I have recovered from the neck pain. The enforced slow down has re-newed my energy levels. Last weekend I dug up the remaining four rows or spuds. It has been a really poor harvest. It rained on Monday last so I went up to the lottie, after work, with intention of digging in the green manure [Buck Wheat]. The rain during the day had really loosened up the soil so the weeds flew out of the ground. It was lucky because it gets too dark to work by about 7.30pm. I am feeling quite righteous at the moment because I have at least half the plot dug over although not actually manured.
It looks like I won't be getting any Butternut squash, Pumpkin or Gherkins this year. I will wait until the first frost or when the plants wilt before pulling them up. You never know, I might have over looked something. I will give them every chance to produce. The leeks are rubbish but it seems I might have a Carrot crop in the ground. I will take a sneak peek this weekend.
On the beverage front, I made Damson wine and it is in the Demi-John fiercely bubbling away. The Damson Gin and Slow Gin have been started. H said she got some funny looks as she passed ten bottles of Gin through the check out. She said she was not going to justify the purchase to anyone. I am trying to find some small bottles on the Internet.
I have also resolved what I am going to do at the lottie this winter.
1. Make a proper path down the west side and north end. This will give me a clean edge to the beds and proper access.
2. Make path between the beds on either side of the centre path. The path edging will give a clean end the end of the beds and give access to the new path from the middle of the plot.
3. Put a pipe under the centre path of allow water to get away from the eastern beds.
4. Complete the patio area. I only need four, 2x2 flags.
I have this idea I am going to make room on the patio by putting the water butt, full of Comfrey Tea, on top of the end compost bin. I just have not sussed quite now I am going to support the weight. And there is the small matter of access to re-fill the butt.
The wait continues whilst the Sweet Corn ripens...or not.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Slow Work
As I was leaving the plot last week I head butted the top edge of the door opening on my car. It jarred right down my spine. I had a stiff neck all week. Whenever I had to turn round I was like a lighthouse. I was still not feeling loose enough this weekend and togther with the tablets everything was moving at half speed.
We were supposed to go to my Auntie's 60th birthday party on Saturday but I could not face to drive to Manchester. Instead I had a pottered at the Lottie. More to get out in the fresh air than anything else. I had a bash with the new hoe. It is very good. I sowed some green manure. It just has to braodcast and to cap it off it rained last night so no watering required.
During the go-slow through the week I have been able to get the Elderberry and Blackberry wine filtered and racked into Demi-Johns. They are bubbling away nicely. The Rhubard wine was racked for the third time. The next step for the Rhubarb is bottling. I am just thawing the Damsons to start the a new batch.
Note to self; I have to find time to sit down and make the seed selection for next year. I have resolved to plant my spuds much earlier next year. Hopefully I can beat the blight.
We were supposed to go to my Auntie's 60th birthday party on Saturday but I could not face to drive to Manchester. Instead I had a pottered at the Lottie. More to get out in the fresh air than anything else. I had a bash with the new hoe. It is very good. I sowed some green manure. It just has to braodcast and to cap it off it rained last night so no watering required.
During the go-slow through the week I have been able to get the Elderberry and Blackberry wine filtered and racked into Demi-Johns. They are bubbling away nicely. The Rhubard wine was racked for the third time. The next step for the Rhubarb is bottling. I am just thawing the Damsons to start the a new batch.
Note to self; I have to find time to sit down and make the seed selection for next year. I have resolved to plant my spuds much earlier next year. Hopefully I can beat the blight.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Pottering
I do not get much time for freestyle pottering at the lottie but Sunday was an exception. Unlike Saturday where I dug up some more Potatoes, turned over another couple of foot of the ex-legume bed and beheaded all the weeds I could. Sunday was most leisurely.
