Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

All good thinking Pen'...Do you Never stop..???......Your just Amazing ....you

cram so much in to your days.

Um, that's only what I did at the allotment. This morning I mucked out the horses and dug out some of the old hotbed in my friend's garden so that I now have a few buckets of compost warming in the greenhouse ready for early potatoes. Keeps me occupied anyway!

[muck lover]

Just droolin here at the thought of all that muck.

[Penellype]

Managed to get down to the plot for an hour this afternoon and finished trimming the big leylandii hedge. There are still a few bits on the top that could do with tidying up, but I will need my step ladder for that as the chair I was standing on is not high enough.

[Penellype]

I didn't take my camera to the allotment yesterday, so nipped down first thing this morning (to beat the incoming rain) and took a few photos of the recent progress:



This shows the filled raised beds, with compost covering the nearest one, which will be used for parsnips and carrots.



The view from the road end showing the trimmed leylandii hedge. Clearly the houses the other side cut their side of the top, and the house on the right has let that bit grow much taller than others. I'm hoping that with the help of a step ladder I will be able to cut off 2 or 3 large branches on the left side, which should make a big difference.



This is what I cut off that hedge.

[Jimmy]

Ahhh devil trees
When I moved in to our house 30 years ago I had them scattered around the garden
Removed them, they are not very deep rooted.
Still have a back hedge of them, they make a very good barrier.
But keeping them in check is a night mare, particularly now I am becoming decrepit.
Cost me £100 last year but I think I will have a go this year.
Trouble is they keep getting wider and wider, they now seem to be effectively two hedges.
Jimmy

[Penellype]

Mine at home are similar - I had the front hedge removed a year or so ago. It was probably 6ft wide even though I had religiously trimmed it every year. This one at the allotment had clearly been trimmed to the height that the guy could easily reach, but the top can't have seen a trimmer for at least a couple of years, probably longer.

[Penellype]

An unexpected gap in the rain allowed me to nip to the plot at lunchtime and shred some of the pile of mostly grass that came out from the bottom of the hedge yesterday. This stuff is like spaghetti, and my usual methods of shredding (lawn edging shears or secateurs) proved totally ineffective. In exasperation I tried a pair of ordinary scissors and found this worked very well, although it was a little hard on the hand. I shredded about a third of the pile before the rain showed signs of returning.

Moved one of the dustbins into the tunnel to act as a water butt and added some water to it so it doesn't blow over. I've put it in the corner of the tunnel nearest the shed, so to fill it all I have to do is take the lid off and fill watering cans from the water butt then tip it through the mesh into the dustbin. This will save a lot of walking in summer .

Finally checked the hotbed, which is running nicely at 10C. No sign of germination yet, but i noticed that the fleece covering the compost is very wet. This won't do seedlings much good when they germinate, so I added a few short stakes down the middle of the bed to lift the fleece away from the compost a little, while still providing an extra layer of insulation.

Come on lettuces, you should be starting to show some signs of life soon! (I suspect carrots, spinach and beetroot will take rather longer).

[Penellype]

Gorgeous sunny day today, but very very wet underfoot after rain almost all day yesterday.

Took 2 trugfulls of old compost down in the car and put them on bed 2, which will grow peas. Some of the compost was a mish-mash from pots of flowers and tomatoes where I hadn't made a note of its history (tut tut!), and some had recently grown potatoes, brassicas and carrots and needed removing from its pot in the fruit cage so that I can add newly sifted compost for this year's carrots. I like jobs that achieve 2 objectives at the same time.

Having taken the car home I then walked back and chopped a bit more of the weed pile, before pushing the wheelbarrow home. After a quick lunch I then put the gooseberry bush in its bucket onto the wheelbarrow and pushed it to the allotment. I parked the gooseberry in bed 8 for now. The blackcurrant bush will be joining it in the same way shortly.

I'd also taken down a pack of 80 onion sets (Sturon) which I planted in bed 3 under the fleece. I've been waiting for this to defrost enough to be able to push the onions into the compost. They shouldn't mind if it freezes again. There is a little space left in this bed were I plan to grow some summer leeks.

