52 Week Challenge - week by week through 2013

[Sheneval]

VC - Apologies but I will have to put my challenge to cover my Brassica cage in debris netting back to week 22- as substitute I offer the erection of protection pens for various veg planted this week on my daughter's plot which took priority over my own.

[Sheneval]

Week 22 - I intend to cover my brassica cage with debris netting

[veggiechicken]

No need to apologise Shen - I've failed to read Treasure Island for a couple of weeks now
My Week 22 Challenge is to go on a "Cultivation of Fungi" course next Saturday. I hope its not cancelled as I'm not sure how many takers there are for it. Better read more of Treasure Island just in case

[Sheneval]

Challenges to date:

Week 1 - Toasting my new Allotment on site on New Years Day
Week 2 - Lime 2 beds on my Allotment
Week 3 - Fit a tap to my Allotment water butt
Week 4 - Teach my friend to research his Family History
Week 5 - Create a book from the Prestwick Burgh Records.
Week 6 - Bought seed potatoes for the first time ever.
Week 7 - Started chitting potatoes.
Week 8 - Made a new allotment sign out of a bit of old tree trunk.
Week 9 - Built the first of a number of wire mesh cages.
Week 10 - Sowed Sweet Pea and Leek seeds indoors.
Week 11 – Garage tidied to allow access to freezer.
Week 12 - Joined work party maintaining allotment site common ground
Week 13 - Made a Fire and burned all scrap and waste wooden material on allotment common ground.
Week 14 - Prepared bed for potatoes and planted same.
Week 15 - Cleared the 4 Family History cupboards in the library reading room to allow a new carpet to be fitted.
Week 16 – Won chess game which enabled us to win the match.
Week 17 – Helped on my daughter's plot and sowed peas, beetroot and carrots on my own.
Week 18 – Planted Onion sets, sowed some more pea seeds and netted cabbage plants.
Week 19 – Erected walk in greenhouse and helped layout daughter’s plot with paths, beds and sitting/storage area, also 4 Blackcurrant bushes planted.
Week 20 - Built a cage for brassicas.
Week 21- Erection of protection pens for various vegetables planted on my daughter's plot.

[veggiechicken]

It looks so impressive as a list so :-
Week 1 : Make a Grow Light box out of bits and pieces without spending any money
Week 2 : Plant a Tomcot Apricot tree and 12 Autumn Bliss raspberries
Week 3 : Clear the garage to make room for the car ahead of the snow (so glad I did that!)
Week 4 : Make friends with celeriac!
Week 5 - Remove all F1 seeds from my stash (70 packets )
Week 6 - Go to a Seedy Saturday organised by Real Seeds and meet up with Marchogaeth
Week 7 - Plant a peach tree
Week 8 - make yoghurt.
Week 9 - stop running the tap while brushing my teeth.
Week 10 - visit Raglan castle
Week 11 - Plant 2 hops on St Patrick's day
Week 12 - Start on the new fruit garden - planted rhubarb and blackcurrants
Week 13 - Plant 2 apple trees; announce the start of a massive redesign of the garden and ask the Grapes to nag me until its done
Week 14 - Count and list my fruit trees - 36
Week 15 - Sow 13 Varieties of kale
Week 16 - Go to the RHS Show in Cardiff and meet some new Grapes
Week 17 - Make a raised bed from a pallet and some junk
Week 18 - Take a photo with my phone
Week 19 - Go to an Unusual Plants Fair
Week 20 - Make a Bean frame from a rotary clothes line.
Week 21 - Make another raised bed from a pallet.

Phew

[Sheneval]

Hazel started it

It was your idea and it was a great one

[veggiechicken]

Just think about our lists in another 31 weeks - they'll be ginormous
Well done to everyone who has stuck with it - even if they haven't managed every week

[bramble]

Week 21 or is it 20 for me,
Walked and walked faster for the upcoming mini marathon on Monday. But then on Thursday my legs felt like they needed a break so I decided to have a jam making day.
Took all the fruit out of the freezer and made Apricot jam, bramble jelly and plum peach and straweberry jam
.All in all 21 pots of varying sizes.
Well pleased with my days work as I hadn't planned on doing it.

[bramble]

Week 22 for me.
Do the mini marathon on Monday 3 June.

[Sheneval]

Just think about our lists in another 31 weeks - they'll be ginormous

Hard to believe we have got so far already - I thought I would run out of steam after a couple of months but finding things to do has proved reasonably easy so far

[Tripmeup]

My task this week is to (at least) make a start on my brassicas cage...

[veggiechicken]

Week 22 Challenge completed
I've spent today learning about the weird and wonderful ways of fungi. So many fascinating facts. Take a very ordinary field mushroom, popping up through the grass seemingly at random. It's there as the result of "mating" between the underground mycelium of one mushroom meeting up with the mycelium of another mushroom. Where they touch, a fruiting body (the mushroom) is produced; this then develops spores in its gills, that are dispersed on the wind and where they land, more mycelium will grow.
We took spore prints from a Winecap mushroom (Stropharia Rugosoannulata) and these, sandwiched between 2 pieces of wet cardboard, would develop mycelium, which, if planted out in a bed of wood chippings, would provide edible fungi for several months of the year over a number of years. Here's my starter:-


Enough of facts, we also drilled holes in logs, inserted sawdust impregnated with Grey Oyster mushroom mycelium, and capped the holes with wax. This was the first time that I have ever used an electric drill . Look out pallets
We lunched on Nettle Risotto and Winecap mushrooms with ransoms and a fresh green salad that contained all sorts of leaves and flowers.
Add to all this an interesting mix of "learners", an outdoor Art exhibition, a community of people who live in tipis, old railway carriages and old buses and a Shire horse who was working the fields - and glorious sunshine!
One of the most enjoyable and interesting days I've spent for a long time

[Sheneval]

VC - I want to change my challenge again this week - instead of covering my brassica cage with debris netting as I intended and should have done, I had a go at the site's strimmer which is a fuel driven strap-on one with double self releasing cable -I also had to wear a face mask. I have only ever used a small electric one before so this was all very strange to me - I didn't get a picture but will have another go tomorrow and get my friend Jim to take one then.

So I claim Week 22 challenge complete.

[veggiechicken]

Hmmm, thinks to herself, could be a big improvement - Shen in a face mask

[Sheneval]

Funny you should say that - that's what Jim said after he made me turn my hat round and tightened the face mask up - now I know what the man in the iron mask felt like