Rose Bush Defensive Barrier

I have been informed by people down on the allotment that historically my plot had Hawthorne growing up the wall to detour little darlings from climbing over the wall and gaining access onto the allotment, and have been asked if I find any growing under the Jungle would I be keeping it?

I’ve only found one small plant bent over under the weight of the weeds to the left of the plot. I would like to grow something spiky in the shapes drawn above on the photograph and was thinking of some kind of fast growing “Rambling Roses” that would look nice in the summer, attract the bees, and still allow me to grow beans under the arches in future years.As I lost my Mum a couple of months ago, I'm looking at Yellow flowers as it was her favourite colour.

I know little about roses, so can I have your suggestions please for the best type of rose that has a fast growth rate and I can train into the arcs?

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

No end of the world so bring on the Spring and Man VS Slug

http://www.instructables.com/id/Installing-and-testing-an-electric-slug-fence-on-a/

Saturday 15th & Sunday16th December

The remainder of the Jungle at (1) has been cut back some more, about an hour in to being on the site Keith and his mate Mick turned up with Mike's Dads rotavator, to attack Keiths' plot.

The Pile (4) was cut up Saturday morning and placed into the drying enclosure (3) which was filled up again to the top, and I have a nice blister on my finger so I must have been working hard ;0). I placed a Pallet over the top and covered it just as a short shower of rain came down at lunch time and met Pauline coming into the allotment with a couple of flasks of soup for Keith and Mick as I was going home for some lunch and do some non-allotment related things like picking up Christmas presents for a few hours with Jen.  

Jen and I went back in the late afternoon/ early evening just as it was starting to get dark to burn what we could, as we arrived we found Keith and Mick loading up the van, both covered in mud but looking extremely happy with what they had achieved.

The burning went well-ish and by time we gave up we had reduced the contents of the bin by half.

Sunday morning, I took over some timber and some sides of a tallboy wardrobe I have saved and made a table/ shelf out of it in the shed to the right of the door, which allows for three storage boxes for netting and stuff like that under. It is at about mid door height and really stiffens up the panel which one has to stay was somewhat flimsy and offered little resistance if anyone pulled at the door handle. A narrower shelf was installed above this just below the eaves to the shed.

I reconstructed the metal shelving that I had harvested from my Dads workshop which fits quite nicely behind the left panel to the door. I have a number of smallish plastic boxes that are ideal for the gardening bits and bobs that I’m going to need come spring.

I spent some time walking around the plot picking up debris, drink cans, broken plastic flower plots, lemonade bottles etc. and added them to the other bags of non burnable debris and put them all in a couple of Wheelie Bin Bags to keep the car clean and brought them home (on the back seat of the car) and disposed of them down the dump.

Not massive gains but I'm getting there slowly  

Burn Baby Burn

Ok I didn’t get much done at all last week (Christmas Shopping) this weekend I managed to get down to the allotment with the bench and one chair and the shelving rack from my Mums place, and I have also:-

Cut halfway into the last remaining area of jungle (1)

I burnt all of the dry weeds and brambles under tarp at (2) in one very red rusty and one very shiny new galvanised incinerator which I have side by side.

I also managed to empty and burnt all the brambles and weeds from the pallet drying frame (3), which was going to be a massive bonfire for Nov 5^th and I am so glad that I didn’t burn it all like that after seeing how this stuff can go up when the conditions are right.

The damp material in contact with the ground at (2) has been forked into the now empty pallet holding frame (3) which has a pallet on the ground and lets the stack breath and dry out.

The plan for the next visit is to cut up all of the tree branches that are under tarp (4) into small lengths for the incinerators and place them in the drying frame (3) and finish cutting the jungle away at (1) and find the wall, again all the cuttings from this area to dry out in the pallet holding frame

I found that fire lighters and lots of cardboard with timber from pallet sawn up and chopped up into small pieces with an axe made getting the fires and keeping the fires burning much easier than the last time I tried this. Adding cardboard fuel between layers of dampish weeds

So before next Sunday I need to cut up lots of cardboard boxes that have come down from my Mums loft, and chop up the next pallet(s) ready for another good burn up.

Christmas Greenhouses

Now what do I buy a 54 year old husband for Christmas, I was asked by the wife - So I suggested that as they were on a half price offer at Greenfingers.com that she could buy me a couple of greenhouses ;0)

This little fellows dimensions are 810 wide x 1080 deep x 1430mm high and was £9.99 and is going beside the shed as in the "Master Plan" shown in a posting below"

And this one is 1340 wide x 500 deep x 1600mm high was on offer £19.99, and will fit in the back garden on the margin between the path and the fence facing the sun. So I can have a bash at getting my plants started off a little early.

I was thinking that I could put a couple of tea light candles in jars on the bottom at night to keep the frost at bay... Anyone have any other suggestions for heating it.