By this time it had decided to start snowing (there was the odd shower about) - I was quite surprised that it was cold enough to snow as I felt quite warm. It was probably just as well anyway as I really needed to go home and do some work!

[Penellype]

Another nice day today tempted me to do far too much.

I started off by planting 50 onion sets at home and sowing some cabbages for the allotment. Then I went to see what I could do with the hedge on the west side of the plot. This is a real mish-mash of leylandii, hawthorn, buddleia and ash trees, and the people on the other side of it clearly haven't cut their side of it for a couple of years or the top for a long time. Trimming it with shears proved impossible because of the hard hawthorn and ash branches, so it quickly became a secateurs and loppers job. I did more than half before my arms got tired of working above my head.

I cleared up the trimmings and then took the wheelbarrow home and collected the blackcurrant bush. This is much bigger than the gooseberry and was hard to manhandle through the garage and onto the wheelbarrow, and I got a few strange looks from car drivers queueing for the traffic lights when I pushed it down the main street. I put it near the road end of the plot for now.

I really should have stopped there and gone home, but it was such a nice day... so I decided to dig the last of the raised beds. I know, its too wet, but at least today it wasn't frozen, and I wanted to get the grass out. I managed to dig all of it and remove the dandelions and most of the grass, by which time I was very tired and it seemed like a long walk home.

My excuse is that at the moment the weather is nice and it might get very cold and snowy next week (the models still can't make up their minds). So I am making hay while the sun shines.

Checked the hotbed before I left - there are signs of some of the lettuces germinating

[Penellype]

Today did not go as planned.

I'd intended to get going early, dig out the compost (old potato compost) from one of the raised beds at home and take it to the allotment to cover the bean bed. I was expecting a bit of rain early, but when I looked at the radar picture it was clearly going to be thoroughly wet for pretty much the whole morning. I decided that as I was going to get wet mucking out I would get on with it anyway.

When I got to the plot with the compost I found that a cat had discovered the nice soft compost in my pea bed and used it as a toilet. Great.

I mucked out and brought the fresh horse manure home, and put it in the raised bed I'd emptied earlier, to make a hotbed (this will be underneath buckets of early potatoes and hopefully provide some warmth in the likely cold spring). Then I went to the local garden centre to get some fleece.

While I was there I was intending to get 3 bags of compost as I always use plenty at this time of year. For years I have used Westland MPC, which I buy in 50l bags, usually 3 for £10. There wasn't any, and the usual space was filled with a stack of 90l bags. When I asked the lady said that Westland have stopped making 50l bags and she is furious as it is their best seller. I had a poke at a 90l bag - I couldn't even move it, let alone attempt to lift it. Although the garden centre offered to deliver it, I would still need to be able to move the bags around at home - my garage is simply too full to have immovable objects in the way. I bought a couple of grow bags to tide me over, but I will need to find another source of manageable compost - B&Q looks the best bet. Furious, I came home and wrote a vitriolic email to Westland asking how a near 60 year old woman was expected to lift 90l bags of compost, saying they had lost a customer, and that discontinuing the 50l bags was a stupid thing to do.

By now it was lunch time and it had stopped raining, so I took the fleece to the plot and covered the beds that have compost on, removing the cat poo. Hopefully that will keep the cat off. Everywhere was thoroughly squelchy, so after tipping the water from the various bin lids etc into the water butts I gave up for the day and went home to sow some seeds.

[geepee]

Today did not go as planned.

I'd intended to get going early, dig out the compost (old potato compost) from one of the raised beds at home and take it to the allotment to cover the bean bed. I was expecting a bit of rain early, but when I looked at the radar picture it was clearly going to be thoroughly wet for pretty much the whole morning. I decided that as I was going to get wet mucking out I would get on with it anyway.

When I got to the plot with the compost I found that a cat had discovered the nice soft compost in my pea bed and used it as a toilet. Great.

