Hoop Storage & Overflow Leaf Cage

After having my PET Scan yesterday afternoon I was ready for a few hours on the allotment and in Wally's shed having a chat and coffee to warm us up.

Firstly I drilled the timber gravel board and the two square flower buckets to attach the flower buckets to form the water pipe hoop store, which will keep the hoops strung to the 1.2m width of the beds.

Much neater storage solution behind the potting shed. holes drilled in the bas of the square flower buckets so they will not hold water.  After a coffee break and a natter with Wally I gathered up the panels from the original Leaf Cage made in 2012 

Half of the old leaf bin made 13 years ago from the fence from my Mums front garden that used to stop the wind blowing the leaves into the garden.

I collected the leaves and dropped them off last Thursday from outside my daughters property, after going to see my grandson.

I should have watered them in as I filled it, but time was getting on and I really felt the need to get home and have a late lunch.

I used a panel from the other original leaf bin to go on top and stop any leaves from escaping. If Veolia have not already bagged the remaining leaves up from outside my daughters house I will getting another lot of leaves, next visit.

Stacking Scaffold Boards

Three hours on the plot this morning shifting the scaffold boards off Square Foot Garden raised bed 1 and stacking with spacers in a full bed so I can top up SFG bed 1 and cover with debris netting.

I also found a worn out 1.2m length of decking that I'm going to fix to two square flower buckets to stack my blue water pipe in so that they keep their profile when not installed on a bed, and stacked behind the potting shed.

My robin was once again all round me and darting in and out as I exposed critters that had taken up residence between the boards.

All scaffold boards now removed from SFG Bed 1

Some thing had been living under the boards and appears to have been feasting on the snails that had decided it was a good place to live.

Onion Sets and Garlic Cloves in SFG Bed 2 looking good and growing. Must sprinkle some eggs shells and some onion fertiliser around them at a future visit

Hot Bin contents dropped again and happy worms spotted

Kitchen waste and some butternut squash foliage added to the bin before I left to go home for lunch.

Two More Mini Builders Bags of Leaves

 

Two more mini builders bags of leaves picked up today and dropped off and added to the leaf cage 

Yes my little mate was there checking on what I was doing 

3 More Mini Builders Bags of Leaves

Collected more leaves today, another 3 large sacks worth and dropped them off to the allotment and added to the leaf cage.

Took the lid bread basket panels off the top

Added the 3 large sack loads

Then dropped the bread basket lid panels back on to stop the pile blowing away.

Collecting Leaf's

Emma and I had done a trip to garden centres this morning had lunch and then before I made my way home I collected a lot of leaf's off the road outside my daughters property and filled two mini builders bags and then taken them to the allotment and added to my leaf cage to rot down and make leaf mould.

Two large garden sacks filled with leaf's and they fit so nicely in the boot of the car.

Those leaves collected by main roads may be affected by atmospheric pollution, so leaves from quieter streets and side roads are preferable. Leaves are easier to collect when the weather is dry and still, which was one of the reasons I collected them today, as its been dry for a few days and lots have dropped this week. The rake with the grab mechanism makes collecting so easy.

First sack collected from between the two cars and behind my car., very little litter in the pile which is good.

Second sack collected further down the road, you can see the area I was working. Plenty of more to be gathered up weather permitting.

2 - 3 year old leaf mould looking good. Good quality, well-rotted leafmould (more than two years old) can be used as seed-sowing compost, or mixed equally with sharp sand, garden compost and good quality soil for use as potting compost.

Poor quality leaf mould, or leaf mould that is less than two years old can be used as mulch, soil improver, autumn top-dressing for lawns, or winter covering for bare soil.

Blue water pipes gathered up and I have an idea for a storage system that will keep them bent to a 1.2m wide profile when stored behind the potting shed when not in use.

Cut down Bread Baskets laid on top to prevent the wind blowing the leaf's away

Leaf Mould Cage made from cut down bread baskets that were dumped on the access road to the construction site for Parchment Close a few years ago.

Room for a few more sack loads until full, then I will set up my overflow leaf bin on one of the beds as the compress and rot down quite fast and are a great free resource on the allotment.

