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Tweaking The Potting Shed Base

View from the main path on leaving the plot

Another productive morning on the allotment. The row of paving blocks were introduced between the last two rows of paving stones to give a length greater than the base to the potting shed, and some kerb stones were introduced at the end.

Looking down the plot at the potting shed base after the additional row of paving blocks were introduced to give a little wiggle room.

Potting shed base looking towards the wall after the row of paving blocks were added.

Potting shed base looking up the plot. I'm now re thinking the raised bed next to the path and may use pots and grow herbs and flowers in them.

Bluebells taking over the Comfrey bed in advance of the comfrey breaking through.

Kelly found me a free FISKARS weed puller £29.95 and a full 60 L bag of westland's Multi-purpose compost with John Innes worth £9.39 on Facebook marketplace just 3 minutes away from home.

More tidying up of the storage area behind the Plot 1 Greenhouse and generally on the plot more tidying up and clearing. The inside or the Plot 1 greenhouse was also cleared of tugs, and the square flower buckets were rinsed and stacked behind the plot 1A greenhouse.

Tea bags that were well out of date were ripped open and the contents sprinkled on the top of the compost material in the current active Dalek and watered in.

Getting the Potting Shed Base In

Andy came to give me a hand to get the base down and level, I had already laid the 300mm x 300mm slabs along side those between the potting shed base and Square Foot Garden Bed 2 

Andy did the lifting and leveling, I just got the woodchip when he needed it and the photographer did some weeding, getting woodchip and the killing of a non fruit tree. 

We found the high point and worked back from that to establish the level of the first row 

Only a 36% chance of rain but it was light when it came, and only lasted a little while until it stopped every now and then during our afternoon on the plot. 

I cut some timbers for us to use as a retaining member to hold the woodchips in place. I'm looking at a row of 400mm square slabs where the timber on the left is and then a raised bed beside the path.   

The extra wide path will make it easier to get the wheel barrow in and up to plot 1A and out again 

We need 2360mm or 2400mm and have 5 x 450mm slabs = 2250mm 

The shed base is 2360mm so if we introduce a row of paving blocks with 10mm wide joints between the last two rows of paving slabs we can achieve 2250 +10 +100 +10 = 2370mm  

Insect Repellent Plants

Sweet Basil

Rosemary 

Marigold

Lavender

Lemon Grass

Lemon Balm

Peppermint

Thyme 

Catnip

Seeds for all but the Lavender & Catnip can be obtained from Seeds To Suit for a very nominal amount and if you use the MANVSLUG10 Code at the checkout you will get 10% Off 

Not mentioned above but Mint repels a gaggle of pests, including cabbage white larvae, aphids and Flea Beetles 

Nasturtium not on the image above is a good companion plant that goes down a treat on the dining room table. On the plot these colourful annuals attract insects whose larvae eat aphids, while the flowers scent draws blackfly away from vegetables and hoverflies adore the orange flowers. Seed Too Suit Nasturtium Tom Thumb & Nasturtium Whirlybird Mix 

I tend to grow Limnanthes Douglass Poached Egg Plants around my runner beans, as they attract hoverflies to reduce aphid populations.

Blue Diamond - Compost Prices

 

It takes so long to find this information on the Blue Diamond  web site I thought I would leave it on here so I can find it and compare with other sources of compost. Compost Prices 2023  

Clearing & Cleaning Out the Space Saver Greenhouse

 

I've been cleaning up the back garden as it's now dry and warmer than it has been.

The Space Saver greenhouse is nearly clear and cleaned out and I'm in the process of giving pots and saucers a good scrub ready for kick off.

What about you, are you getting ready for a March kick off?

The bowl is a gardening one I use for cleaning pots, saucers and modules, that I swap out for the domestic one if cleaning inside rather than outside the house.

On the allotment I need to get the base down for and then erect the New Forest Garden Potting Shed when it arrives in March. I still have lots to do on the plot, so I'm grabbing what opportunities I can to move things along. 

It's going to be such a different dynamic this year, I'm trying to work out what I'm going to start growing where and how? This year will be a new learning curve for helping me to determine what I do annually from 2024 onwards. 

Seeds To Suit February Newsletter

 

 

The February Newsletter has arrived in my in-tray, below is just an extract from Who's New! and Who's Back!  The Newsletter informs us that it was quite a task, and Sandra  thanks you for your patience, she has been working hard and now every product on the web site has a helpful downloadable sowing guide that you can download and save to your device or go 'old school' and print.  I really recommend that you subscribe to the Seeds To Suit newsletter, and visit their web site. They sell sensible quantities of seeds at very reasonable pricing and use the code below you will get a 10% discount on their RRP.  Don't forget to use your MANVSLUG10 discount code at checkout if you haven't already done so.

WHO'S NEW!

 

I'M NEW! Chinese Lantern - provides interest from summer to early winter Buy Me!

 

I'M NEW! St John's Wort - read all about me in the Herb Garden! Buy Me!

