Getting there........I think!

[Doris_Pinks]

Not a noticably HUGE difference from these :-(
The photo on the left was January, on the right taken this afternoon! Am working on 2 more beds dug behind the cloche, full of lovely clay!!!  So as you can see, I am getting there, albeit slowly :-)  Dottie P.

[Garden Manager]

Cor! Doris thats some slope you have on that lottie!  You'd have to be a mountain goat to work that

[Doris_Pinks]

Bleat bleat!!    Getting used it now Richard, worth it to get the extra beds in!

[eileen]

I can see a heck of a lot of clearing's been done - good on you.   Hope the crampons hold out!!  

[Mrs Ava]

Going to be great tho Doris, all of those terraced beds, I bet they warm up quicker and it will look spectacular once full of plants!  

[Sulis]

This is the first time i've seen an allotment on a small terrace like this. I like it! Looks different from the norm.

It's amazing just how much work you can do if you do it 'bit by bit'

[tim]

In Jersey, 90% is on the cotés - or hillsides. If they can do it, so can you! = Tim
PS which way does it face?

[Mimi]

Doris that is a huge amount of work.  Well done you.  Want to come and give ME a hand?

[ina]

Fantastic!

How about installing a little ski lift. You haul the manure up and just drop it. Don't they always say sh*t rolls downhill?

Actually, I think it will be easy doing the planting, weeding and harvesting up-hill, you don't have to bend so much.

I can't wait for the summer pictures.

[Doris_Pinks]

Thank you for all your encouraging words!! I will be climbing the Matterhorn next year!!! I am hoping that this way will make for some nice, rich, freedraining soil, and as EJ says they may warm up quickly!

Tim, do you know, i have never thought about which direction it faces!! If I stand at the front, and look to my brambles i think it is east! i know due to huge trees in the back i do not get nearly as much sun as i would like!

Mimi, would love to give you a hand, when shall i come over?..........oh sorry busy that day! :-)

Ina a ski lift would be a great idea!! The hauling of the manure is proving to be interesting :-(  And I managed to trip over my wheelbarrow the other day, have some beautiful bruises ! (felt such a pratt!)

So satisfying this gardening lark, and taking photos makes you realise you really are getting somewhere! DP

[Piglet]

I'm very impressed, have lots of questions - how do you use a wheel barrow without it running away downhill and being a v hard slog uphill?  You must be very fit, even doing the basic jobs must be very hard work.  And clay as well.  

Think you deserve the medal for most challenging plot.

Well done  !!  
Piglet.

[Doris_Pinks]

Well Piglet, me and fit do not usually go together in a sentence  
Because it is all staged, I have to sit the wheel barrow on the paths. (in a cross section the hill would look like steps, long one's being the beds, shallow ones being paths! I do have a worn track going up the hill to the top bed, which gets a bit hairy when it is wet and I am heading downwards with a full barra!! Makes for excitement and bruised knees!! (I can't think of a cunning ploy to do away with this, other than steps, and as you know steps and a wheelbarrow do not mix  ) Once the paths are in and the beds dug, it should I hope work fairly well and not be too much more work than my flat bit! Infact am hoping the soil will eventually be a zillion times better because of the raised beds, (once I have dug in MORE grit, manure and compost) and should be easier to weed etc. because there should be less stooping involved! (thats MY theory anyway.we shall see!) DP

[Garden Manager]

You probably need a lift/pulley system using two barrows. One up one down. If the down barrow is heavier than the up one then the weight alone will pull whatever you want to take to the top!  lol

Seriously this is getting on for 'vertical' gardening or in this case vertical lottie -ing!

If you think this is  bad though try gardening in Madeira. My parents have just been on holiday there and saw someone gardening on the side of a cliff!