Crossways Compost

 

Emma and I went on a trip to Crossways Nursery in Purley just up from Wallington Girls School to pick up 10 more sacks of Richmoor Organic Compost £3 a Bag or 5 for £10 and two bags of Marsh's Ericaceous Compost 40L £4 a sack

Miracle-Grow Compost £6 a bag or 3 for £15

West Country Multi-Purpose Compost 50L sacks £5 a bag or 3 for £12

Thatchers Super Mix Organic Multi-Purpose Compost 60L sacks £6 a bag or 3 for £15

Durstons Decorative Bark 50L £8 a sack or 3 for £20

Growmoor Ericaceous Compost 60L £6 a sack

Marsh's Ericaceous Compost 40L £4 a sack
Richmoor Organic Compost £3 a Bag or 5 for £10

Growmoor Farmyard Manure £6 a bag

Marsh's Horse Manure Large £4 a bag or 3 for £10

Growmoor Topsoil £5 a bag 
Growmoor Seed Compost with John Innes 35L £6 a bag

Growmoor John Innes No2 35L £6 a bag

Growmoor John Innes No1 35L £6 a bag 

Compost Taken To The Plot.

Mulch & compost storage area cleared ready to unload the compost bought yesterday from the Crossways Nursery in Purley  

Mulch that I've had for a couple of years that will be going on the new raised beds as I install them. Wally turned up as I was trying to get the first of the sacks into the wheel barrow. It would be great if the companies that sell compost considered the elderly and mobility challenged and actually bagged up compost into smaller bags or sacks. Since my radiotherapy and developing mobility and arthritis issues, I can't even manage 40L sacks of compost. Wally bless him came to my rescue and stacked the 12 sacks of compost on my pallet for me.  

10 more sacks of Richmoor Organic Compost 40L bags and two bags of Marsh's Ericaceous Compost 40L stacked by Wally. 

Weather and Fox protection added to the piles of compost 

View up the plot after the blue hoops had been removed from the beds.

Clearing Bindweed

Sunday morning visit to the allotment to see how much bindweed and and other weeds I can remove from the Raspberry and Asparagus bed and add to the pile in the car park that is supposed to be cleared this coming week.

The Bindweed this year has been crazy and it has crisscrossed so much around the beds and across the paths such that its a trip hazard just trying to walk down the paths.

The good thing is that because of the weed membrane under the woodchip its on the surface but also in the woodchip, and once you get an end you can pull it out of the woodchip really easily.

View from the Plot 1 Greenhouse looking at the Asparagus Bed next to the Raspberry Beds and the potting shed door.

View of the Raspberries over the Square Foot Garden Raised Beds, There is no Bindweed connecting each row of Raspberries anymore, But I didn't have time to clear the top of the row on the left.

View up the plot of the Raspberry beds that have been reduced in height and the bindweed removed from the top of the first three beds. I didn't have time to get rid of the bindweed on the early summer raspberries.

View from the pebble pool up the plot towards Plot 1A and finally I can now walk around the the outside of the Raspberries as the paths are no longer a mass of bindweed and leaning Raspberry canes. The framework to hold in the raspberries needs modifying so the post are on the inside of the beds so there is room to get a wheelbarrow down between each variety of Raspberry and easier for harvesting next year.

View from the Greenhouse Climbing Frame entrance of the Rhubarb and Raspberry beds and paths.

Paths need bindweed removing, then scraping up and adding to one of the new Daleks, and replacing with fresh woodchip.

Dalek Army Plot 1 Continued

A few hours spent on the allotment this afternoon as there was rain this morning and concentrated on removing the broken square Dalek and replacing it with the standard LBS Composting Dalek I picked up in 2023 and composed on bed 5.

More weeds and rubbish added to the pile in the car park that the grab lorry is supposed to be coming to collect next week. A wheelbarrow load of good path quality woodchip from the diminishing pile in the car park to bed in the relocated Dalek in the plot 1 Dalek Army. My Robin has been all around me again this afternoon and following me to and from the car park.

