New Year's Eve

   So the year turns again. It is still raining. I went over to see the bees and check they were okay. They were. A gale of wind is blowing from the South West. It is just getting round the hedge so the Hives are in a drafty spot for the moment. At least the flood waters have subsided. There was no damage to the hives during the floods. One of the door blocks had been displaced so I put it back in place and wedged it there with a couple of pieces of stick. When looking in the front door I can see a few dead bees and in one hive there are lots of capping on the floor. That means they are tucking into their stores. Time for candy I think.

   I got out my hip flask which is full of last years Sloe Gin and splashed a little on each hive and wished the Bees health for the coming year. If you can wassail apples trees I am sure you can "wassail" bee hives I had a wander round the meadow which is sodden after the recent flooding. The grass cover has held the soil together. Some of the plough fields I can see from the meadow have not fared so well. The only sign of life, besides the surging Mease, was a Sparrow Hark that flew down the length of the hedge at knee height then dart through the hedge and was gone.

The hives are in the far left of picture. The River Mease is still roaming across the fields

   It is a desolate time of year in the countryside especially with a gale blowing and biting rain showers in the wind. Finding all secure I trundled back across the fields and went over to the lottie. More desolation. I put up a couple of bird feeders although I did see more than a few crows being tossed across the sky. The soil was too wet to dig so I had a close look at the hedges and the trees in the hedge. I have selected the ones that are coming out. They are shading out areas of my plot. The bees at the lottie are not moving but the signs are that they are fine. I fixed my gate. The wind had given it a beating and a couple of battens needed refixing. I wassailed the lottie and the bees. It is a good deal more sheltered at the lottie but it was still dark considering it was two o'clock in the afternoon.

   I did a little job for one of the plot holders before I packed up and went home for a spot of lunch.

So as traditional at this time of year, I wish you all a Happy New Year for 2013.

Getting ready

    Getting ready to allotment seems to take longer. Degsy sits there waiting for a key turn to get going. Sometimes Degsy needs a hand. Luckily Degsy can be started with a cranking handle. It is bloody hard to turn over a 2.5 litre engine against the compression but I managed it without putting my back out or dislocating my arms.

      Then there is the personal preparation. If I don't put my gloves on my skin on one of more of the joint on my finger crack and that is painful and take ages to heal. And now I have to put a bit a Vaseline on my lips to stop them cracking. Then when I get hot and sweating from working if don't wrap up when I stop I can almost guarantee I will get a chill that will start off a silly cough I won't be able to shift until well into the New Year.

    I have given up wear overalls. Now the main gear is mainly my rigger boots, work pants and a brushed cotton shirt. So long as I have remembered to put tea bags and milk in the back of Degsy then all will be well.  

Grubs & Robins

      The weather, time and enthusiasm collided today. The weather was the variable in the this list. Freezing conditions last week were not conducive to digging. Then Thursday this week it threw it down for most of the day. Saturday was taken up with picking up Miss L. The weather remained fine on Saturday which boded well for Sunday. Sunday dawned clear so after a breakfast of boiled eggs, toast and tea it was off to the lottie. There was no one at the lottie. All the plots a bit tired. Mine looked not too bad now the ground had been strimmed and the vines pruned. The milky winter sun did a lot to make the general view looks better.

      The main job was get the spuds dug up. The soil was the consistency of cream cheese. The fork was a waste of time for digging the spuds. I got the spade out instead. Then arranged the wheelbarrow for collecting the weeds and there plenty of weeds to go at. The main culprits are Dock and Grass but as I was to find out there was some major roots from the nearby Willows. I just got going in the plough head land, as grandly call it. I just worked across the plot throwing the spuds into the tray and the weeds into the barrow. On the third row the spuds were different. I got another tray so as to keep the varieties separate. Over and back, over and back with spuds in one place and weeds in another. I put the kettle on when I was half way across the plot then went back to harvesting or was it weeding?  By the time I finished the row the kettle was boiling. I made a brew and remembered to get wrapped up against the cold. I sat on the compo bin and supped my brew. The Robin's where happy to see the back of me for a while so they could forage over the new turned earth. I had been feeding them with Cockchaffer grubs as I found them in the soil but they wanted more. Cockchaffer grubs are massive about 40/50mm [2 inches] long so half a dozen of those should fill the Robin's up.

     Brew over and back to the spade and rows of spuds. I managed another two rows before I ran out of time. One of the other lottie holders turned up and came over for a chat. Having chatted about the year just gone we wished each other a Merry Christmas and set off back to our plots. I tidied the tools away and packed up Degsy. I trundled back home in the weakening Sun. I took the spuds straight round the back of the house and gave them a wash before parking them in the shed.

Catch up

I have been allotmenting but not blogging. There are only so many hours in a week and I have discovered that you have to sleep for some of those hours. One of my allotment buddies has traded a strimming my plot for a couple of a trailer loads of manure. A decent trade in my eyes. The plot looks tuns better if still weedy.

It has been chucking it down this last few weeks so all I have been doing is tidying up. Today I tackled the Grape vines. It took me a good hour to tackle the remaining four vines that had not had the attention of Madame Secateurs. I ended up with more vine on the floor had on the wires but that is way it is supposed to be. I had an idea I would strim the ditch alongside the plot but it is holding a foot of water so no thanks.

The tiding up that I had chucked into the big compo bin has been turned in lovely compost by the worms. The warm (ish) and (very) wet weather has suited the compo bin worms and they have doing a great job. I dropped some more leaves and kitchen waste in the bin today and gave it a stir about just give the worms a chance.

A number of the post down the centre of the plot have given up the ghost and snapped off at the base. I will have to renew these soon. I think I will put in meta post legs instead of just hammering the wooden posts into the soil. Seven posts needed. I hope Santa has heard my plea.  

I looked around the other plots in between shovelling and pruning and I am still think my theory from last year is not disproved. I find those folks that have completed their winter digging, so that soil is bare, have had the soil pounded by the rain and it has clagged together. Soil on my plot is protected by the weeds so it might be honours even, although I know those weeds are growing, if slowly.

The bees are very quite as you might expect. They did not even come out when I very pruning the vines in front of the hive. There was a odd one near the entrance to the hive so they are still about, just not flying. 

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.