I have a little paved area in front of my lottie dubbed "The Patio". It covers a very poor section of my plot. Where my plot starts so does the French drain which crosses the allotment site. In laying the drain the contractors pulled up all the sub soil, rather clay, and in reinstating the surface have left a barren clay in which nothing will grow. Even the plucky Docks which abounds on the rest of my plots has just one solitary outpost and a very sad specimen it is. The area is about ten foot deep and fourteen foot wide. I had previously set out three compost bin made of pallets on the boundary facing into the plot. I laid two rows of 2x2 paving stones in front the bins. This gives a nice surface for shovelling off when the manure has been delivered. I then enclosed a raised bed four wide by seven foot. One edge of the bed makes a boundary with a path, another the start to the cultivated beds. This gave me an area six and seven foot for paving. I have since decided that will have another bed five foot by four adjacent to the path. The reduced paved area, which was not wholly paved, but still large enough for deliveries. The new bed is for flowers. H fancies Gladioli. This where the pottering comes in.
On Sunday I had a little spare time so I took off to the lottie with my tools, some spare timber and pegs I had picked up on a walk earlier in the week. I found a handful of nails in the back of the car. In true allotmenting style, after a bit of rough measuring, sawing and banging I had a new bed. I tried to loosen the soil with fork but the surface did not yield as I balanced on the fork's shoulders, like riding an unbouncy pogo stick, whilst I tried to make the tines penetrate the surface. Next time it will be the turn of the big guns....the mattock. That leaves me to find four 2x2 paving stones to complete the "Patio". I might even try setting out my deck chair for a contemplate. The contemplation might have to take a back seat to winter digging. The soil is in desperate need of re-fuelling.
The other job in tackled was to build up a threshold strip under the gate to my plot. My lottie neighbours had seen a rabbit nip under the gate to the bunny larder. I had a happy half hour embedding bricks and shuffling pebbles about to make a threshold to keep the varmints out but let me run the wheelbarrow through without it being impeded.
Happy days.
I have a little paved area in front of my lottie dubbed "The Patio". It covers a very poor section of my plot. Where my plot starts so does the French drain which crosses the allotment site. In laying the drain the contractors pulled up all the sub soil, rather clay, and in reinstating the surface have left a barren clay in which nothing will grow. Even the plucky Docks which abounds on the rest of my plots has just one solitary outpost and a very sad specimen it is. The area is about ten foot deep and fourteen foot wide. I had previously set out three compost bin made of pallets on the boundary facing into the plot. I laid two rows of 2x2 paving stones in front the bins. This gives a nice surface for shovelling off when the manure has been delivered. I then enclosed a raised bed four wide by seven foot. One edge of the bed makes a boundary with a path, another the start to the cultivated beds. This gave me an area six and seven foot for paving. I have since decided that will have another bed five foot by four adjacent to the path. The reduced paved area, which was not wholly paved, but still large enough for deliveries. The new bed is for flowers. H fancies Gladioli. This where the pottering comes in.
On Sunday I had a little spare time so I took off to the lottie with my tools, some spare timber and pegs I had picked up on a walk earlier in the week. I found a handful of nails in the back of the car. In true allotmenting style, after a bit of rough measuring, sawing and banging I had a new bed. I tried to loosen the soil with fork but the surface did not yield as I balanced on the fork's shoulders, like riding an unbouncy pogo stick, whilst I tried to make the tines penetrate the surface. Next time it will be the turn of the big guns....the mattock. That leaves me to find four 2x2 paving stones to complete the "Patio". I might even try setting out my deck chair for a contemplate. The contemplation might have to take a back seat to winter digging. The soil is in desperate need of re-fuelling.
The other job in tackled was to build up a threshold strip under the gate to my plot. My lottie neighbours had seen a rabbit nip under the gate to the bunny larder. I had a happy half hour embedding bricks and shuffling pebbles about to make a threshold to keep the varmints out but let me run the wheelbarrow through without it being impeded.
