It's all coming along rather nicely

So, it's Christmas. We missed the summer for the new office, storeroom, shop and Potting Shed so we aimed for Bonfire night, big party... show off the lovely terracotta pumkins from Jeremy at PotTsar, but we missed that date too. Now it's Christmas.
We have made some progress, David the Joiner is re-fitting all of the doors as I write, no stairs yet though. We do have a floor, some electrics, some plumbing, and some painting done so it is getting there. The storeroom and Potting Shed (now referred to as the Ark so much wood has gone into it - FSC of course) is coming along well. We couldn't lay the rubber roof because of the frosts so it's just 'draped', but that does mean we can start moving in.
But what about the kitchen garden? Until we clear all of the bricks and pavers taken out of the old stables we can't really start. We're looking for a local man and digger to come and do the honours and help level the area, dig a hole for the water reservoir and soak away for the composting loo and then we're off.
I've already allocated 2 (of the 22)beds. One will be made acidic for bluberries and cranberries. It will be a good looking bed, so that will be one that we can see from the house. A long narrow one will be for asparagus. It's been interesting watching how the sun plays over the plot. Having moved from a completely south facing plot, it'll be good to have a bit of shade to slow down the salads.

Trouble inside the stables...

Problem was, no underpinning on the dividing wall with next door... which meant a lot more digging and a couple of visits from building control.

The space inside looked great with all of the stuff removed and the partitions down. The tidiest it had looked in years!

Lovely Sam saving the original cobbles for us to use as paths later on (hopefully). There were at least 3 grabber lorries of rubble removed from inside. The floor level had to drop by over a foot to put in the new super insulated floor (no central heating in the new eco design, just a log burner).

In the beginning...

There wasn't very much...some old loose boxes (full of old furniture and who knows what), and old generator shed (bikes and an old lawnmower), rubble and weeds...

But, the area catches the sun for most of the day. Is lovely and peaceful, and doesn't suffer for the wind coming in from the channel as the rest of the garden does.

As my business www.urban-allotments.com grew, my husband had a sense of humour failure as our house slowly filled with samples and boxes. He has thrown me (and Urban) out...we're moving offices to the loose boxes and my kitchen garden is being re-located. And thanks to the lovely boys at IncrEdible Gardens we've a great design and plans for the garden. And the fab team at Ecotecture in Haywards Heath have designed an eco re-build for the stables.