It's Half About The Base

8:00 - 10:00 First visit Plot 1A Mill Green to see what damage the high winds yesterday have done!  A couple of the hoop nets are leaning a little and the wind has got into the large sprout hoop  enclosure and lifted the netting and the weights have rolled off, so they were reinstated as we have another high wind warning for Monday.

The Bluebells and daffs that I planted in the comfrey bed are up and I'm hoping for a show before the comfrey takes over the bed. I weeded out the nettles after taking this picture.

The over wintering cabbages are doing well, next visit I may have to freshen up the snail and slug pellets in the pop bottle slug traps. I took some kitchen waste with me and was please to see that the worms and insects have been busy in daleks 3&4 and the levels had dropped considerably. So I added a layer of shredded paper, the kitchen waste and a good sprinkle of coffee grounds.

A core hole was then made in the middle and charged with coffee grounds and liquid gold and water from the water butts added so that the daleks warm up again.

Next job was making milk bottle soft bricks, then cutting timber batten to make stakes for the decking down on 23B.  

10:00 - 10:30 B&Q to pick up slabs and crushed glass bedding material

10:30 - 13:00 Spencer Road Plot 23B

So with 10 slabs a sack of crushed glass and stuff from Mill Green me thinks I hope no one else has decided to take the car in as I'm right down the bottom of the narrow car width access road.

What I was not expecting was some numpty parking over the gates!!. Luckily he was only half over and I managed to reverse into the access road, otherwise I would have been snookered.

Keith and Pauline were on their plot beavering away cutting up pallets to make fencing and I set to work levelling up the ground using stones and bits of paving slabs and then a layer of sand or crushed glass and managed to get all the slabs laid by 13:00 which was leaving time to get home for Sunday roast dinner. It was fortunate that Keith had a couple of bags of crushed glass over from putting his base in otherwise it would not have happened today

  
State of play just before I cleared up and came home.

Note to self take old broom down to the plot for sweeping the paved paths. The decking board is destined for the back of the plot, but it has been useful in helping get the slabs base flat, I'm not saying it's level, but it is at least flat.

The path into the plot is to the right of the gravel board and for the moment it will be woodchip when I get that far. Keith has ordered the sheds this afternoon and we are just awaiting an agreed delivery day. I work for myself, and Keith works funny shifts so we have a couple of dates agreed when we can both be there to take receipt of the sheds and hopefully get them erected the same day depending on what time they turn up.

Next on the agenda for plot 23B is 6 number 2.4m gravel boards for the first two beds. I need to cut some corner timbers next time I'm at Mill Lane. Work starts on the site behind on the 10th March so access is going to be a little difficult from then on. That means that I'm going to grow things that don't need a lot of tender loving care, Potatoes. Marrows, Squash (Yes Squash Queen you have converted me), sweet corn etc. but it also means that the greenhouse may not be as productive or as useful this year.

Consideration of how to get the Greenhouse moved to Spencer Road in one lump is festering in my mind as its aluminium and plastic sheeting and not really heavy, it just needs an open back truck that can fit a 4 x 6 foot greenhouse in it, and a few bodies to help with the getting it on and off again. 

The alternative is to buy another greenhouse for spencer road if I intend to keep both plots on?  In the short term I have two blow-away growhouses that will be tied back to the shed with bungee cord, that I will use for growing seedlings and then tomatoes in. I also plan to make a coldframe using the glass door panel in the photograph above.