We've got an allotment!

And about 200 honeyberries.

As if switching career, sorting out the home garden and starting a course in horticulture wasn't enough, an allotment has just entered the picture.

It's probably too much right now, but they don't come up that often and I couldn't say no! 

For just £30 per year, we now have a plot that's about 100ft long. Bargain! But it's covered in degrading plastic sheeting, on top of which are about 200 honeyberry bushes Lonicera caerulea. 

These plants are a form of honeysuckle, and the fruits are like blueberries, but more tube-shaped. They apparently fetch a good price at garden centres, and the previous tenant planned to grow and sell them. 

Unfortunately, garden centres prefer to buy from big suppliers, and he sadly passed away, so the honeyberries have been untended and unwatered for a little while. They are tough, though, and are in pots with a thick bark mulch, so most have survived.

Since we don't really want 200 of them covering the plot, but wasting them would be sad, we're giving as many as we can away to friends, family and allotment neighbours. There are about 35 which are no good and will need to be disposed of. 

The plastic sheeting will also need to be removed before we can do anything with the plot, as it is flaking away into little pieces, and so will some chunky brambles and nettles which are springing up.

The parish council apparently don't offer any help clearing the sites. That's a pain when it comes to the plastic, which looks like it will be a major undertaking. But on the bright side, we really want as many as possible of the plants to have useful lives somewhere, and I have plans to reuse some of the bark mulch! 

While visiting, we met some of our allotment neighbours, who are lovely people. Their allotments are really impressive, with fruit cages, neat lines of tomatoes, and lots of flowers. I took a sneaky inspo pic of neighbour Ernie's amazing dahlias. 

I'm still full-time employed until the end of October, as I've resigned with a long notice period and intention for a part-time job to fit around the RHS course. So I'll start to give away and relocate the honeyberries over the next month or so and hopefully we can go hard on clearing and setting up the plot for fruit and veg over winter.