Cracking on

Things are getting busy. I had a couple of hours off work on Tuesday morning to clear the garden of the worst of the debris that had collected over the winter and take it to the tip.

Wednesday evening.
I was able to re-use a vent cover that was taken from the house when the old gas appliances were removed to use as the outside cover of the vent on the shed. A little bit a elbow grease and sand paper brought the vent cover up like new. The shed got the insulation fixed to the underside of the roof together with a clear out. Using up the insulation cleared a good space as did moving the black plastic off-cuts I had been saving. I tidied up the garden to bring the remainder of the shed things, that could not be thrown out, into a single pile which the black plastic came in handy to cover up. Whilst moving the remains of the old shed I distrubed a mouse. He was not quick to get away until I reached out to touch him and even then he sort of wandered off. I guess the cold was slowing him down. The next plank I turned over had a huge Toad pretending he was invisible. I took him up the top of the garden and put him under a log. I hope he sees it through the next few months.

It H's birthday on Staurday and we have a bunch of visitors over the weekend so no Shed work or allotmenteering although I have to see the Potato men from Newal about the Society's potato order and I might get a chance on Sunday to plant the Willow, Hazel and Hawthorn. My Dad is coming down so it will give us something to do. I have two large buckets of horse manure to go in with the hedge. I must not forget to get some blood, fish and bone from the Potato men. I also have to find time to fit a piece of glass in the Greenhouse. I broke it the other evening.

It is the Allotment Society Annual General Meeting tomorrow Thursday 23rd Feb 06 . With luck someone will take onthe position of Secretary which I currently hold. If I can keep them on track I should be enjoying a couple of pints of Guiness by 20.30hrs. We shall see!

Longer days

I have a few results this week. My allotment neighbour gave me a bottle of wine and a dozen eggs from his chickens for the manure a dropped off last week. I also came across an old rotovator for pennies. Even if the thing only run long enough to do my garden and the community bit at the allotment it will have been cheaper than the Hire Charge for a weekend.

The days are getting longer which means more time to do "stuff". As the evenings get longer I get to spend more time in the back garden pottering. My back garden has been neglected over the winter as my time has been spent on the new front garden and the shed. "Shed" seems too small a word for this multi-purpose, mini building.

After doing family time on Saturday morning I was able to get stuck into boarding the outside of my shed. I got maybe 60% completed before it became to dark. Sunday dawn grey & misty. After a harty breakfast I went off to the allotment. It rained intermittantly but only lightly. It was as if the sky could not hold onto the the mist any more and rained ever so slightly for a couple of minutes and stopped. I managed to make a start on the final bed. Part of the bed contains the Sprouting Brocolli that the Pidgeons dig not get. The rest has been under black plastic for a year. I have been promising myself to get this section dug since before Christmas. The delivery last week of two tons of manure and the knowledge that the seed potatoes will soon be here has put a focus on the job. The north wind was bitter and made worst by the light rain. The Brocolli, which stand about three feet high, was between me and the wind which provided shelter and made it feel quite warm, well, less cold.

Once the shed is finished I will have a couple of weeks to get everything ready at the lotty before the next job on the house starts.

Pond liner on the shed roof?!

A pond liner on the shed roof is an odd thing. Why not use roofing felt or tiles? "I have a cunning plan, my lord". The roof is going to be a garden. The shed roof is flat with small fall towards one side. Three sides have a 3 inch [75mm] border which creates the well. I will be filling the well with soil and planting low growing, low maintenance plants such as Thymes and alpines. These plants can stand extremes of weather. So now you know why there is a pond liner on my shed roof. I dropped lucky with the cost of the liner which I got for just over £10 when it should have been four times the price.