View of the Plot 1 Dalek Army. The buckets are what I have been growing potatoes in this year and the soil & compost from that will go on top of SFG (Square Foot Garden) Bed 1 once I take the scaffold boards that I have been removing the end bands off it

Parts of the greenhouses on the raised bed needs to be stored away until I can use it on a project I have in mind.

The Asparagus bed on the right needs weeding and mulching over Winter.

The weeds around the beds need removing and the existing woodchips removed and new woodchip added whilst we have path quality woodchip in the car park.

The stuff in the full bed to the left of the raised bed needs clearing.

The low bed with the two large trays over needs excavating and the soil stored in square flower buckets and the excavation filled with rotting logs and timber from the bed frames I have pulled up. Then the bed needs extending and filling.

View from the plot 1 shed looking towards the Plot 1 Dalek Army.

Low beds along the bottom of the photo need weeding inside and out then covered with winter weed membrane until I can work on them to replace with raised beds.

Plum Tree to be drastically pollarded and the branches will go into the bottom of the raised new beds.

Raspberries to be cut back in January/ February and beds weeded and mulched.

Dalek Army Plot 1

Greenhouse components left over from the two greenhouses I bought from B&Q when they were getting rid of them to make my climbing frame greenhouse / fruit cage

A visit to the allotment this morning after visiting the nurse to have my dressing changed on my legs which look as if they are finally healing and hopefully it will not be long before I will not have to go weekly anymore.

With a grabber lorry coming hopefully next week I took the opportunity to do some more weed clearance and removal of the tumbling composter that I have not really had any success with and replacing it with a standard London Borough of Sutton green door less Dalek like the majority of my other Daleks.

Magic cardboard placed under the new Dalek and then a wheel barrow and two large tugs of woodchip to bed it in place and seal the bottom.

Greenhouse parts stacked and they will be cleaned up and stored for reuse on another little project I have in mind.

Dark green Dalek to the right of the square Dalek replaced the tumbling composter which another plot holder took interest in having, and you can see it laying on its back with the stand legs in the air in the background of the photo.

View down to the plot 1 Daleks and the raised beds I have started to build.

View down to the plot 1 Daleks and the raised beds I have started to build.

Large plastic tray placed over four Java maincrop Potatoes In Buckets to keep the rain out to make harvesting them cleaner and easier.

The Dalek on the left is to replace the one at the end of the Dalek Army up on Plot 1A which has gone brittle and cracked with age.

The Dalek on the right which is another LBS Compost Dalek picked up off Freecycle will be replacing the square Dalek on the Plot 1 Dalek Army as the lid on that one has broken.

Planning and Reviewing November in Previous Years

 Reviewing the diary over the last Twelve years for November

2012 - My second month of ownership of an allotment. I found out where Benhill Crescent Horticultural Society was located and actually a plot on their site would have been ideal as I could walk to it and the entrance was more or less opposite my sisters house, but at the time I got my plot the waiting list was 24 people.

Cutting, clearing and stacking material to be burnt on pallets and covering with a tarp to dry them off took place during November. My wife at the time was in good health and came with me and helped me. 

By mid month all the clearing had been done and we had many stacks of drying weeds, to burn  We enjoyed getting the allotment clear and going down late in the evening as it was getting dark and having the fires in the two incinerators. 

The plan layout I did on the 13th November later got modified, and I started looking at standard beds and bed layouts for various types of vegetables.

Saturday 17th November the shed arrived and on Sunday 18th my wife and I erected the shed and felted the roof. I love that photo of her in her pink boots standing proud next to the shed. She is short and makes the 6x4 foot shed look massive!   

2013 - A year on and I have infrastructure in place, a central concrete path made of the paving slabs that I had been using as a drive for my car, six beds between the path and the wall, a patio area at the top around the shed, and two beds installed on the other side of the path and I was working my way down the plot digging clearing weeds and installing beds and paths. 

A racking and storage area was in place, I was harvesting spring onions and attempting my first overwintering of spring onions in a pop bottle Borg cube I had made, was still harvesting tomatoes and peppers in the blow away greenhouse next to the shed.

