Frontage Facelift!

Whilst my seeds have been nursing their bruised heads in the pots at home (now far more securely sat on the bench), I have been keeping on top of the weed explosion at the Hill, going to the allotment AGM, beefing up the 8 beds with new stakes to hold the edges in place, and getting round to 'doing something' with the front of the plot.

All plot holders are encouraged to devote the first 3' or so of their plot fronting the roadway to a floral display.  Not only do these look fabulous, up and down the site, but it also acts as a sacrificial strip for those drivers on site - to and from the plots and/or the social club - who are incapable of keeping four wheels on the roadway.

We do, in fact have a competition for the most attractive, which is often won by those showing floral 'mosaic' displays of annual flowers depicting a tableau of some sort.  Some devote a great deal of time planting up a template of blue and white lobelia, red salvia, orange marigolds (and those green silvery furry plants that I don't like very much) to make a picture in flowers a month later. 

My two overgrown and woody straggly 10yr old never-been-pruned lavender bushes with a natty under-display of couch grass and self seeded calendula, dandelions and forget-me-nots do rather let the side down (pic above).

So the bank holiday saw me wielding a fork with great intent, and once every (discernible) weed had been evicted along with the two lavender, I set about bed prep and soil grading.  I created a stamped down path for access to the first bed, used some slabs for matching paths each side, and planted out a dozen English Lavender plants, bought from Homebase for £1.40 a pop.

Just got to learn about pruning them.