My shed has a purpose besides providing a home for Spiders. I am to fill the space between the joists on the underside of the roof with insulation. This will give me a roof 10inch [250mm] thick. This will have an excellent "U" value. (U value being the measurement of thermal loss). Together with the thick walls, some of which are backed by earth, will provide a cool room, a root cellar in American parlance. I should be able to store all my allotment produce for longer, cool in the summer and frost free in the winter. Currently the garage is used but it responds to the outside temperature too quickly and is not light proof. The humidity in the garage is random, up one day, down the next. It does not help that the laundry is in the garage as well which adds to the temperature and humidity fluctuations. Tonight I hope to fit the lower vent pipe in readiness planking the external frame at the weekend, weather permitting!!

The tease of longer evenings

It's been a very frustrating couple of days. On Tuesady I managed to get a pond liner that was big enough to cover the shed roof and fit it so now it is waterproof which is just as well becuse it lashed down all that night. This was quite a lucky sequence of events because the raw timber had been exposed since the weekend when the previous membrane leaked and had to be removed. By the time I fitted the new membrane the timber had dried out.

The evenings are getting longer but when I get home from work there is only 20 twenty minutes of dusk before it is too dark to work. So I have resolved, this week to plant everything, except the spuds, in the greenhouse. So tonight I will have to get the copompost , trays, card board rolls and pots out of the greenhouse before it goes dark before I start sowing seeds. Then all I have to do is get everything back in the greenhouse in the dark without breaking a leg.

A path to the greehouse and lights are on my "to do" list. The Green house only went up before Christmas and there are so many other things that take priority.

Lovely manure

It been very busy weekend what with trying to finish my shed off at home, collect manure and plant seeds. I only got a few hours to play with my shed so only managed to complete the framing, fix the joists and cut the plywood for the roof. H had organised that we meet we some friend to have a look at the Snow drops in Dimmingdale Woods [An NT reserve near Ashby]. It was grey and bitterly cold as we walked from there house the couple of miles to the reserve. The snow drops were just out and made large white carpets under the barren trees. I wish I had my hip flask with me. Alan did not have his either. As the sun started to dip so too did the temperature which wasn't more than few degrees to begin with but we were all wrapped up warm. Back at Alan's supper was robust affair with Pea and Mint soup, Shepherd's Pie and veg and Triffle for afters. All wash down we a couple of glasses of Red wine. Then we repaired to the lounge to sit in front of the log fire. All very civilised and probably the best thing to be doing on a grim, cold February day. Alan and I discussed the chances of rain that night. Alan's sagely mate said it would and he was always right.

Sunday was as grim as the day before except it had been drizzling all night so my timber work was wet. But I could not do anything about it as I had an appointment with Rob and his manure pile. I got to his place must as he finished loading the trailer which was excellent timing on several fronts. Rob had a bit of time on his hands so the first drop went on the end of my plot and the second load on Steve's plot. Rob was then off to negotiate for a rotivator. His manure bin is nearly empty so that's about it for this year. The muck has been maturing for more than a year so is sweet smalling and light to shovel about. I had about six ton off him last year which made the soil really rich, improved the texture and body of the earth. Everything grew well, especially the potatoes and the weeds. I just need some time to dig in this year's two ton!

The folks at victoriana.wssent me confirmation of my order of willow to make a new screening hedge. It was a very quick response and if they deliver as they have promised, very quick too. I have picked up two Hazel and two Paul Scarlet Hawthorns for the back garden as well so I need to get the borders where they are to be planted are to go cleared. I found some time to plant my Garlic. The cloves are just being to sprout.

Despite the drizzle I had to get a waterproof cover on the shed roof. I am have roof garden, that means the roof is flat so need a water proof membrane to do more than keep water out.. The black plastic I had for the job turned out to be full of holes. I put it on the the time being to keep the worst of the rain out of the timber. I have to get proper sheeting tomorrow and fit it before we have much more rain.

Having dried off and and had lunch and with the drizzle still set in I found the time for the Garlic.
It nice to spend 30 minutes in the greenhouse potting Garlic cloves. Even though the greenhouse is unheated it is in sheltered spot and was several degrees warmer than outside...Which is nice. Note to self , must find time to plant Cauli, Cabbage, Lettuce and Broad Beans. I think I will start a few Peppers to see if they will go.