Happy days.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Spud harvest or is that weed harvest
My conscience would not let me leave the main crop potatoes in the ground any longer. I have decided to go to the lottie whenever I have a free evening. The dock are starting to thrive and the myriad of other weeds, Chicweed, Creeping Thistle, Sowthistle, Groundsel, Rose Bay Willowherb, Fat hen, Shepherds Purse, Plantain, Henbit, String Nettle, Redshank, Toadflax, Red Dead Nettle, Pineapple Weed, Common Fumitory, Annual Meadow Grass, Spurge, Black Nighshade to name many but not all, are enjoying the party too. There is a good website that show pictures and describes the enemy. Click HERE for a link to the website.
I set about digging up the rows as usually but the job is slow since I am weeding as I go. I cut down the haulms when they showed signs of blight. Whilst this has stopped the blight getting into the crop it has also deprived the potatoes of the drivers to make them grow. It is not surprising that the potatoes are not nearly as well developed however they are as numerous as previous years . The soil is still dry despite my watering which makes harvesting harder than it needs be. The watering only served to encourage the weeds. It is take about a hour to harvest a single 14 foot row. I then pick over the spuds and give them a wash. I hope to leave the diseased spuds and blight spores at the lottie so that the harvest stores well through the winter.
No thing to do with gardening, My Fencing club went for a friendly team match against Leicester Fencing Club. We won all three competitions. That was harder than digging up potatoes!
I set about digging up the rows as usually but the job is slow since I am weeding as I go. I cut down the haulms when they showed signs of blight. Whilst this has stopped the blight getting into the crop it has also deprived the potatoes of the drivers to make them grow. It is not surprising that the potatoes are not nearly as well developed however they are as numerous as previous years . The soil is still dry despite my watering which makes harvesting harder than it needs be. The watering only served to encourage the weeds. It is take about a hour to harvest a single 14 foot row. I then pick over the spuds and give them a wash. I hope to leave the diseased spuds and blight spores at the lottie so that the harvest stores well through the winter.
No thing to do with gardening, My Fencing club went for a friendly team match against Leicester Fencing Club. We won all three competitions. That was harder than digging up potatoes!
Monday, September 03, 2007
Onions, Rabbits and Snakes
In and out of running L around the country and other fatherly and husbandly duties I have been able to get some quality time at the lottie. I have dug over a quarter of the plot which I am very pleased about. In doing this I have harvested the Onion, Shallots, Peas and Broad Beans. The Chic peas were a disater so they have gone in the compo bin. I also took a walk about beheading any weeds that looked in danger of seeding. The soil is still too hard to harvest the spuds but the weeds are starting to get going.
On the bright side I positioned the new black comp bins. They are doing a good job. I filled one to the very top, such is the weedyness of my plot, and in a week it had dropped back to three quarters full. So I topped it up again. The other bin is less than half full but then again the weeding is not finished. The bins have made a big improvement to the tidiness of my plot. Hazel played a blinder on the Aspargus bed. We discovered there were lot of spears of "Sparragrass" coming though anew. Unfortunatelty the rabbits had discovered it too. The rabbit[s] had dug under the crown and nibbled away at it from underneath. My lottie neighbours have spotted big excavations on their plots. I was invited over to look at them and ascertain if anyone was at home. I stuck my hoe down the hole, handle first. The handle of the hoe disappearred down the burrow right up to the blade. Thats about five foot. There was no squeaking or feeling of soft bodies in the burrow so we dug the burrow up only to find an enormous Toad. The Toad was evicted and let off into the under growth. The burrow was back filled in the hope that it would discourage the Rabbit from coming back. Another plot holder had a similar hole, a similar depth so that was dug up too. No one was found to be at home. We saw the rabbit. A big, bright eyed buggers, sitting under the peas on another plot. I shied a stone at it and missed by a enough to not worry the other plot holders but close enough to the make it run off. My lottie neighbours are in a turoil. They do not want the Rabbit bredding and living on the plot, eatting everything in sight and digging up what they don't eat and clearing them off without hurting them. The dilemea is their's. I have rabbit netted all round my plot, except for the sparragrass bed. I think I will be netting that quite soon.