First Frost was the 13th of November this year. First time I had planted Green Manure and rescued a box of leaves and added to my leaf bins for the first time.       

2014 - In this year the infrastructure of beds and paths were all in and I had a lot more varieties of vegetables growing on the plot. I harvested Peppers of all colours from the greenhouse which I had erected on Bed 6 earlier in the year.

Most of the work this month consisted of clearing and covering beds for winter, I still had Brussel Sprouts in a large hoop enclosure. Open trench compost for the runner beans bed. By now my Dalek army was 6 strong and I was getting into the art of making compost. Limited success with Parsnips this year we had the magnificent five and the rest, well they were parsnips Jim but not as we know it!

In all I had six beds covered in hoops and debris netting as I had been growing a lot of brassicas this year. I left the netting in place as defence against the foxes. This year we also had problems with mice and rats and traps were deployed. So many slugs and pop bottle traps were made and deployed against them as well. Six bags of manure used on the beds.

2015 - Damp foggy and site tour video made Sunday 1st November, Harvesting Beetroots, Carrots, Onions, the last of the French beans, Sowing Japanese Onions grown from seed. Overwintering Cabbage, still weeding beds and covering up for Winter, Harvesting Carrots, Onions and Parsnips. Digging in Green Manure Mustard. Finished clearing Comfrey and placing in Daleks as an accelerator. 

Woodchip paths that are now 3 years old have broken down and are turning into soil and needed replacing and the old went into the Daleks as browns. I also had plot 23B on Spencer Road this year and was building up the Dalek army on that plot. 

I found that splitting your time on two different plot on two different sites was not really viable and maintainable. I put my name down so that if my neighbour gave up his plot I was next in line for it on Mill Green. Snow at the end of the month but didn't settle for very long. Parsnips thinned out a little to allow the remainder to bulk up ready for Christmas. Rain stops weekend play at the end of the month. 

   

2016 - Sixth of November was our first frost. Ten bags of leaves and the two leaf bins on Mill Green were full to the brim, I started to sort out my seed boxes and cataloging what I have and what I needed for next year. Over half of the infrastructure was in on Spencer Road and I had acquired many concrete paving slabs and was in the process of building the patio next to the shed during this month. More vandalism on Spencer Road they melted my blow away and tried to se fire to my Daleks and set light to one chaps polytunnel and basically broke into sheds and nicked what they could or just threw it out onto the plots.

Modifications to the shed and another lock installed to the top of the door as well as the side of the door. break-ins continued and meeting took place between the Committee and the police on Spencer Road Allotment, To be honest the problem with the vandalism and the break-ins is what ultimately made me decide to give up Spencer Road Allotment, after I managed to arrange for a drop off and pick up area to be formed at Mill Green.   

2017 -  Having just taken over Plot 1 on Mill Green in October this year most of my time in November was spent clearing the weeds on it, As it was so dark at night and I could not get down to the allotment it was weekend working only when dry. 

I decided that I would create post and started doing my seed storage box audit and catalogue and producing lists called "In My Seed Box" here on the blog so that I could gain access to my catalogue using my smart phone when I may need the urge to buy seed.

I met with the inventor of Kikka Digga and it's an amazing tool for the allotment holder.   

I took advantage of a Lucky Dip offer on trees and got 6 for £19.99, they went into buckets as I had not cleared Plot 1 yet and Hawthorn Bushes were where they were intended to finally be placed.  

The plan layout for my new kingdom was more given more though and detail in AutoCAD 

2018 -  Not a lot on the allotment front actually happened in November this year, apart from me nearly setting fire to the shed with the mini stove I had.  Keith my brother-in- law who was more like a Brother to me died and was brought back twice, he bounced around the hospital from one intensive care set up to another, finally got a diagnosis that he had Amyloidosis which is an abnormal protein called amyloid that builds up in the tissues and organs. 

When it does, it affects their shape and how they work. There was a hope for a transfer to a hospital that specialises in it's treatment in North London, which involved steroids and chemotherapy, the problem was that due to low blood pressure, Keith had died twice and been resuscitated, and his body just would not survive the treatment, and finally they told him there was no more that they could do for him to actually stabilise his blood pressure, before starting Chemotherapy and that he would not survive the treatment. 

