There was a committee meeting on Spencer Road this morning, I popped some plumbing gear to my eldest daughter then made my way to the allotment and managed to get half of bed 6 and its path dug before the meeting. In the process I managed to extract 2/3 of a square flower bucket full of stones that have been left soaking in water to remove the mud before they make their way to the paved area.
Derek showed us examples of how the rats are eating their way into the composting daleks and a rat run and access formed under a shed.
You can clearly see the rat run forming in the grass path and the hollow they have made to make access under the shed easy.
My delivery of SoilFixer SF60 has arrived so the spud testing can start as soon as I finish the clearance of the greenhouse at mill green
In the afternoon I assisted my daughters partner in taking the old washing machine to the dump and in the process spotted that someone had dumped a roll of blue water pipe. So I rescued it and rolled it up tighter and used cable ties to hold it at the smaller diameter and it will make it's way to Spencer Road allotment on my next visit.
I've been way to busy to get to the allotment during the week and with the early dark evenings if I can't get down there during the day on a Monday or Tuesday it just isn't going to happen.
Hit the allotment about 8:00ish and came home at 1:00
The Plan for this visit was -
* Bed 7 Weed and re-cover bringing the potato cut weed membrane home to weld the frayed edges.
* Bed 8 bringing the potato cut weed membrane home to weld the frayed edges, manure bed and cover.
* Runner Bean Beds, weed and trench, then fill with leafs and a sprinkle of spent compost.
Well half of one out of 3 isn't bad I suppose. Last week I saw a small rat and the week before a mouse.
My sister saved her washing machine tablet containers for me, I don't have the heart to tell her I can't use them as small cloches as they are green..... but then I had an idea. I drew a tom and Jerry type mouse hole at either end and used the soldering iron to melt the holes and they are ideal for holding rat poison. So the runner bean beds have been cleared and two rat traps and four slug traps have been installed.
I will trench and place a layer of leaf mould and compost early next year, for the moment it was up against the wall that I saw Roland and Micky so ideal locations for the bait.
So having seen rodents I decided to decant the leaf mould from the right bin into the lefty bin and then went to the car park of the industrial unit behind the allotment and have filled up both bins plus I have a sack load in front to top up as they start to drop.
I took some compost with me and topped up Bin 3 with it and I cut up all the sprout leafs into bin 2 with a topping of comfrey. there appears to be some spring bulb activity in the comfrey bed that I filled with crocus, daffodils and bluebells last year. There are also four potatoes coming up in bed 8 that has the onion sets in, so I will have to get them out next visit as well.
I also harvested another tray load of sprouts and there are still lots on the stems that need to fatten up a little for that special festive dinner.
Note to self ... harvest the potatoes in the buckets next dry visit
