We had the allotment Annual General Meeting this weekend, and it was great to see so many people there. It was brilliant to be able to have a purpose-built space where we could actually sit and meet together (usually we have to huddle under the garage door overhang!)

It was a lovely dry, warm day and we talked about how brilliant this project has been so far – and how it would have been utterly impossible without the funding. People spoke about how much they’d enjoyed being involved in the working parties: getting to know each other a bit better, spending time outdoors and feeling like they were making a difference. This community building is an important part of the project and legacy – we decided to hold monthly working parties on the first weekend of each month and take it in turns to bring cake!

After the meeting, we got on with the working party. We built the remainder of the raised beds, planted out the wetland wildflower plug plants and sowed half of the wildflower seed (we’ll save the rest for an autumn sowing).

There were a few good nature spots, but for most of them we didn’t manage to get a photo! Here though are photos we did get – a pond skater on one of the scrapes we’ve dug, a ground beetle disturbed during planting, and some absolutely glorious willow catkins.