I was just looking my very first blog and spotted that next week will be the blog's second anniversary. A lot of words have passed under the bridge since then. Whilst I was doing some tidying up at work I discovered that I had my tenth anniversary of working for the same firm occurr whilst I was on holiday. A lot of words have passed under that bridge too. In contrast time at the lottie seems to have stood still. It always feels like that at his time of year. The winter is not quite over and spring has not yet sprung. There are signs though. The mornings and evening are perceptively lighter despite the rain clouds. The Witch Hazel in the front garden is coming into flower. That reminders me, I must prune the Willow "hedge" in the back garden before it wakes up.
Work at the lottie last weekend was restricted to dumping more manure on the long border. One more load should see it complete. I also created a proper path half way up the plot. Whilst I had the tools out I dug out a new drain. The new path has been made from formalising the end of the each bed with a plank thus creating the path. A large puddle regularly forms where the old path finishes adjacent to the ditch. It fact it has been there for most of the winter. I fossicked a four foot length of 110mm uPVC. By trenching and tunnelling I drove the pipe through the bank so that the puddle can now drain into the ditch. The new path leads up to the drain into the ditch. The other end of the path leads to the drain under the central path. Now I have a route by which the sub-surface water can get across my plot without creating puddles. My plot is at the bottom of the slope so I "benefit" from the run off from plots up hill from me. I have the germ of an idea to fit a land drain by the boundary of my plot and the next one. It would intercept the sub-surface water before it got on the my plot. It will cost money as well so I will have to have a hard think about that. Perhaps a job for next winter. Surely flooding won't be a problem in the summer!!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
One Shovel & One Wheelbarrow
I had a rush of blood to the head yesterday. I collect yet another trailer full of manure from A&C and spread it on the long border. Whilst at the lottie I harvested some Swedes and Cabbage. I got over come with enthusiam. I resolved to go the lottie the next day [Sunday], today if fact. And thats what I did. I took my tea bags, clean water and milk and shot off to the lottie. Unfortunately my enthusiasm did not get me out of bed early. Even so I had my task to do. I set about shifting the half ton of manure that was sitting in the bottom poo bin. Within three quarters of an hour I had barrowed enough muck to cover the dug over area of what would be this years potato bed. Next I tackled the bed that would be the brassica bed. I got almost exactly half the bed covered when I ran out of A&C's manure. I have still have a binful from a different source that I got earlier in the year but where is it to go? The Potato bed or the Brassica bed. I have not even mentioned the Pea bed. The Pea bed will have all the peas, beans and pumpkin. They are greedy feeders so I need some for that bed too.
Having used up all the available manure and still having some time on my hands I set about putting a couple of drains in under the central path. The path has been acting as a dam, stopping the water drain across the plot. I have been minding a piece of 100mm uPVC pipe for ages. Finally it's time had come. I cut the pipe to size. One piece is going just inside the door to the plot, the other half way down the plot. I raked back the stones that make the paths surface then dug down the make a trench. When it was the right depth I just dropped the pipe in the covered it up and laid out the stones again. That job went quickly too.
The clock and had not yet chimed "times up" so I thought I would have a go at levelling out the area of the patio that is not paved. If it is not paved I guess it is not a patio. Anyhow, it is the area that will be the patio when it is paved. The "soil" for the want of a better word to describe the area was very soft from all the rain. A light dabbling with the mattock loosened the soil which made it easy to skim off the excess with the shovel. The area is more level than it was before. I will leave the final levelling until the actual lying of the errant paving stones.
The weather was breezy with a little bit a rain in the air. It was quite invigorating after being inside all week. It was really quiet at the lottie. No one else there, no birds, not even the seagulls.
Since I was on a roll, I went straight out the greenhouse when I got home. I cleaned up the bit a of rubbish that was on the floor and sorted out a few deep trays and the 100mm seed bags. I had about half a bag of seed compost. I fill as many trays and bags as the available compost would allow and planted the first of this year crops. White Sutton Garlic, Jubilee Hysor Broad Beans and Bedfordshire Champion Onions. It seemed to me that the year was truely under way again. What will it bring, drought? flood? My prediction is for a stable year with no great weather event. Will these words be prophetic? Only time will tell.
Having used up all the available manure and still having some time on my hands I set about putting a couple of drains in under the central path. The path has been acting as a dam, stopping the water drain across the plot. I have been minding a piece of 100mm uPVC pipe for ages. Finally it's time had come. I cut the pipe to size. One piece is going just inside the door to the plot, the other half way down the plot. I raked back the stones that make the paths surface then dug down the make a trench. When it was the right depth I just dropped the pipe in the covered it up and laid out the stones again. That job went quickly too.