I have decided that I will germinate all my seeds at home before setting them out at the Lottie. It should make for sturdy plants and stop the slugs mowing them down as soon as they stick their heads up.

Last Saturday

Got down the Allotment last Saturday for an hour just to tidy up. Then I got a call on the mobile from one of my daughters friends' Dad asking if could I take some hourse manure off his hands. Yeah!......so up early on Sunday and over to his house. When I got there his trailer was full and sat on the drive waiting to be hooked up to my motor. Rob was away for the morning and had prepared everthing for me. What a gent.

When I go to the allotment, about 5 miles away, I remember I had forgotten how to control a trailer in reverse. Once I got the thing straight I was able to get it down the lane to tip it on the end of my plot. Saturday's tidy up paid off because I had a clean bin spare to pile the manure in to. My bins are just pallets nailed together for compost or anything else.

I was the envy of the plots holders. I knew Rob had another couple of loads available so I got a second load for Ian.

Now all I have to do dig the manure in. I have to make time to plant the garlic and sow the summer Cabbage and early Cauli's. The other evening I spread out all my seed packets on the floor of the living room and organised them by rotation planting, then by order of sowing. My daughter came in and asked if I was opening a seed business. It did look like a lot of packets. I counted them up, 48 packets in all. That does not include the items that are still on order such as seed Potatoes and Onion sets. So in all I have something like 60 odd varitities to grow with the remainder of seeds from last year. I have decided to grow Jeruslem Artichokes but only as a wind break. I tried eating them but I did not enjoy the experience. They are better as wind protection.

Some time should be freed up soon when the shed at home is finished

Now we are done with History

Now that you know how I have got to the position I am now in, the new blogs will be about stuff that has recently happened.

Every Path Begins With The First Stone

As I set to the job of digging my allotment it was not long before I came across a stone and then another and another. Before long a pile was starting to grow. The pile could grow and become a cairn but that not much use on an allotment. I decided that a path would be the proper use of the stones. I purchase some 1 1/2 inch square, foot long marking out pegs and 6x1inch by 12 foot boards an set up the classic two foot wide path down the centre of the plot. Next I dug out all the weed from the border area that was to be the path and tamped the ground down hard. That gave me an area 2 foot wide 4inches deep and eventually 90 feet long. Every time I found a stone it got lobbed into the path. 18 months on and I have a "gravel" path, free of charge. It really has tickled me. I have a path, I have got the materials free, it is nice and dry to walk on and I have not had to "loose" a ton of pebbles. Talk about a win win situation!

The stones are all sizes from ones I can just about pick up to smooth, river washed pebbles. None that I thought were special enough to go in my pocket. Then there are the lumps of coal, concrete and bricks shards. It is not as bad as it sounds but there are a lot. I have only a little area to dig over so I guess there will be a few more stones to be had. However this is not going to be enough to finish the path to an even depth along it's whole length. I think I will end up moving barrow loads from the deep end to fill out the thinner bits. It's going to be a labour of love. Have you ever tried to shovel up stones. It's near impossible. So on a day when I am looking for some Zen like thing to calm my mind I shall load stones one at a time into my barrow before carting them off to where I think they are needed. There will nothing Zen about tipping them. Out they will go and get kicked about until they approximate a flat surface.

The autumn digging and winter rains have brought a new flush of stones to the surface. More for the path but its not very many. I must have been very diligent in the first round of digging.

The path needs a little bit of mending. The force on one of the panels on one small section of the path border has been too much and pulled the nails out of the post. I will have to repair it this winter. I need to rake back the stones in the area dig out the soil so that board can come back into position to re-nail the board. This time with longer nails. Then it just case of putting the soil back and the stones. That will keep me out of mischief for an hour.

Gardening with a Pick axe.

Once the plot was rotivated at least I could see the earth in order that I could mark it out. I had already decided that I was going to have a four year rotation so the plot was to be deived into four. However the first 10 foo tof the plot was rough blue clay and rocks, so I decide to cultivate that are in raised beds and put my compost bins in that area. With ten foot abandoned down by the road the remainer was deived in four with a path from front to back along the centre line. It lacks design imagination but I am interest in plants not pretty patterns and hard landscaping.