 

WHO'S BACK?

 

I'M BACK! Courgette Green Bush - Am I a Courgette or am I a Marrow - I can be both! Buy Me!

Real Progress on the base to the Potting Shed

Some real progress was made today on the allotment, as I had some help. We achieved the burning of most of the Hawthorne, Re allocating paving slabs from some of the minor paths for under the potting shed, and finally clearing and laying woodchip to bed the paving slabs on.

Depending on the size I needed 30 number 400x400mm slabs or 20 number 450 x 450mm. The cost to buy new worked out at £126 or £129 depending on which side, Andy (son-in-law) suggested harvesting of 450 x450mm slabs of the same thickness so between us ( He did most of the grunt work bless him)

We found and lifted 20 that were on the main path or secondary paths and stacked them beside the potting shed area. The voids were ten infilled with woodchips again. The only paving slabs I have bought were those that went under the original shed on plot 1A in 2012 and at the time they were under £2 each unlike todays prices. All the other slabs on my allotment apart from the 600x600mm on the main Plot 1A path that came from my home when I had the drive done have come from Freecycle.

Stack of 450 x 450mm paving slabs against the wall ready for laying on the next visit when I will take a long spirit level with me.

Path re aligned and the potting shed area finally cleared, and the weed membrane covered with woodchips. The apple and Hawthorne tree stumps need to be removed but that's another job for another day.

I will have that ivy off the wall at some stage and will neaten up the edge of the Hawthorne. I have some 300x300mm paving slabs that I intend to lay next to the slabs to the square foot garden bed so I have a wide main access for the whole of the length of the allotment.

Primary and Secondary Paths on plot 1A where the slabs were robbed from and replaced with woodchip.

Completing the Boundary Beds

So here is the condition that I left the allotment Saturday afternoon. I had more of less a full day of allotment therapy. I started by filling the trays with Starbucks Coffee grounds in the plot 1A greenhouse, so they can dry out. I then moved on to tidying up and moving all the flower buckets with decaying weeds and stones and soil next to the Dalek's, as I will use some of this in the bottom of the raised beds.

It's very strange not shoehorning visits to the allotment and being able to take breaks for a coffee, water, snack or a chat with an allotment neighbour because until recently I have always needed to get back home to look after my wife. 

For the first time in a very long time I decided I would go to the café I used to frequent about 20 years ago when I was working on construction site projects. 

So my lunch was a nice Georges Café Special Full English breakfast complete cup of coffee.  

On returning to the allotment, I was still on my own, and just got on with de-nailing the timbers and cutting, drilling and then screwing the lengths of timber together to make another boundary raised bed to take me to the plots entrance off the main path. 

Having screwed the ends and middle spacer, I flipped the whole lot over and laid the other long side on top and screwed it together with 4 long screws. 

I have two battery screwdrivers so I can have the drill in one and the screwdriver bit in the other, and each one comes with two batteries that I made sure were fully charged as I will need them when the potting shed finally comes and needs to be erected / assembled. 

These beds need moving and the bind weed and other weeds dug up and removed before the boundary beds are put in their final location, but we are getting there. 

I need to get the stumps and roots of the Hawthorne out, I may ask idverde to get it out when they visit with the mini digger if that happens this coming week.

Michelle has some yellow Raspberries that she will be thinning and my plan is to grow them in the boundary beds, as I have a double compost bin of Ericaceous Compost that I made using the very acidic apples from the home apple trees. 

I have four scaffold tubes and will space them equally along the boundary bed.

Slowly Moving Forward

 

More clearance of the Hawthorne, brambles and bind weed has taken place in what I now know can be the potting shed area. I had to request permission for the potting shed as it would take me slightly over the area one is allowed per plot, but I'm within the total area for the two half plots I have. 

Under the councils rules I'm allowed a shed up to 1.6m x 1.8m which is 6ft x 8ft on each plot, what I have however is a 1.8m x 1.2m or 6ft x 4ft shed on each plot. 

So my total shed space is within the limit. It would appear because the potting shed is also considered as half a greenhouse, I'm still well within my permitted shed area. 

I moved the rubber play mast that I picked up from Freecycle to the storage area to the rear of the shed on plot 1. 

The woodchips have been degrading well there and the fact the roof has no guttering and the covered storage area drains directly on the path, it can get a little soft and boggy behind there, There is enough rubber matting to give me a path behind the shed on plot 1A as well. 

I love the Equigrow range of products, click Here to find out more about them, their Fertile Mulch, Premium Soil Conditioner and Organic Green Compost.  

3 sacks when raked out is just about right for a 2.4m x1.2m or 8ft x 4ft bed.

One of the half width beds, was given a couple of sacks of Equigrow Premium Soil Conditioner and covered with it's winter blanket, which will help with warming the soil up and encouraging the worms to take the soil conditioner into the bed. 

If you feed your soil and look after it then it feeds your plants and ultimately your plants feed you.