I got two bites at the cherry this weekend. It was poo trailer day on Saturday so I was at the lottie fairly early having collected the trailer. I did not have to take the trailer straight back so I left the muck in the trailer whilst I barrowed the contents of the poo bin onto the lottie. I did a bit of hand weeding before I barrowed the muck onto the plot. The muck did about half the plot. I hope the cabbages appreciate the work. Muck bin empty I chucked in the trailers worth of muck.
Since I had the trailer I decided to tidy up the lottie as a whole and take to the tip those things that I can not get in my car. It took no time at all to fill the trailer is which is a bit sad really. I still had some time free so I set about riddling [sieving] the soil out the weeds. During the growing year I put the weeds into my black composts bins. The plastic black bins get really hot and kill the weeds. I make a point of getting the weeds before they set seed. The trouble is I get so many weeds over the year, a by-product of good fertility, that I fill the all my available bins. I have four. When the bins are full I end up creating a heap which I cover with black plastic sheet. The sheeting keeps the heap dry and hot which help to cook the weeds. This is the time to year to recover the fertility from the compo bins.
I set up the wheelbarrow next to the the weed heap with a bag opened next to the handles then forkful by forkful the pile goes so through the sieve. What gets left in the riddle goes in the bag. I had to leave at noon but managed reclaim three wheelbarrow worth of soil. I tipped the soil onto the Asparagus bed. The bags of weeds were put in the trailer with other rubbish. Then it was off to the tip and then home for a sarny and a brew.
The H, Miss l and I had an appointment to meet with friend at Draycott. I was to pick up I print out of a wiring diagram for my BMW. My buddies has an big colour printer which make the reading of the diagram much easier. We had a chat and a couple of brews and came away again print out in hand. Once I got home I was able to spend the hour before it got dark fitting twin wall Acrylic sheet to the roof of the Greenhouse to replace the pane that was broken. Instead of replacing the single pane the shape of the Acrylic sheet dictated that I replaced both panes. The Acrylic sheet was sufficiently large to supply two roof sheets so I replaced two set the roof panes with a little to spare.
The day was bright and sunny but with a bitter east wind but I was working hard enough to work up a sweat. Sunday morning was just as sunny and the wind just as bitter. Over night I decided to finish the riddling of the compo heap. It yielded another five wheelbarrow loads. I tipped each barrow load on the Asparagus bed and when all was loads were tipped I raked it out. The riddlings gave me a three inch dressing over the bed.
The other job a had set for myself was to remove the remainder of the fencing and hedge by the new car park. I set about it with will. I parked the car in such a way as to keep the full blast of the wind off me. Before too long I had worked up a sweat.....again. The fence and hedge came out without too much bother. The Hawthorn stabbed me a few times as a sort of vengeance. As I filled up the bird feeders and was thinking that for most of the past few weeks I have been at the lottie by myself but today there was four other folks toiling away despite the biting wind and as we chatted the sky darken a great flurries of snow swirled about us and that was me done at the lottie for the week. Steve walked down his plot and disappeared into the snow.
When I got home H was busy making Marmalade. Things were was tense, setting point was imminent. I managed to knock over some sugar so I made myself scarce. I went to the Greenhouse. Sometime ago I managed to get hold of a few big plastic boxes. I filled them with compost from the old grow bags and some horse manure I had brought from the lottie. In those boxes I planted two Charlotte spuds each. I have a tray full of Charlotte's from last year in the shed which are chitting like mad so I was able to pick the best ones. The spare Acrylic made a nice cover for one of the boxes. Setting up the boxes helped cleaning up the Greenhouse. The roof repair has made a real difference to the temperature inside the Greenhouse. It just needs a good wash down to prepare it for spring.
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