Winter Tidy

Following my close call with the small portable suitcase cooking stove, my brother in law came to the rescue even whilst being in hospital by donating a large two burner and a grill camping cooker he had in the back of his shed to me. Saturday I went to a camping shop and bought a new longer hose, gas regulator and a small bottle of Calor Gas and a couple circlips. 

It didn't take long to set it up on the bench, with the gas bottle at the back of the shelf away from the front that picks up the direct sunlight. I'm so much happier that I have a screw in fixing with a regulator on top that has a stopcock as well as the ability to turn off the burners at the stove.  

After making my first coffee, I started by cutting up all the vegetation from the butternut squash that had taken over the South Corner of Plot 1. I did find a half eaten Marrow, which appears to have been the only one that grew under the butternut vegetation. I did also find one more small butternut squash, that appears to have survived the frosty mornings, and is now sitting on the rack in the shed.  

I cleared the vegetation and weeds where I planted the marrow and butternut squash and  moved the two incinerators onto the bare soil ready for having a bit of a burn up of all the old rotten timbers and dry weeds that I have been storing up. I placed a pallet on the South corner of plot 1 and started to stack the rotten timbers on it so they can dry off in the sun. Once dry and on a future visit this timber will be cut into incinerator length ready for burning.

I moved the saw horses with the 2.4m joist from up the plot to along the plot as I need to clear the plot at the boundary with Plot 1A so that I can get the flower beds put in, but so much timber and items weighing down the weed membrane is currently located there that currently it isn't possible. 

So to the middle right of the photo above you can see the comfrey growing in front of the two greenhouse frames in green boxes that will ultimately be used as my fruit cage 

View looking down plot 1 with the huge pile of leaves collected last year that need to go into the Daleks as brown material and an old blow away frames that need taking apart.

This is the area that I'm trying to clear so that I can install the path from Plot 1A to the shed and get the flower beds in so that the tulip and daffodil bulbs can be planted.   

For the short term, the timbers that have been painted are being stacked on beds 11 & 12 and the piles of joists that still need processing will be able to be relocated across the plot on an additional set of saw horses that I intend to make up on my next visit.  

In readiness for working on plot 1 the four trees from last year have been placed on the paths between bed 10 & 11 and 9 & 10 on plot 1A along with the two replacement apple trees that came from Jersey Plants Direct Saturday and were potted up today. 

It will be so good when I have all the bed material ready and stacked in their locations on the weed membrane ready for me to pull it back turn over the soil and dig out the weeds.