Day 42 - Hoe di Hoe

The lord giveth the mice taketh away, I had only a few days ago put some pea seeds out in a drain pipe, and on opening the greenhouse today found everyone had been snaffled away. Plan B for the peas now, start them at home and bring them later onto the allotment.

Today was a day of potter, our lass hoed one half of the allotment, and between us we set out the scaffold boards so we had walkways and beds set out. It really does help bring forward that the season is almost upon us and it helps to bring into reality what you have thought out as ideas. Just can't wait to actually grow stuff now.

Our lass bakes some great biscuits

Hoed and ready to go

Almost ready, and yes you do really need to stake the corners in of the bed.

Wildlife camera had been out for three days, and it's always great to capture any birds in flight

Day 33 - Then there will be light, muck, onions, leaf mould and an improvised bird feeder

I am sure I have wrote this before, but the very jobs you plan to go and do are not always the ones you end up doing or if you do get them done, other jobs crop up. Today was one of those days, on going to up to our allotment, we passed a fresh delivery of leaves then on the next corner a fresh delivery of horse muck.

So three trips for the horse muck filled in the gaps where it was looking a little bare from our last muck spreading. Then two trips for the leaves, one of which I took the dalek, and being the clever so and so I am got it filled to the brim, but left the small point of how to turn it the right way from barrow to position as it has no bottom. As always our lass put us right. sending me back off with the black bin, whilst sorting the Dalek, which is king of floating at the moment.

We had a brew, then actually got on with the jobs we had gone to do. First job to bring light to the shed, the bright sunny winters day was not lost on me for the irony, but the dark dreary days will be the times when we will get the benefit. Our lass sourced the light from Wickes, our lass is good at finding the bargain buy. 

Second job, to let the onions breathe. Well, it was to stop them from getting to wet from the netting as it seemed to be holding the rain water above them and sometimes on them. I removed the netting as the shoots are showing long enough to not make the birds think they are worms. I also did a mix of compost and grit to put around the onions. I did this after watching videos of where I should have done a hole with dibber or finger but put them on top, A layer of the mixture should help nourish and weed suppress.

Last job was a do it yourself birdfeeder, we have the hanging feeders but this was birds who literally like their meal on a plate or at least a flat surface. It is now positioned in front of the wildlife camera so we will see if it attracts the attention of the birds and meets with their approval.

And then there was light

The bed is finally covered ready for next years potatoes

Bird feeder, pond, what more would the wildlife like?

Onion shoots, now free to breathe and little nourishment.

Day 29 - being prepared, preparing to be prepared and dig

The sun was out, which this time of year means it was chilly, but you can cope with chilly for a few rays of sunshine and the clear blue skies.

We await some more raspberry canes, so our lass has started the preparations, digging over, and putting down some wood so we can pick our crop hopefully. Also a running repair on next doors fence with the use of a slab.

Also a little weeding now that the strawberries have become established

Before

After

Hopefully this time the planner won't be spoilt by the damp.

The onions are coming on nicely

Will the above experiment come to anything, more shoots are coming through, are they tomatoes? Will they last until next year? Time will tell.

Day 25 - Our lass tinkers, I stinkers.

We are, bit by bit moulding the allotment to how we would like it to be. Today as the header suggests doing two differing jobs, I had a dream about sorting the compost bins. Maybe not one of the most conventional dreams, but when we got to the allotment there had been a fresh, and I mean fresh (it was steaming) delivery of horse manure. So ten trips up and down the hill if not more, the compost bins are now full and it should help with breaking everything down, as well as having our very own well rotted manure. (No photos of this, as who wants to see horse muck, just imagine)

Our lass however was getting on with sorting an area out for the sunny days, where we can sit out, and who knows, if life returns to normal, have the grandkids round. You will see from the series of photographs below, firstly how it looks now, and as you look further down, what it had been altered from, we are still mid process. We await a rose, bulbs to plant, soil to put in as well as fresh bark chippings to lay. But you can more than see the overall aim. 

Todays work from our lass

Before

Before that

How it looked in the beginning on the left hand side.

Day 23 - preparing to be prepared

Obviously, everything you do happens in the present, yet when working an allotment everything done is for the future. In the times we are in at present, planning for a better future might come as a relief.

We are both itching to grow, yet to grow you do have to prepare, the soil is quite clayey, so our lass has added grit, and dug over where the paths were for the frost to get to the soil, we should be getting some compost in the week, add more grit to the compost and place that in the last bed and around the edges in preparation of the raspberry canes.

Our final preparational work of the day is for the section by our neighbours fence, we had moved an old compost bin, fencing and triple layered carpet, only for our neighbour to put an open compost bin by the fence. Luckily we hadn't started on that section, so where as we was going to put an arch, we have used the side of the old compost bin to block this part of the fence, and as we have an abundance of membrane, used that as a screen. For the moment we have left the fake grass down, but it gives us an idea of the effect. Seating area with soil to plant around the edging, we await a bare root rose which will grow to cover the area. Bulbs and other flowers along the pallet fence, and our lasses experimental bottles stayed in place, so have been filled with a bargain find of 10 pence violas. 