The clock and had not yet chimed "times up" so I thought I would have a go at levelling out the area of the patio that is not paved. If it is not paved I guess it is not a patio. Anyhow, it is the area that will be the patio when it is paved. The "soil" for the want of a better word to describe the area was very soft from all the rain. A light dabbling with the mattock loosened the soil which made it easy to skim off the excess with the shovel. The area is more level than it was before. I will leave the final levelling until the actual lying of the errant paving stones.
The weather was breezy with a little bit a rain in the air. It was quite invigorating after being inside all week. It was really quiet at the lottie. No one else there, no birds, not even the seagulls.
Since I was on a roll, I went straight out the greenhouse when I got home. I cleaned up the bit a of rubbish that was on the floor and sorted out a few deep trays and the 100mm seed bags. I had about half a bag of seed compost. I fill as many trays and bags as the available compost would allow and planted the first of this year crops. White Sutton Garlic, Jubilee Hysor Broad Beans and Bedfordshire Champion Onions. It seemed to me that the year was truely under way again. What will it bring, drought? flood? My prediction is for a stable year with no great weather event. Will these words be prophetic? Only time will tell.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to all my readers.
I had a very restful Christmas & New Year break even though I had to go to work on Christmas and New Year's eve and the Thursday between the two festivals. We had lots of folks visit leading up to and including Christmas. Hazel worked hard looking after us all. I just tried my best to behave and not get in the way.
Nothing much has happen at the allotment over the Christmas break. We have had visitors or it has been wet or frosty when not wet. The trailer has been filled twice since my last post and spread along the long border. The long border is begin to looking better as the manure gives it a uniform look.
The weekend just gone was the first time for about six weeks that I have got out and about to do something. I have said in previous posts that I had resolved to make a path down the outside of the beds. Well I have started it! It looks good. That took a few hours on Saturday. Now all I have to do is continue right down to the end of the plot! On Sunday I tidied up where I had been working on Saturday. I got a fire going and burned up the left over stalks of Artichokes and Sunflowers. The fire also consumed all the spare bits a wood I had collected over the Summer.I have had a trailer load of manure sitting on my lottie patio for a few weeks. I barrowed the poo pile from the patio and spread it on what will be the potato bed. I am going to pop up to the lottie tonight to empty the ash into the compost heap. I remembered to take tea bags and milk to go with the trangia so I was able to have scalding hot tea by the side of the brazier. It was very nice sitting out watching the birds flitting about whilst drinking tea and warming my feet. The thermometer only got as far as 4 degree C even in the middle of the day. Mind you shovelling, barrowing and tending fire gets you hot and sweaty.
When I got home I looked out at the garden at the back of the house, yet again and wondered just when I was going to find time to tidy up the beds in preparation for the spring.
I had a very restful Christmas & New Year break even though I had to go to work on Christmas and New Year's eve and the Thursday between the two festivals. We had lots of folks visit leading up to and including Christmas. Hazel worked hard looking after us all. I just tried my best to behave and not get in the way.
Nothing much has happen at the allotment over the Christmas break. We have had visitors or it has been wet or frosty when not wet. The trailer has been filled twice since my last post and spread along the long border. The long border is begin to looking better as the manure gives it a uniform look.
The weekend just gone was the first time for about six weeks that I have got out and about to do something. I have said in previous posts that I had resolved to make a path down the outside of the beds. Well I have started it! It looks good. That took a few hours on Saturday. Now all I have to do is continue right down to the end of the plot! On Sunday I tidied up where I had been working on Saturday. I got a fire going and burned up the left over stalks of Artichokes and Sunflowers. The fire also consumed all the spare bits a wood I had collected over the Summer.I have had a trailer load of manure sitting on my lottie patio for a few weeks. I barrowed the poo pile from the patio and spread it on what will be the potato bed. I am going to pop up to the lottie tonight to empty the ash into the compost heap. I remembered to take tea bags and milk to go with the trangia so I was able to have scalding hot tea by the side of the brazier. It was very nice sitting out watching the birds flitting about whilst drinking tea and warming my feet. The thermometer only got as far as 4 degree C even in the middle of the day. Mind you shovelling, barrowing and tending fire gets you hot and sweaty.
When I got home I looked out at the garden at the back of the house, yet again and wondered just when I was going to find time to tidy up the beds in preparation for the spring.
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