Once the Rabbit and Toad wrangling had ceased I went back to digging the plot over. The Wheelbarrow filled again and the ritual of the comp bin was enacted. I had a bucket full of leaves to dispose of which were to go into the big short term compo bin. For whatever reeason I did not just throw back the cover us usual but picked one corner, I think I was in two minds over something. There was a movement under the cover. I got down on my knees and peaked under the tarp. There was a Grass snake coiled up in the warm and dark of the plants that went into the compo bin the previous week. I put the cover back down and called my Lottie nieghbour, Maria, over. A couple of the plot holders had seen the snake during the summer but did not know what sort it was. Maria and I had been talking about what we would do if we saw it. Maria came over, a little nervous at what I might have found. With Maria, phone in hand, I gentlly peeled back the cover to find the Grass Snake was still there. Whilst he was pretending he was invisble I grasped it behind the head as I had seen in any number of wild life films. The Snake was not that concerned. I think it was probably a bit cold. He was about an three quarters of an inch in diameter at the thickest part of the body and about twenty inches long. Definately a Grass Snake. The combined affect of being handled and get warmed from my skin made him start to wriggle , so once we had had taken a picture or two we put him back in the compo bin and off he slid.
On the bright side I positioned the new black comp bins. They are doing a good job. I filled one to the very top, such is the weedyness of my plot, and in a week it had dropped back to three quarters full. So I topped it up again. The other bin is less than half full but then again the weeding is not finished. The bins have made a big improvement to the tidiness of my plot. Hazel played a blinder on the Aspargus bed. We discovered there were lot of spears of "Sparragrass" coming though anew. Unfortunatelty the rabbits had discovered it too. The rabbit[s] had dug under the crown and nibbled away at it from underneath. My lottie neighbours have spotted big excavations on their plots. I was invited over to look at them and ascertain if anyone was at home. I stuck my hoe down the hole, handle first. The handle of the hoe disappearred down the burrow right up to the blade. Thats about five foot. There was no squeaking or feeling of soft bodies in the burrow so we dug the burrow up only to find an enormous Toad. The Toad was evicted and let off into the under growth. The burrow was back filled in the hope that it would discourage the Rabbit from coming back. Another plot holder had a similar hole, a similar depth so that was dug up too. No one was found to be at home. We saw the rabbit. A big, bright eyed buggers, sitting under the peas on another plot. I shied a stone at it and missed by a enough to not worry the other plot holders but close enough to the make it run off. My lottie neighbours are in a turoil. They do not want the Rabbit bredding and living on the plot, eatting everything in sight and digging up what they don't eat and clearing them off without hurting them. The dilemea is their's. I have rabbit netted all round my plot, except for the sparragrass bed. I think I will be netting that quite soon.
Once the Rabbit and Toad wrangling had ceased I went back to digging the plot over. The Wheelbarrow filled again and the ritual of the comp bin was enacted. I had a bucket full of leaves to dispose of which were to go into the big short term compo bin. For whatever reeason I did not just throw back the cover us usual but picked one corner, I think I was in two minds over something. There was a movement under the cover. I got down on my knees and peaked under the tarp. There was a Grass snake coiled up in the warm and dark of the plants that went into the compo bin the previous week. I put the cover back down and called my Lottie nieghbour, Maria, over. A couple of the plot holders had seen the snake during the summer but did not know what sort it was. Maria and I had been talking about what we would do if we saw it. Maria came over, a little nervous at what I might have found. With Maria, phone in hand, I gentlly peeled back the cover to find the Grass Snake was still there. Whilst he was pretending he was invisble I grasped it behind the head as I had seen in any number of wild life films. The Snake was not that concerned. I think it was probably a bit cold. He was about an three quarters of an inch in diameter at the thickest part of the body and about twenty inches long. Definately a Grass Snake. The combined affect of being handled and get warmed from my skin made him start to wriggle , so once we had had taken a picture or two we put him back in the compo bin and off he slid.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)