Round two

I had this week off work and wouldn't you know it the weather has been....well Autumnal. Cold wet windy for days then unrelentingly grey then a sharp frost overnight then beautiful today. Still breezy and cold since it is coming from the north but bright sunshine in a blue sky.  H want spuds for dinner so I just had to dig them up. The big hedge that I have been inwardly complaining about did a very nice job of shielding me from the cold north wind and with the sun in the south a need a nice sun trap.

Digging up spuds is easy if boring. I decided to make it interesting by digging quite deeply and cleaning out all the weeds. I am well overdue harvesting the spuds so only the remains of the ridge so where the spuds might be. I used my fork as a rake and pulled back the tangle of ground cover weeds that are on Bed1, the spud bed.The ground was surprisingly clear under the weed mat. There were just a few Dock and Thistle making a living in the rows. The soil is beautiful. Keeping off the soil during the wet weather has paid off. It is not compacted. The fork, my usual spud harvester, was not doing a very good job because the spuds are small and dropped through the tines. I swapped the fork for the spade and made much quicker progress. I did not  even cut any in half. Mind you I did start the spade further out from the centre of the row than I would have with the fork. I whizzed along the first row but it was hard on my back. Having finished the row I levelled out the soil with the back of the fork and decided on some different work to rest my back muscles.

The grapes have grown well from the late start but did not produced any grape to speak of. I got the secateurs from Degsy and spent 15 minutes trimming back the vine adjacent to the piece of  bed I was working on and secured it back to the wires. There was more vine on the floor than on the wires by the time I had finished.  

The nettles have had a field day. There are growing all around my compost bins, path and in the corner of Bed1. I started off tentatively pulling at the stems. I went and got my heavy gloves from Degsy. Whist there I put the kettle on. Back tot he nettles with glasses and gloves on. I prodded, poked and teased the mass of roots from under the soil and path. Then I went round to the big compo bin and I prodded, poked and teased the mass of roots from under the bin then round the back of the compo bins and did the same again. That corner of the plot now look bare now the nettles are gone and the grape trimmed.

I got my brew from Degsy and sat on the big compo bin in the sunshine and watched the Kestrels soaring. It was not long before the Rooks were aloft to chase the Kestrel away. I resolved to feed the birds this winter even though they scatter the seeds and they grow as weeds.

I happened to be standing by the Asparagus bed and idly prodded a weed out of the bed, then another and another and before long I was ripping into the weeding. The Asparagus bed weeds very easily. Whilst in the area I cleaned off the Rhubarb bed of wilted leaves and dropped them in the compo bin. I missed harvesting the Comfrey bed so it looked very unkempt. I combed the wilted leave back into the centre of the bed and stamped it down. Five minutes of combing and stamping and that bed look tidy too. Comfrey is as tough as old boots so won't come to any harm from a bit of rough treatment. 

I went back to spud harvesting a slowly motored down another row. Spuds in the bucket, weeds in a ever growing pile in the middle of the plot. Having finished the row I went round the edge of the bed with my narrow spade and cut a gutter against the timber border. The back of the became a rake and finished off the bed a treat. In the hour or so since the first row of spuds was harvested the sun and wind had dried out the top of the soil. It showed as light grey against the black moist soil.

The slugs have run riot this year with the wet weather and little gardening taking place. Every time a turned over a likely piece of leaf or bag there I would find a clutch of slug eggs. Generally I scooped them up and put them on the top the compo bin which acts as a giant bird table. Other times I left them where they were since I had removed whatever was covering them. The birds and other creatures with hoover them up.

I fed the bees although I am pretty much finished with the bees for the winter. Fingers crossed they make it through the winter.

The approaches to the plot look really good now so all I have to do is spend a few hours on the plot each weekend for the winter and we should be in good shape for the spring....fingers crossed. Round two down. How many more to go?

The fight back begins....with tea

Last weekend I found a little free time to go to the lottie. I have to admit it is a mess. I decided the fight had to begin at some stage or to walk away. I decided to fight back. I started by opening the big compost bin to turfing into it the gone-over flowers and grasses from around the bin and the adjacent patio area. I also shovelled in the compost I ran shovelled out a few months ago. I have no where else to put ten barrow loads of compost. It least it will kick start the compo bin. The up shot was front of the lottie looks better and I have some room to work.

Over the summer I have been dropping off horse muck every fortnight. The result is a big pile of the stuff. It is nicely worked down by the worms and is ready to be dropped on the plot. I feel some major mulching coming on.

Yesterday [Saturday] morning I to meet some folks about a market pitch in Castle Donington. It was less daunting than had imagined. There was tea and bacon butties to keep out the cold. I was done by twelve noon and set off for trailer duties. I met Allotment buddy Steve at the lottie and immediately stopped for a brew. Steve favours a Kelly's kettle, I favour a Trangia. In this case the Kelly was already bubbling so it would be rude not to take tea. We had a sit at the top of my plot placing ourselves gingerly onto my garden seat. The weather has given the planking a beating over the years and it days must be numbered. It is just a case of when the comedy chair collapse happens. Steve had to go and I set about digging up some spuds. The soils was wet but not too bad. I got a nice crop of spuds and a cleared a patch of soil to boot. Just another 400 square yards to go and the plot is perfect.  

When dropped out the trailer I went over to see the bees. I topped up the feeders and observed the fronts of each hive for five minutes. Even though the nights are colder the sun still has some warmth especially with the clear skies we have had recently. The bees where coming and going with vigour. Some of the bees were bring back pollen. They need pollen to make the food to feed to the larvae so pollen = larvae food = eggs = queen, so all is well for the time being.

Its been a while since I last blogged. Tons of stuff has been gone on in my life and that does not include the weather. A super quick catch up in six bullet points:

• Nearly made redundant.
• Good allotment idea did not turn out so well.
• Started a little business
• Weather affect the bees
• Trouble and strife within the family diverted me from applying to my usual stuff
• Weather affected my allotment schedule

Have a look at the Diamond Awl website, click HERE, to see what the business thing is all about. It has been quite an interesting set of challenges. In the end I have a website and an on-line shop. If I were not producing pretty much everything to order the shop would make a bit more sense.

The good/bad allotment idea was to follow an idea that said do not weed through the winter. The weeds will preserve the soil structure and nutrients and when composted the weeds would give back again. Good idea but British weather put paid to that idea, too dry then to wet. Result a very weedy allotment.

The weather has affected to bees in that they have not been able to gather enough food. They have also had a bad time in swarming and subsequent need to mate. I seems to have five viable hives but they seem a bot weak going into the winter. I project the winter to be relatively mild so food resource is going to be an issue in the early spring. Anyone care to guess what the weather will be like in the spring of 2013?

The family stuff is just time spent. I hope the parties involved come to a decision. Christmas will be tricky.