My sister arrived as we can socially distance and have a natter and a catch up and actually see each other rather than use the phone. She stopped off on her way and picked up a bacon roll which was very appreciated and quickly consumed.
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Digging & Weeding Paths
Sunday, 28 February 2021
First SFG Bed Is In.
Another early arrival at the plot and I set to work pulling the tarp from under the herris fencing and removing the timber that was under it.
More woodchip was removed and the weed membrane cut to the line of the main path enabling the sheet to be folded back on itself. I had just started digging and weeding when John the fire king arrived and asked if I had anything that needed burning reminding me that we only have 15 days in which to have fires, and then it's no more fires until October.
I had already been tidying the area in the South West corner of Plot 1, and extended the search for rotting timber that I had inherited when I took over the plot and surprisingly there were four wheelbarrow loads that John took and burnt for me during the morning.
When you have trouble getting up and down on they knees its not easy assembling the beds on your own and holding the corners in place as you screw them together but I managed to assemble the bed and dug out a slot so that the left side could lay level.
I've left the soil in a mound in the middle of the bed so the fox can come and do his inspection and have a dig for some worms. Two robins one skinny and the other a little fat ball, have been around me most of the morning and I named them Laurel and Hardy.
I came away from the allotment with four sacks of rubbish and have negotiated with my sister to occupy half of her brown wheelie bin for the next collection. I'm hopeful that there will be ample dry days in March that I can get the SFG Beds, the Rhubarb beds and the Solar Tunnel and greenhouse installed by April.
Saturday, 27 February 2021
Laying Paving Slabs
The Ketta store was brought up by the comfrey butts, it needs some TLC but will be idea for storage of compost and other bagged material as the foxes love to get into everything if you leave it out in the open.
View into the Square Foot Gardening and Solar Dome area of the plot. The yellow tarp is holding water and many bees and wasps are using it for a drink. The plan is to remove the water and the tarp early in the morning before the bees and wasps are up and about, and to get on with digging and weeding the Square Foot Gardening Beds.
Friday, 26 February 2021
Scaffold Poles in The Raspberry Beds
I arrived at the allotment at 7:30 after clearing the ice off the windscreen, it was 9C when I went to bed at around 11pm I was not expecting frost and I had not covered the chitting spuds in the Space Saver Greenhouse. Note to self check those little dudes out!
There was a mist over the plot and a file on one of the plot was still smouldering and the smoke was hitting the mist and with the sun coming up over the buildings on the boundary it looked just like a graveyard scene from an old horror movie.
Frost was on everything including the green manure. It looks as if the plot fox is now bedding down of an evening on this bed looking at the recess that has been getting more consolidated over the last week.
Painting and doing anything to the cut timbers for the beds was out of the question until the sun had thawed them, so I started off by doing a little more digging of the square foot garden bed.
As I started working my way back I looked at the materials stored in this corner and thought, I may as well clear some of this out of the way, so the long timbers were moved to behind the Dalek army and the scaffold poles that were under the yellow tarp were moved out which distracted me from digging and weeding.
I had noticed a few visits ago that some weeds were starting to grow in the raspberry beds and now I had scaffold pole out and exposed I popped to the car and got my Ryobi drill and long Power Planter Auger and set about drilling some 600mm deep holes in the ends of the beds and installing the scaffold tube standards. (A standard is the term for a vertical tube)
The 600mm x 600mm Rhubarb beds were relocated on the 4th Raspberry beds, which as yet don't have any Raspberry plants in and holes in the ground, sorta 75mm diameter and round were drilled or angered out using the Power Planter and Ryobi Drill
I weeded the Raspberry beds and then made a couple of trips to the wood chip heap in the drop off and pick up area and cover the beds in about 25mm of the the pine woodchip mulch.
I was going to move the paving slabs that have been stacked wither side of the shed door, but they are 400mm square and not 450mm like the rest of the slabs on the main path on plot 1. There were two 600mm square slabs that I have placed at the corner of the shed that infill that area a little too well and I need to move the slabs under the extension to the shed about 5mm for a perfect fit.
The slabs need some levelling bit it looks as if I will use them for a small paved area in front of the shed and as a secondary link to the main path to the allotment entrance. Bottom line is I need to keep an eye out on freecycle for some more 450mm or 600mm slabs so that I can have a paved path from the entrance. I may have to steal some slabs from secondary paths on plot 1A to achieve that faster and then replace.
Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Clean Up and SFG Beds
A swift visit this afternoon between 2pm and 4pm. With the dustmen coming tomorrow and only one box of plastic, metal and glass full, I decided to cut up all the pop bottles that were in the plastic laundry basket which were left over from when I built the pop bottle greenhouse and I started to tidy up the potting bench area and patio in front of the entrance to the greenhouse on plot 1
Tuesday, 23 February 2021
Self Watering Pop Bottle Propagator
Video made in 2016 and I've been using these annually, they are so useful.
Monday, 22 February 2021
Infrastructure Continues
Rhubarb Livingstone Plant - D.T.Brown
World's First Autumn Cropping Rhubarb
Pack quantity: 3x 9cm potted plants
Item code: 50310
Sunday, 21 February 2021
More Bed Timbers
Morning spent panting and cutting timbers for the Rhubarb 600mm x 600mm beds. Screwed the first bed together about 10:30
Saturday, 20 February 2021
Painting Bed Timbers
Thursday, 18 February 2021
Frost Protection Reduced
Wednesday, 17 February 2021
Win a Waltons Mini Greenhouse
Saturday, 13 February 2021
SFG & Rhubarb Bed Timbers
At the suggestion of Kelly I popped down to the allotment for a couple of hours to have a potter about. The temperature was 1C and some snow is still hanging on and buckets and containers are full and iced over still.
All of the timbers that I had stacked up on the bed frames to dry had fallen over, either blown by the storm or knocked over by a fox or cat and like dominoes were all laying down. The snow has been melting but a few timbers are still covered in snow/ice with icicles hanging off.
Each timber was looked at, the screws and nail removed and then stacked on the bed frames of the beds with green manure growing on them. Iced face towards where the sun will be tomorrow morning.
There are three stubborn screws to still come out and a joist hanger with trimmers to be removed from the timber on the far left and two more joists to be cut and cleared of any nails then they can be drilled and painted ready for assembly when the box of 80mm timber long screws arrive.
The shorter timbers that are to be cut to 700mm long to make the 600x600mm Rhubarb beds were also staked facing the sun to dry off.