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This afternoon's #allotment job was to work on the long raised beds on the polytunnel plot. First trenching along the edges then lining with plastic sheet* before levelling off. Next we will top these with as much compost as we can scrape out of the oldest bay (mainly year+ old horse manure) and then they're ready for planting.
These beds were part of the original design for the plot but for four seasons have just been long mounds as we didn't have timber for sides. The timber is spare from a deadwork building project, we put it in place at the end of last season. I've been wedged on doing fancy metal stability stakes for it for ages but finally just went with screwing it together as we need beds really soon.
Now their usable area will increase from about 50cm to over a meter, should double the productivity! 
* plastic sheet/membrane also left over from deadwork, I wouldn't buy it for the purpose but I'll use it if it's effectively free and surplus.
Meanwhile Kat completed the side quest of removing the old buddleia from next to the greenhouse. We were surprised to discover it was actually a labelled bought specimen! The label was buried amongt the root level. I feel a bit mean about yeeting it now... but its just not the right spot for it. Not sure it'd survive being put in somewhere else.
I haven't done front-view plot photos for a while... it's funny actually, I've realised that since I now record videos to document our allotment progress I'm taking fewer photos. I should try and remember to take photos still as they're a better (and more searchable) record.
I took some today and also this "panorama" shot... which makes it look like I'm standing at a corner lol. Really that road left and right is one straight line and the left of the photo is the front of the polytunnel plot and the right is the front of the new plot.
@yvan Taking still photos of my garden process and filing them by date is how I keep track of when I do things and where things have been planted. I refer back to the file photos frequently to help me remember things. I enjoy seeing your allotment! 
@richrollgardener @yvan I use photos to refer back to also. Memory can play tricks otherwise.
Your two plots are looking great. I like to see the progress you are making. It’s good to see signs of your neighbours using their plots too.
@Broadfork @richrollgardener ah, was meaning to reply to this! Yeah, the photo record is an essential for me, I refer to it all the time. But I don't put any effort into sorting it, its all just in a big data heap.... but the time and GPS metadata combined with a bit of ML makes it pretty easy to search back through all those photos (from the allotment and also everything else I do!)
I sometimes feel I should be more organised about it. But this is me I'm talking about
It's fantastic to have all the activity around our plots. Those plots have been pretty derelict for years. The same person was holding on to all 4 including our new plot but they were never there. The council finally gave them an ultimatum and they gave them up.
@yvan It is infuriating when people have plots but don’t make use of them.
I love to see a neglected plot being brought back to life again. It’s great to see enthusiastic new starters getting on with things. It lifts the whole site when that happens.
@richrollgardener
@Broadfork @yvan @richrollgardener The downside there can be overly eager beginners who lose heart or find that it doesn't quite match up to their Gardeners World viewing aspirations or is plain too much work to sustain. Some plots then become continual churn.
@rooftopjaxx @Broadfork @yvan @richrollgardener
It's like that in the back field. Quite a few tennants threw everything at it to start without realising how much effort it takes to sustain. They think they can weed once and that's it.
Then there are the people who get an area and never show, they just landbank it so no one else can have it.
@MostlyTato @Broadfork @yvan @richrollgardener
And on that subject of multiple plots, let's not even get started on the coriander farmers or is that just a London thing?
@rooftopjaxx @MostlyTato @Broadfork @richrollgardener I'd welcome a coriander farmer! I love it, but find it a bit of an arse to grow reliably.
Do you mean people are using plots for commercial growing?
Gardeners World? Isn't that all about flowers? It does tend to romanticise the odd slices of allotment life it shows. I suspect our new immediate neighbours could be in this category given their lack of progress so far. They've just shallowly dug one tiny patch of their whole plot of grass. Still never seen them. Maybe they'll show up with a rotovator, it seems to be the standard start for most new plotholders on our site. Got to evenly distribute all those weed roots!
GW does indeed romanticise stuff a fair bit, and the slot with Camilla at Highgrove a couple of years back, reminded us all that the BBC and Monty are hard core conservatives.
But they cover a lot of veg growing too, and there is a lot of good and helpful info in there too. Plus what else do you do on a Friday night when you're knackered from work except sit on the sofa with a glass and fall asleep to #Gardening?
@JimmyB I happened upon the first ever Costa episode of Gardening Australia the other day on utoob and it reminded me I should try and watch GA episodes more because it's much more about productive growing. I grew up on a fondly remembered diet of Peter Cundall, but Costa seems like a lot of fun. It's not so seasonally or climatically appropriate to the UK unfortunately. 
There is also the Scottish Beechgrove Garden of course, they tend to have a more vegetative slant than GW.
But we do tend to watch most of GW, usually a day or two later when some miscreant puts it on utoob.
I don't know it: looks good. Need to find a non-YouTube source for it, both because I hate YT, and because they now give me adverts every 2 minutes. Literally. Makes it unwatchable sadly.
I'll see if there is another source.