Woodchips, Raspberries and Burning Wood

The first job this Sunday was to unwrap the raspberries and leave them in a bucket of water.

The next job was to start shifting the woodchips from the drop off area onto the plot. I haven't sorted the shed and greenhouse area yet but I want the woodchips on the plot so that I can cover the weed membrane as soon as possible after digging out the weeds and semi levelling off the area and laying the slabs.

After feeling suitably knackered and ready for a drink I had a cup of coffee from the flask, sat and looked down the allotment and the greenhouse and started to build a mental to do list. Way to many things and not enough time to get them all done today. 

I cleared the shelf in the greenhouse and placed two trays of Catawissa Onions in there and the other two trays went under the extension to the shed. Wally and John took a tray and half a dozen from me when they arrived on the site. I'm glad I'm finding homes for them as I really don't want to compost them as they have over wintered so well and someone else may be able to benefit from the huge harvest of them I had last year.

  

The rear two rows that were planted on the 11th March appear to be happy in their new bed the first row was sown with the larger bulbs and many of them have now germinated and are showing through the compost.

Next order of business was to clear the remains of the grapevine and clear the dross around the leaf bins and plant the two raspberry plants that had been soaking in a bucket of water since I arrived on the plot. 

The Raspberry plants were picked up from Lidl so the instructions are in the crazy graphic language. So if I have interpreted them correctly

Yes you can eat them
Plant in full sun or partially sunny location 
Flowers July - August
Harvest August - October 
Prune October - November 

The Storage area next to the shed received some attention in the form of clearing leafs and composting them and clearing the scraps of six year old pallets and other lengths of timber that may come in useful some day, and burning them along with other rotten scarps of wood.

We can only have fires up until the end of March which funnily enough is the same time they put the water mains back on. From a health and safety point of view I have always found that fact a bit of a paradox. 

The tables, benches and area around the shed and greenhouse needs a good tidy up and the greenhouse still needs to be emptied of all the dross that may be useful some day so that I can actually grow some plants in there.

Time goes incredibly fast when you are working on the allotment and there are days when you have done a lot but it doesn't really feel like it.

My youngers daughter rang to inform me that lunch would be late and that I could get another hour in , so I managed a few more barrow loads of woodchips and added them to the pile on my plot. After Sunday lunch my body caught up with all the exercise I had put if through, my ankles ache there again so do my legs, plus the rest of me feels fairly knackered, but it's a good kind of knackered.

In the afternoon I sowed 15 loo rolls of Amsterdam 15 loo rolls of Nandor and 10 loo rolls of Early Nantes 2 Carrot seeds with approx. 4 seed per loo roll. They are staying in the warm tonight, they may reside on top of the Grow Stations in my broom cupboard office for a few days before making their way out to the Grow Station in the shed.