Day 47 - We gotta have faith, faith, faith.

One thing our lass has been able to slowly but surely instil in me is a modicum of faith in myself. Yesterday a bench, today some planters from old tongue and groove. Before I would never have had the self belief but with the help of our lass, who knows what I could build next.

This faith, is also faith in that everything is going to grow. Our lass is currently disheartened by the performance of germinating seeds, currently around three have germinated in a whole tray, the argument seems to be, "Why not just go and buy the plants?" Which to be honest the same could be said about the fruit and vegetables we are growing. This could never be classed as a money saving exercise, but as a certain credit card would suggest "Some things are priceless".

Our lass potted on some lavender cuttings and in the Carol Klein style of gardening covered them in grit.

Three new planters for the front of the allotment, if anyone decides to nick them they are in for a surprise, as they have no bottoms....

Todays new work bench, the top of the compost bin.

Camera on a stick, see how the angle change affects the photographs

Onion bed being prepared

all the tubs ready and filled in the green house, just the buckets for the peppers.

Bench made safe by securing it to the flower bed

Day 44 - Trug? What's a trug?

The very thing which I have thought (not planned) would get done is still to be done which is to move some of the top layer from our horse/straw manure piles just see all is breaking down well, and mix it in with the other compost pile we have. But, going to the allotment and what you do there in, is not a fixed art. You really don't have to go with plans, thoughts or ideas, you simply be. Our lass reached this state yesterday, which is nothing more than you can really ask for. Well, we would like everything to grow and not be eaten by the wildlife, but to just be will be a great start.

We seem to still be on the tidying stage of the allotment cycle, maybe that process never ends, maybe that is it with allotments you forever tidy. But we are quite looking forward to the growing stage which is not too far away now, our lass set a range of flowers seeds away on their first journey of being put into seed trays, and the leeks have taken a little longer than first thought but have now germinated.

Our lass, forever a fan of digging, dug out hopefully one of the last strips of carpet and fixed the fence at the front, as for myself, I pottered readying the greenhouse for the first lot of compost to warm it ready for the tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. The taking of photographs is a must I have written this before but as you will see below there is always a big difference and a big help in seeing where you have come from to where you are now which helps you go further in the future.

Forever moving forward another bit of carpet gone and the fence looking good again.

How the greenhouse looked when we first took it over

How it looks today, getting ever closer to our first season of growing in the greenhouse.

Leeks coming through, I had almost written them off as they have been in for over a month.

Before

After, repurposed some shelving for in the shed, 

Day 38 - We have a cunning plan for the greenhouse roof.

Sometimes the simplest remedies can be the best, we have over the past month or so, been trying to figure out how to sort the greenhouse roof on our lasses greenhouse. Whoever had it before had obviously broken some of the panes, left them around the back of the greenhouse and then filled the gaps with poly carbonate and lots and lots of glue, with the occasional screw thrown in for good measure.

A replacement greenhouse brand new with toughened safety glass, would be great but quite an investment to be put down the allotment. Replacing with glass, would also cost and the frame is slightly twisted. We thought of a wooden frame, but would it take off in the wind, and although I am growing in confidence in the building department, I don't think I quite have the skill set to make a good enough job.

Our lass had the final idea, and as per usual the best. We sourced a see through tarpaulin, much the same as a buggies rain cover. It has eyelets and as you will see from the photographs below, held in place with available ropes, wire and milk bottles with some spare pipe insulation to cover the sharp bits.

Fingers crossed for the first breath of wind, will report back saying it is still in place or we had to fetch it from yonder field.

This is what needed covering up

What our lass needed to do to capture all the rain which was coming through the roof.

First of all piping on the roof, so hopefully kept away from anything sharp.

Cover up those screws

Another way of recycling the milk bottles, filled with water and hopefully keeping everything in place they have been pinned as well.

Hopefully enough wire and rope to keep it all in place.

Crossing our fingers, but I am sure it will do the job.

A bit of health and safety, having cracked my head twice here, I have used some of the left over foam.

Jobs for January and plans for the future.

Lockdown 3 is now with us in the UK but thankfully we have the allotment. Our very own place of sanity, we have in recent days walked up to, or like today as it was too slippy, gone in the car and taken a few more bits to the allotment. 