For reasons I have no idea of I elected to start in the top left corner. I guess you have to start somewhere. I though of Chairman Moa's rallying call, The longest journay starts with the first step [With apologise to Mao], optomistically as it turned out, set off down the centre line of the plot with a garden fork and a spade over my shoulder. Having set out my idea of double digging across from the edge to the centre line. Two spade fulls into a reddish clarty soil I hit a stone. No problem, bend down pick it up...now what do I do with it? I know I will throw it onto the path or rtaher wher ethe path will be. Anothe two spades fulls and I hit something substantial. A little excavating shows it to be a "stump" of one of the Docks (Rumex obtusifolious). After five minutes of wrestling with the stump and bending tines on my Fork the spade being hopelessly out gunned, I had to admit I was beat. This did not bode well. I retired from the field of battle to consider my next move.

The next day I returned with Pick Axe and a Mattock over my shoulder. It was soon clear the Mattock was not aggresive enough. Bring on the Pick Axe. Now the soil on the plot is not too heavy but a Pick axe looked like the sledge-hammer to crack a Walnut. Not so, It took about four or five blows to bury the pick head into the ground radially about the Dock stump in order to be able the level to blasted thing out of the ground. One down and three foot of the first plot dug. This was going to take some time! A change of plan was needed. After close inspection I noticed that one could tel where the Docks had been. So I embarked on frontal attack on the Dock with the Pick axe. For three weeks I set about levering out the dock one at a time. The pile of Dock at the end of the plot grew and grew. presently the quarter was clear and then began the double digging. Slowly but surely the weeds yielded the fork. Little by the little the black soil was revealed from the weedy waste land. The effrot was worth while. By the Spring of 2004 there was sufficient cleared space for the Allotmenteers classic first crop - Potatoes.

Folks say that Potatoes clear the ground for further plants. Well that is not quite true. The digging to plants the spuds, the regular earthing up and the harvest all require the earth to be stirred about which actually breaks the soil up. All the Spuds do is grow which gives a nice crop and the plant canopy suppress the weeds, well some weeds.

I got into a sort of rythem. Down to the Lottie, get my gear on, push the wheel barrow with the fork and pick axe to the the area to be tackled, turn the Radio on and begin. A fork full at a time, turn it over onto the soil in front of the trench. Bash the back of the fork onto the clod. Pick out the weeds which are lobbed into the Whellbarrow, stones onto the "path". Next fork full. When the dqys work on the section was done the newlt dug and cleaned soil was raked flat. There a sort of Zen like quality to this repetive chore. Slowly but surely the black earth appear from under its green overcoat. I tackled a small section in each quarter and planted up the available space with the appropriate plants. In this way I got a several crops from the first season. The soil had the extra bulk of the manure and the action of diging aerated the soil so it ended up six the eight inches higher than when a started. As the year progressed the soil settled down but never the the compacted state it was when we first met.

A brain wave washed over me one day. Why not cover the areas that had not yet come under the fork with Black Plastic. It will exclude the light and hopefully supress the weeds. Indeed that is exactly what it has done. I no roll back the plastic to reveal a portion of soil to the dug. As I am the very last part ofthe plot the revealed soil shows no perrenial weeds except for a shadow of their roots. In this area I am just manuring and turning soil over. Because the rain has been excluded as well as the light it is quite dry and easy to dig.

The jobs is just about finished in Spring 2006. As the digging went on certain crops required lots of manure. A friend of my daughter keeps ponies. Her father was only too happy to get rid of several tonnes of well rotten manure from his land and I was happy to have it. As the double digging progressed the manure was incorporated at a rate of a wheelbarrow full per twelve foot row. The Spuds that came out of that earth were fanastic. The soil is bulking up which is encouraging the worms and slugs. All manner of creeping, sliding and scuttling things are now living in the soil which is a good thing.