I mucked out and brought the fresh horse manure home, and put it in the raised bed I'd emptied earlier, to make a hotbed (this will be underneath buckets of early potatoes and hopefully provide some warmth in the likely cold spring). Then I went to the local garden centre to get some fleece.

While I was there I was intending to get 3 bags of compost as I always use plenty at this time of year. For years I have used Westland MPC, which I buy in 50l bags, usually 3 for £10. There wasn't any, and the usual space was filled with a stack of 90l bags. When I asked the lady said that Westland have stopped making 50l bags and she is furious as it is their best seller. I had a poke at a 90l bag - I couldn't even move it, let alone attempt to lift it. Although the garden centre offered to deliver it, I would still need to be able to move the bags around at home - my garage is simply too full to have immovable objects in the way. I bought a couple of grow bags to tide me over, but I will need to find another source of manageable compost - B&Q looks the best bet. Furious, I came home and wrote a vitriolic email to Westland asking how a near 60 year old woman was expected to lift 90l bags of compost, saying they had lost a customer, and that discontinuing the 50l bags was a stupid thing to do.

By now it was lunch time and it had stopped raining, so I took the fleece to the plot and covered the beds that have compost on, removing the cat poo. Hopefully that will keep the cat off. Everywhere was thoroughly squelchy, so after tipping the water from the various bin lids etc into the water butts I gave up for the day and went home to sow some seeds.

Not the best of days then by the sound of it, Expect your not a 'happy Bunny' but keep your chin up .
Things can only get better ..

[Bluenowhere]

Furious, I came home and wrote a vitriolic email to Westland asking how a near 60 year old woman was expected to lift 90l bags of compost, saying they had lost a customer, and that discontinuing the 50l bags was a stupid thing to do.

Forget being nearly 60 I’m 20 years younger and after wrist surgery a few years ago I’d not be able to lift the 90l either so they will have lost more customers than they realise!

[Penellype]

Better day today, although most of what I did wasn't at the allotment - I spent the morning planting onions at my friend's, emptying her old hotbed into buckets for potatoes and then making a hotbed at home with the proceeds of mucking out.

After lunch I went down to the plot, which is still very squelchy. The fleece has stayed put and there are no more unwelcome presents from cats. I chopped all the thorns off the big pieces of hawthorn that I had pruned off last week and put the branches on the wood pile. I hate thorny branches.

After that I chopped a bit more of the weed pile, then had a chat with a lady on one of the other allotments - the first time I have seen anyone else actually doing anything there.

[Penellype]

More rain

Actually it was a mix of drizzle and heavier bits, which made it more sensible to garden at home where I could retreat indoors when it got too wet. I therefore spent most of the day rearranging stuff in preparation for the incoming cold spell.

I did walk down to the plot in a drier slot in the afternoon, mainly to empty the water out of the dustbin lids and wheelbarrow into the water butts. The whole place was squelchy and slippery. The forecast is for a drier and breezy day tomorrow, so hopefully it will dry things up a bit.

Took some photos of progress while I was there:

[geepee]

More rain

Actually it was a mix of drizzle and heavier bits, which made it more sensible to garden at home where I could retreat indoors when it got too wet. I therefore spent most of the day rearranging stuff in preparation for the incoming cold spell.

I did walk down to the plot in a drier slot in the afternoon, mainly to empty the water out of the dustbin lids and wheelbarrow into the water butts. The whole place was squelchy and slippery. The forecast is for a drier and breezy day tomorrow, so hopefully it will dry things up a bit.

Took some photos of progress while I was there:

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]78643[/ATTACH]

Your doing a great job...especially on that West side hedge....i'd suggest you cut it right back on your side, it wont be the most appealing on the eye for a while , but it will green up again,slowly and eventually, as ALL neighboring Leylandi it grows both sides despite being planted from one side.....!!!
Your Neighbours hedge as probably encroached on your side by at least 50,60,70cm ,maybe more from the boundary posts.
Gp