the ground before the weeds

August can often feel like a tricky time on the allotment. Lots of things like salad potatoes and beetroot have been harvested, leaving large gaps or whole beds free. Then there's the interruption of a summer holiday - should you sow anything new

the soil structure. So instead, I'm settling for the simple job of spreading a good few dollops of compost onto the surface of my beds. I'll cover them with polythene to keep the nutrients in, warm the soil and get all those microbes and soil dwellers

leaves from the little apple trees to add, as well as some spent bedding plants from pots at home.The formula is right, now I'll just have to wait a few months for the results!

.com's wildlife blogger to come and take a look! On second thoughts, perhaps not - he too would be horrified at the slovenly state of things.So, I've had a set to. Gone are all the holey bits of netting that don't fit the beds properly. Gone too are the past

. But I can still take all the lovely garden rubbish up to the allotment. All the blackened dahlia stems, fallen leaves, old bedding plants and herbaceous stems will rot down beautifully over the winter.

problems on the plot in the past couple of years. They make their nests down the side of my raised beds which means I get attacked and bitten when I'm weeding. I know an ant bite isn't much to whinge about, but there are an awful lot of them and they seem

to dig the soil, mulch my beds or dig in manure or compost .But now it's warmed up a little I can finally get on with a few jobs. In fact this weather is perfect for moving plants. The combination of moist, warm soil, dormant plants and no wind is ideal

prolific weeds in my beds. It's actually quite a charming plant, with little blue flowers and a creeping habit. But it gets everywhere. It has a nasty habit of hiding under plants, where it sets its roots down close to the stem. This makes it difficult