Also don't forget the birds, with a bird feeder for the tree.

Our lass having gritted the beds, hoping to help with the drainage

Never ending supply of previous tenants bits n bobs to dispose of, and of course carpet

Before

Just Before

After

Experiment working, they have stayed in place now filled with bargain flowers 10 pence violas

Looking after the birds

Pretty flowers

Day 22 Part 2 - Getting to know your onions.

Discussion had been, not going to grow onions, by the time you grow them they cost more than if you just bought some down the shop, to be frank (and we have a lot of carpet so we can be) everything is cheaper in the shops, you really have to factor in the exercise and enjoyment of seeing what you have planted grow. So whilst we were out shopping yesterday we saw a bag of onion bulbs for less than 4p each, so our lass said "Go on if you want" to which I replied "I had thought of doing them, and we do eat them"

So we now have Onion sets, If you read the advice you are supposed to plan a few months in advance, we sometimes only plan as we walk to where we are going, luckily we had a bed which had been covered in horse manure a month ago, also, as i thought it was space I wanted to add more, but our lass stopped us, which was just as well.

Onions need 4 to 6 weeks autumn warmth, not harsh winter, so they can set roots into the soil, so even though our packaging said you could plant up to December, in all honesty I think we have planted just about as late as you can, so they will be ready for any frosts when they go dormant. They are expected to be ready for June/July.

They need well drained soil, but also need lots of moisture, quite a contradiction. So we have dug over the manure, and put some grit on top as you will see in the photographs, we have planted two rows either side, with a row in the middle free for a companion plant, we did think carrots but onions and carrots do not get on, so it is likely to be leeks or beetroot. 

Lets see what happens.

Here is hoping we can grow something like it looks like on the packet

The bed to begin with

Dug and raked, but not as good as our lass would have done

Applying the grit

Spot the onion, all ready for next year

Day 12, The path to success and other jobs.

Well Day 11 might have been a light news day, Day 12 certainly made up for it. The biggest change was the path. It had been as with everything formed on a bed of carpet, The choice, and we are still grappling with it now, is whether to stop where we have done or continue quite a way bit more down to the shed and passed the greenhouses. We had glass to clear by the compost bin, at the back of the green house, as a few pains had just been left where they had broken, the greenhouse was cleared and this time all the ground was covered in bark chippings as the ground had a mixture of slabs and carpet. with a work bench which must have been constructed inside or with greenhouse built around it. Then we have more of the compost bin number 2 and 3 construction underway.

Day 11, moving and clearing things

When doing these blogposts, I am using the headers as per the email to our lass, I think you could describe today, as a very light news day. We simply brought some old compost up and put it on a bed, and then put three containers in the greenhouse ready for next year. As I have stated, very light news day.

Day 10, Finished somethings and started others.

As you will see from the photographs, the first green house has been cleaned out and the flooring put in, paving around the edges and bark chipping in the middle, all a bit of a cheat, didn't fancy putting bags and bags of sharp sand down to try and level everything off, did wonder if the bark will bring in disease but our lass asked on a forum and found other gardeners use it in poly tunnels/ green houses. I will report back next year. We then started making use of the pallets, it can work as a back drop to a work area, as well as somewhere for the clematis to climb up. It also fences us off from others as we want to sit in the sun, whilst also marking out the boundary of our two other compost bins. Our lass also got to dig a little bit more today, just can't stop her. Last but not least, brought several barrow fulls of horse manure up the hill, it is not rotted, and we are going old school, and leaving it on top, for it to be dug in later on.

Day 9, We started and we will finish

I had been sending photographs to our lass each day, and the header of this blogpost was the header used for my email to her. It seemed a day where we had started different jobs but not actually finished any one of those jobs. Our allotment we believe was owned by someone called "Frank" (In reference to a local carpet shop called Franks) a running joke due to the amount of carpet, carpet underlay and in this case artificial grass. This had annoyed our lass for quite a while so wanted to know what was underneath, as it was getting treacherous under foot, and to simply get it sorted. I tackled the greenhouse as this was going to be my domain, somewhere to grow our lass tomatoes as well as other vegetables/fruits which needed protection, You will see from the before, it needed some attention as well as the removal of quite a bit of carpet!

Day 7, By now God would have finished and had their feet up.

But we are only human, and as such take our time. Everything is in the preparation, yesterdays photo of the empty strawberry bed, will now have the photograph of a full strawberry bed, There is also preparation for the rhubarb and raspberry canes. One of many tidying up photographs, and you can never have enough pallets, they do come in very useful as you will see later.

Preparing for rhubarb in the corner and raspberries along the fence

This will all look a lot different in the coming days.