Just a flying visit today in the rain.

 Today was a flying visit to the allotment, the rain continues to come down, so we had hoped just to check things out, deposit some more towards the compost heap, and our lass was going to leave some cuttings that have been growing.

The rain had worked its way into the shed, so a running repair was done with some spare felt.

Tomato seedlings are hanging in there, and have been joined by our lasses own Philadelphus (mock orange) cuttings.

Wet on the inside meant....

A repair needed on the outside, will report back next time.

Still hanging in there, lets see what any frost will do to them, it is just an experiment to see if they last a winter.

Our lasses cuttings join the seedlings.

View from the garden shed.

 Just about all the jobs are jobbed, Well I say that, but we do need to sort the green house roof, but we will do that when there is some good weather.... We do however nip down to check everything is in it's place and also ensure the wildlife is being looked after. For the moment I am resting the wildlife camera, as it seems to get steamed up in the cold, damp conditions. It doesn't however mean we don't get wildlife shots. The Photographs below were taking with my mobile phone but is a typical view from the garden shed window when the birds come for their feast.

Day 34 - Last of the raspberries arrive and just one more thing before we go.

 Today was slightly different, normally we get to the allotment and what we planned to do is superseded by another job because we see manure, leaf mould or wood chip on the way to our allotment. This then means that job takes priority and we then get on with what we originally went to do. This was the reverse today, our lass finally got to plant some raspberry canes which have took a second time of asking for them to arrive. I collected the wildlife camera (disappointed as the damp weather has foggied the lense) and our lass put some feed out for the birds. It was a cold day, so it was back off to the warm. 

Just as we were leaving a car which had been parked had left, which revealed a pile of fresh bark chippings. Which meant from impromptu return to the allotment. I grabbed the spade and barrow and our lass her trusty rake. We now have a fresh layer on the pathway, which makes it look neater and helps level out the bumps and hollows in the path.

Out next big job is the our lasses green house roof, first of all we need to find a way to fix it, also needs a calm and clear day, guess we can count them using two fingers between now and next spring.

Last of the canes in, gritted for drainage, lets hope they fruit in the future.

Before

After

A little bark chipping between the compost and the blueberries/logan berries

Looking sharper, it was starting to get muddy especially with sorting the compost bins out.

Our lass said I had earned my Kit Kat

Noticed the fungi on the bottom of an old tree stump we have

Next job, answers on a postcard, on how to fix?

Watching the onions growing, is like watching the Grand National horserace

They say a picture says a thousand words, for this we have some photographs with a few words underneath

A bargain buy is what started it all, but as we put them in the ground we already had one faller, one set was a dud we were left with 49

After a few trips to the allotments it seemed the onion sets were being moved around, most likely reason is that as the onions send up shoots birds confuse them for worms and come down for them, a bit a surprise i would suggest if they try to chomp on them. At this stage down to 45

We have since uncovered the onions as you can see from the photographs below and they have had a little TLC with grit and compost, but not everyone of them has germinated it seems, we currently have 37 still in the running.

Daft little experiment with tomato seeds

 

I had some tomato seeds I was trying to save from this years tomatoes but when i was doing what i had seen on Gardeners World after a few days they started to germinate, so I put them in a pot to lets see what happened, they sprouted..

I then took six of them and put them into their own section, but i needed to keep them warm so.....

Having just got some plastic containers.

Put some of the compost we have been forming but not quite ready in the bottom

Covered that in straw/manure

Layer of compost on top.

I had done the same in both boxes, just to see if the seedlings will survive the winter, and if I will get some early starting tomato plants for 2021, if it fails i have two boxes ready, if it succeeds I could have an early start to the tomato plants as well as saving a veriety our lass liked this year.

November 2020 Statistics

 I do enjoy looking at numbers, so it was no surprise that I would gather some statistics in regards of the allotment and for this blog. Here are some numbers for November.

We had 8 days when we went down to the allotment.

This blog had 164 visitors according to extreme tracking, and 374 page views according to blogger stats page.

Our only form of social media for this blog at the moment is through Twitter and here are some statistics for our first full month on that platform.

NOV 2020 SUMMARY

Tweets

37

Tweet impressions

39.9K

Profile visits

1,150

Mentions

16

New followers

18

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 32 - How many sides does a box have? and sorting out the compost bins.

Our lass continues to put forward the very relevant idea, that we are spending quite a bit of time at the allotment whilst we still have a fair few jobs to do in our own back garden. My response was about enjoying the expanse of where we are, unlike the six foot fences which surrounds most of us which we have at our home to protect our land from neighbours, at the allotment you have at most a 3ft fence, mostly wire fencing, with views to the horizon. But our lass does have a point so our garden at home will get the required attention.

But first, How many sides does a box have? This question is raised thanks to the concern our lass had when the packaging was opened to the new crate container which had been sourced for the allotment. "We have too many sides" Our lass said,  unfortunately I don't have photographic evidence of the sight which greeted us, but when all the sides were laid out on the ground, you could be mistaken for thinking you may have to many. Also on reading the assembly instructions, a this way up sign would have been really useful.

The compost seems not to be doing the composting thing it should be doing, and where as I mess around on here, our lass is much more constructive and had been looking around the internet forums, and read that we really could do with a lining on the bins. This was the perfect time, to do some moving around and then line the empty bins one by one. So manure is in a bin by itself, and the garden waste, scraps and cardboard is in one where it can be moved and turned month to month. Our lass did a grand job of lining, I did the moving, and our lass chopped the bits up which I thought the garden fairies would sort. (Well they did, our lass sorted it)

A new box of many sides

A freshly lined compost bin,

Mid way through sorting

All nice and tidy, and lined ready for when it gets turned between the two bins, hopefully it will help with the composting effect.

Wildlife camera catches better photographs of the local weasel

 Previously all we had was a very quick glimpse from the rear of our local weasel, but in our last set of photographs we took from the camera, we have some much better side on shots, to confirm that we do have a resident weasel.

First photograph from earlier in the month

Day 31 - Fixing things, tidying things & experimenting with things

Ever since we have taken on the new allotment I have been wanting to sort the gate, due to it having a plank of wood which had been attached across the bottom which would forever stick as you opened it, and our lass wanted us to have a number, as we looked unknown. Today we sorted that, our lass dug up grass, placed old compost bags and put down some slate to help hopefully to keep the grass back, and I took the gate off its hinges and sorted the wood at the bottom so it no longer sticks mid open and attached our plot number so we can proudly say which plot we are.

As for experiments, the tomato seeds which i tried to dry out which ended up germinating have now started to become seedlings, there chances of survival through the winter are slim, but trying to give them a fighting chance. We will see what happens.

Annoyed but this is the only before photograph from the outside before we stepped on to the plot and it then being ours

Our tidied frontage, still a bit more to do, but we are now a number.

These sprouted through

Lets see if they sprout some more

New photographs from the wildlife camera

 Who would think such a small area would generate the interest it does from the wildlife around us.

But the camera has been busy, even in the winter time, mostly all your standard birds such as blackbirds and tits, magpies and robins. But we have caught a few others passing by.

A great spotted woodpecker which was a favourite of our lass, and a male chaffinch, but the yellow flashing on the wings threw us as all the photographs we had seen, showed white flashing.

Always interesting to see what is passing by the allotment.

Day 30 - Raspberry canes and build your own shelving.

 Our lass has been waiting for the raspberry canes for some time now, and this is only part of what was sent for. Grit has been added for the drainage, usual concerns of are they too deep, but we will see in the future.

My day was spent also doing something which our lass had been waiting some time for, converting some old shelves we had into a shelving unit for flower trays.

These

Plus these

Became this

For here