He shaved and cleaned himself up and basically told us what he had been told and that he had asked not to be resuscitated the next time his heart gave out with low blood pressure. I have never met or known a man so strong, and apart from my father, there has never been another man that I have loved. We visited and stayed with him on a rota system as only so many people can be around a bed in an intensive care unit and ironically all the family that mattered managed to see him and say their goodbyes before he passed away on the 19th of November.      

2019 -  Woodchips for the paths dropped off, Daughters Wedding stopped allotment play followed by bad and wet weather meant that sorting out seeds and planning next year took place for a week and a half during the middle of the month.  

Harvesting Potatoes three beds worth, Three oil drums of leaves dropped off from Andy, I cleared and woodchipped behind the shed and the greenhouse area.  

This was the year that I injured my leg and had cellulitis which meant that I could not really do a lot for some months, but in November I was fit enough to work on the plot once more and Emma and Andy (Daughter & my New Son-In-Law) came and helped me catch up and to get some additional infrastructure in place on plot 1 in the form of the first two narrow beds on the boundary with Plot 1A.

2020 - Wasp nest clearance plot 1A, Shed Questions and Advice, Upgraded my seed storage system, Harvested Squash, Won the Waltons Garden Chest Competition resulting in moving coldframe and reduction in Home Tomato plots,  Raspberry bed infrastructure started as D.T.Browns Raspberry Collection came early!  

2021 - The first week of November was so mild and sunny Andy and I worked in tee shirts and planted the overwintering onions. I won a mixed pallet of  Equigrow compost, soil improver, and mulch which was dropped off at home and shipped down to the plot in the back of the car. Wire worm in spuds in the ground, that's why I decided to grow all in buckets in 2022. Leaf Collection and Bin increasing. Picked up paving slabs from Freecycle. Harvested the last of the beetroots before wind stopped play. Artic Winds and Snow in Scotland and Wales, but only rain in SE England. Showed two new plot holders & their partners vacant plots. Weeding and putting beds to sleep for the Winter. Storm Arwen caused major disruption across the UK.

2022 - More Paving slabs collected and laid as paths thanks to Freecycle. Making winter blankets for the 2.4m x 1.2m beds on the allotment. A great beetroot harvest. Sutton Allotment Group meeting. Collecting free paving slabs off Freecycle and laying paths. Looking at what's in my seed box for 2023,  Many seeds purchase from Seed To Suit, Warnings of another beast from the east and snow on the way at the end of the month, beginning of December. 

2023 - I came to the end of my radiotherapy for cancer and had been quite knocked back by the process and had developed arthritis in all my joints, I was no longer able to drive myself and was basically house bound and managed five visit to the allotment thanks to family members taking me and assisting with harvesting a full bed of Parsnips and the last of the potatoes and tomatoes and cut back the raspberries and mulched the boundary beds.   

November is normally the month for last harvesting and overwintering plus bonfires to clear the blighted foliage and if the weather holds infrastructure works and closing down beds for the Winter months.  

Mill Green - Plot 1

Re Add additional supporting timbers to the roof of the shed - TBD

• Greenhouse 1 - Modify the frame and door or replace with larger greenhouse 
• Infrastructure - Convert standard 2.4m x 1.2m beds to 2 number 1.2 x 0.9m Raised beds with a path between.
• Beer Traps - Set Up Beer Traps done needs to be maintained over winter 
• Potting Shed - First coat of V33 Woodstain managed in October.  
• 
  

Mill Green - Plot 1A

Re Add additional supporting timbers to the roof of the shed - TBD

• Greenhouse 1A - Set up more Coffee to dry out 
• Bed Near Hotbin  - Netting & Hoops cleared and Vegetation into Hotbin
• Daleks - Add more Daleks along the path with plot 2A
• Main Crop Potatoes  - Harvest and store
• Onions - Harvest last bed before snow 
• Leaf Cage - Collect leaf's and fill cage and possibly overflow cage.