The morning after!

Of course we did what anyone would do with such a large space to fill - went home and phoned our gardening Guru - the mother in law!  She immediately jumped into action, rallying seeds and cuttings from all parts of her beautiful garden, shed, greenhouse, neighbours greenhouses, the list goes on. We spent the rest of the evening phoning friends, trawling through seed catalogues and making lists of the veg we wanted to grow.  Actually we should have made a list of what we didn't want because we almost copied out the index!  We went to sleep with sweet dreams of bumper crops and feeding the neighbourhood with our children's favourite leek and potato soup.
I am lucky that I usually finish work just after midday so naturally no sooner had I got home than we were out of the door again  - down to the farm! In addition to taking Mrs 2K and Matthew, my middle-size son, we were happy that my Mum did not need to be dragged along - she came of her own free will, so was obviously confident that the digging stage had not yet arrived!

Mother staring into the sun
(Boy will I get into trouble for publishing this!)

We measured, surveyed, prodded and cogitated over the plot and then went spying on the neighbours to see what they had in place.  Anyone knowing Matthew realises that industrial espionage would be an excellent career choice for him and pretty soon we had a grasp on the progress of the other plots.  We realised that, although we are a little behind, we are not too far and with a couple of good weeks we would be up to speed.

Some of the slightly noisier neighbours

Many of the plots were covered with seedlings, no real plants to speak of, but we got some crafty ideas.  Mini greenhouses from punnets, and net curtain cloches.

Now we are saving every bit of plastic in the house!

Tomorrow:  the digging begins!