We do have to think of doing some jobs and as with most of my thinking it is normally followed by "Should we put the kettle on?"

The Greenhouse roof which we inherited, Our lass is slowly getting more and more ticked off with bailing out the water, so we will have to think up a solution, well our lass has thought up the solution, I have to find the gumption to do it. Could be a while.

Digging in the straw and manure for the potato bed. that way it will have a couple of months to fully rot down for the end of March when we start sowing the potatoes.

A plan for the future, what goes where, it may change but helps in case we forget before planting.

Happy New Year 2021 - New Years Day down the allotment.

Everyday is a learning day, today we learnt not everything can be a success, but you learn from it and go on. We also, well I learned thanks to our lass, that there is a lot more to life, just being in the game can be just as if not more rewarding than going for the win. People will normally only talk about their successes and never of the failures, but they do say you have to taste failure to make the flavour of success taste sweeter.

But first, lets start with a little bit of repurposing, our lass put up this sail boats decoration on the shed of doors. 

A not so healthy looking onion set, they have in the main part sprouted shoots, and as you can see here, have a semblance of a root system. but the onion part has gone funny. I am trying this out on one which wasn't fully rooted like the rest of them. 

I re potted the onion set from above, it now lives in the green house. I am thinking the ground has been too wet for them and although a lot of grit had been added, it may have got water logged. will keep you updated.

The tomato seeds which germinated when I tried to save them and so I tried growing them instead have as you can see succumbed to the first frost.

Next we have the aubergines, as you can see I only tired out 5 seeds have 95 more in reserve, they need a warm start, and the green house isn't quite up to temperature yet, but I have put them on the hot bed, and as always will be hoping

When on the back window of the greenhouse, the thermometer thought it was 20c

When moved to a more honest position, and the back was not touching the glass heated by the sun, but in the air of the green house, the temperature dropped down to 14c and by the time we left it was down to 8c.

Day 36 - potting on and turning the compost

 Storm Bella came through last night, and the sight we were expecting this morning as went to the allotment, well, we hoped for the best but thought of the worst. The worst thing that happened... The star went slightly crooked on our improvised tree, Oh! and a bucket toppled over. No gloating though, as have seen some photographs of flooding across the country, then again if we got flooded, it would need to be biblical, as we are on a hill.

No major duties today, our lass potted on her violas, I moved the compost from one bin to another, to give it some air, and break it up. I write like I know what am doing, not one bit, as our lass had already chopped up some of the chunks I left in it last month. They do say it gets warm, ours wasn't steaming, but it seems to be heading in the right direction.

From seed  tray to individual pots, Violas move along.

Our lass put some teak on the potting table, as even in the greenhouse it was starting to catch the mould.

We really do need to sort the greenhouse roof, as this is for catching the water.

Time to turn the compost, been a month, so adding to the pile in the empty bay

Door off, and some might be worth sifting through next time.

All done, another job mediocrely done.(as the Simpsons would say)

Day 35 - Fire, mulch and sunny views.

 As with a lot of the times we go to the allotment, we go with one job in mind and end up doing another.

I took this first photograph thinking all this would be covered in mulch

But to my surprise our lass let me play with fire, I love fire, our lass doesn't like the smell of smoke, but it helped clear some old wood and stuff which needed burning.

I then went for the leaf mould, I collected our lass did the spreading.

You don't see the elevation on this road way, but the leaves were right into the distance where the telegraph pole is.

Then another lane, then left up another hill, our lass will be laughing now, saying how I am really laying it on thick. but it must be at least three miles there and back (okay maybe half a mile)

The grey cylinders made a good template to keep the leaves off the rhubarb.

Hopefully that will keep the weeds away and the goodness in,

Four bins full of leaf mould, paving slabs moved, box full of nets and hose pipe, just the two tubs to sort and this area is getting sorted.

Another bed mulched

Big oak at the back of us, gives us shade in the summer mornings so we don't heat up to quickly. It was great to see some blue skies and sunshine.

Views from our allotment, over the tees valley.

Sunshine over the greenhouses

A late stay, meant we got to try the light out., photograph doesn't quite do it justice.