Snadgers Penultimate Plot

[Penellype]

What has happened with my supposed monster pumpkins?

I have two or three of these green things about the size of a grapefruit, they look more like squashes to me!
How the heck can I enter these in a giant pumpkin competition?[ATTACH=CONFIG]83056[/ATTACH]

The perils of buying seed from eBay!

There are perils in buying seed from just about anywhere! This year I have had:

Cornflower Polka Dot MIX - came out 100% blue
Sungold tomatoes - one of the plants is producing red cherry tomatoes that do NOT taste like Sungold
Maris Bard seed potatoes that came out bright red (probably Highland Burgundy Red).

[Nicos]

What a change in 5months!...well done!

[Snadger]

Looking good

For you maybe, in the Pumpkin competition!

[Snadger]

Back at the plot this morning. After a spot of weeding and quick turnover of the soil in a raised bed I proceeded to plant my garlic. After splitting the three garlic bulbs I managed to get about 40 cloves. I worked out this would give me roughly four rows of ten. Positioned them first to make sure they would fit.





After this I just pushed the cloves one inch under surface and labelled accordingly.





Then a spot of heavy digging was called for. Dug a good bit more of the clay soil section of the plot and collected a few worms for what turned out to be a very productive afternoon fishing session.

[Snadger]

^^^^^^^^^^^^ After that I collected another five courgettes 35 off one plant so far.Prepared part of my onion bed and added a pickie of my Fuchsia which is laden with blossom which the bees love.

[Jimmy]

Can you get a wheel barrow on the bus ?
Jimmy

[bikermike]

Can you get a wheel barrow on the bus ?
Jimmy

Hide it in a tartan shopping trolley, no-one will ever know...

BTW - @Snadger, that membrane makes me nervous - do you know anything of the history of the site? big areas of membrane are used for a number of purposes, the most nasty of which are pollution control and ground stabilisation.

It seems odd to me that someone would go to the bother of digging up an allotment site and laying any kind of membrane etc.

[Jay-ell]

there is still life left in the old dog yet.

You'll have to wait for the leek trench then.

For you maybe, in the Pumpkin competition!

Waiting to see how/if the stabs heal for that.

Hide it in a tartan shopping trolley, no-one will ever know...

BTW - @Snadger, that membrane makes me nervous - do you know anything of the history of the site? big areas of membrane are used for a number of purposes, the most nasty of which are pollution control and ground stabilisation.

It seems odd to me that someone would go to the bother of digging up an allotment site and laying any kind of membrane etc.

I'm still removing it from some of the beds in the New Territories - full length of the beds but about 3-6 inches too narrow so that there's a gap at the edges (where the weeds are likely to creep in )

[Snadger]

Stayed dry this morning so I managed to put a couple of hours in at the plot. First of all I decided to plant the Durham Early spring cabbage in the virgin side of the plot which does not appear to have been dug previously. Trampled down and raked where I had dug and managed to make a reasonable seed bed. I had twelve plants and no tape measure or string so just had to do a bit of guessing (The secret of a good engineer is to be a good guesser!)




It turned out ok methinks! Bit of water and a few slug pellets added and we shall see how they get on. There are no pigeons on this site so I don't even need to cover them......we shall see!

I then raked and planted two rows of Troy overwintering onion sets on the side of the plot with more malleable soil. Once again no string line so guessing tactics again.



That was all I had planned to do for today. I still have red onion sets and another batch of Autumn planting onion sets to plant but I didn't want to sicken myself.

However, forever a glutton for punishment I decided to dig another four rows of rough digging before taking another five courgettes home with me.




Steady away and don't sicken yourself is my motto so I should have it all dug, and mostly planted by the new year.


Jobs still to do are:-

• Renew the gate hinges.
• Paint the fence
• Repair the shed
• Repair and re-commision the greenhouse.
• Finish the digging
• Position and link up the IBC to shed and greenhouse.
• Clear out a bramble patch next to shed
• Buy and plant some soft fruit

There is probably loads more jobs to do but the above will keep me going for a while.

[Snadger]

Twas a busy day yesterday. Shifted a load of stuff from the old Scrapheap plot to the new plot and home garden.
Harvested what I believe to be a Sharks Fin Melon from the old plot. I now need to google what to do with it.

Here it is in all its glory. About the size of a football but looks nowt like a sharks
fin.





I also harvested all my onions and put them on mesh at my new plot to dry out. Dug up some lavender for home, some Bergamot and an indeterminate shrub I was growing on for home. All were planted on my return. Half a dozen leeks were also harvested whilst I was there.

At the new plot I dug another three rows and collected worms for tomorrows fishing. I noticed that the newly sprouted garlic was getting grazed by slugs, so added some slug pellets.


At home I positioned the bird table and the sundial.




Quite pleased with the effect. I even orientated the sundial to tell the right time.

[SarrissUK]

I'm in absolute awe of what you have achieved, and how quickly! If only money wasn't an issue, I could give up work and do maybe half of what you have done lol

[lottie dolly]

Well done you

[muck lover]

That looks like nice soil. With that and your hard work it’s going to be hugely successful.
I’m jealous of your time and energy.

[Jay-ell]

Tis looking very nice indeed

[Thelma Sanders]

Wot they said!