The joy of tidy edges

Even if they are wonky – it’s all part of my ‘allotment levels’ design ethos!

My sons bought me a Ryobi One battery strimmer/edger for Christmas, although the actual purchase was delayed until this month.  It has a chunky 4ah (amp) lithium battery which meant I could zip around the whole plot on one charge, which I thought was impressive, but maybe it’s another sign I just need to get out more.

Here’s the results, achieved on the occasional day when the rain stopped and the sun peeked out from behind the clouds.

From the front of the plot, which has been weeded too.

From the shed end and you can see the wonkiness.  I trimmed past the brassica cage netting without any incidents. I share this path with a neighbour who is equally keen on tidy paths and we take turns in an informal, unplanned way to mow and edge.

The path this side is less well-maintained and had it’s full winter shagginess, which I thought the strimmer wouldn’t be able to manage, but as you can see it was not problem at all.  I will go back and complete the other half of the path because it seems petty not to but I do need a conversation with my neighbour about shared path etiquette.

The glass ‘fence’ is intended as a wind-break and it works well but last year the roses had a very bad case of black spot and I’m wondering if the increased heat/humidity was a contributing factor, so that panel is coming out in the next few weeks when I can round up a few extra pairs of hands.

and finally the sweet pea corridor is looking very presentable, just needs a mulch of fresh compost.  The strimmer has made maintaining this central path so much easier than with hand shears!