Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

Very productive day today, although a lot of it was not at the allotment. However I did do some more leylandii shredding (but not digging as my back was tired). I also brought down some more pea plants left over from planting out at home and 4 of the cauliflowers which I planted under the net. The 4 raised beds nearest to the tunnel are now pretty much full.

I'd remembered to bring my camera and took some photos of progress:

From the hedge end



From the road end



Inside the tunnel



The compost area



The hedge end

[Penellype]

A few close ups:

Cauliflowers



Hotbed



Onions and pea support



Potatoes



Peas nearly ready to plant out

[Penellype]

Yesterday was an ok sort of a day although it started foggy. I got some more digging done in the tunnel and shredded a bit more leylandii. I then picked another nice bag full of salad leaves from the hotbed. The spinach is growing fast and I should soon be able to pick enough to cook.

In the afternoon I had to wait at home for the compost bin to arrive (thankfully they gave me a 1 hour slot). By the time I had unpacked it, taken it to the plot, cleared a space for it and put it together there wasn't time to turn the compost out of the black dalek into it. I think that is going to take some time anyway - the reason I don't like daleks at all is that they are nearly impossible to empty.

Today it is raining, so I am waiting to see if it is going to be possible to do anything at the plot or not.

[Penellype]

Well, today was a write-off. It rained all night and all morning so everywhere was flooded again. When the rain stopped I walked down to the plot, intending to turn some of the compost. Despite a clear radar picture the air was full of fine drizzle and it was very cold in the wind. By the time I had emptied the water out of the dustbin lids into the water butt and relieved the drip tray under the peas of about an inch of water I had had more than enough of it and went home.

[geepee]

In a few years you will have great stuff. It just shows how gardeners need to take a long term view. Fairly shows up those ‘instant makeover ‘ shows for what they are.....entertainment but not really about gardening.

The difference being .....Penellypes Allotment is ALL about Personal achievement in a period of 10/12 weeks since she took on the allotment, not only has she made MASSSIVE progress, mainly single handed, without the help and support of a team of helpers, she has also taken time to post her progress on here,often with photos, and descriptions, right down to the last and minutest detail, of all her other garden activities and commitments.

Not to mention her input as Weather Forecaster etc.

You are quite correct to mention 'Long term' view being important, but this Lady has proved that 'Short term' EFFORT is equally important.

Her sheer determination must surely show us all what can be achieved...!!

LLP.
Gp

[Penellype]

The difference being .....Penellypes Allotment is ALL about Personal achievement in a period of 10/12 weeks since she took on the allotment, not only has she made MASSSIVE progress, mainly single handed, without the help and support of a team of helpers, she has also taken time to post her progress on here,often with photos, and descriptions, right down to the last and minutest detail, of all her other garden activities and commitments.

Not to mention her input as Weather Forecaster etc.

You are quite correct to mention 'Long term' view being important, but this Lady has proved that 'Short term' EFFORT is equally important.

Her sheer determination must surely show us all what can be achieved...!!

LLP.
Gp

You have to have the time though, and I'm lucky to have that at the moment. Not everyone works flexible hours from home.

[1Bee]

I like your pea supports. I always laugh hollowly at the notion of twiggy sticks. Never works for me.

Emptying daleks... I find the heat shrinks the compost away from the sides and with a little rocking to loosen It I can lift the dalek right off, placing it on its next site, leaving the compost in a neat tower... I can then slice off the top uncomposted layer and lob it into the dalek to start again. Do yours have bottoms or are they too big to lift off?

[Penellype]

I like your pea supports. I always laugh hollowly at the notion of twiggy sticks. Never works for me.

Emptying daleks... I find the heat shrinks the compost away from the sides and with a little rocking to loosen It I can lift the dalek right off, placing it on its next site, leaving the compost in a neat tower... I can then slice off the top uncomposted layer and lob it into the dalek to start again. Do yours have bottoms or are they too big to lift off?

The pea supports are the result of years of trial and error with saggy "pea netting", scratchy chicken wire and totally inadequate pea sticks. I do put a few twiggy sticks at the bottom when I plant out the peas, just to get them started.

The daleks don't have bottoms. I managed to lift the green one off the horse manure (which wasn't very deep) as I wanted to move that one along a bit. The black one is nearly full, and I couldn't lift it off last time I tried, but I will have another go. When I emptied it before I had to take out about half the contents before the thing would move at all, but it had probably been there a year or 2, which may have made a difference. I'm going to go down after lunch and give it a go.

[Penellype]

Yesterday was another cold, damp and dull day, although not as dark as Tuesday. I use my solar panel generation as a measure of sunlight - the daily average for April with my setup is 11kwh per day. On Tuesday the panels generated just 1kwh, yesterday it was 2. Those figures would be disappointing in February.

Most of the standing water had drained away. The wheelbarrow has a couple of inches of water in it but there is nowhere to put it as all the bins and butts are full. However, I had ordered some slug nematodes and these arrived yesterday, so I will use the wheelbarrow water to water them in with, which hopefully I can do on tomorrow.

I tried rocking the black dalek from front to back a few times, and managed to lift it off the pile of compost. Thanks for the suggestion 1Bee . It made the job of turning it much easier and I got it finished in one go, which was better than I expected. Quite a lot of the chopped grass is growing in amongst (it was creeping fescue, which roots along the stem, so this is no surprise). It will be interesting to see if I get compost or a small lawn in the new bin!

I put the couple of sacks of leylandii that I have already chopped into the black dalek and chopped some more to go with it. The pile doesn't seem to get much smaller, but it will in time (I hope).

Other than that I removed several slugs from the sides of the empty dalek and snails (which like climbing the net sides of the tunnel) and some more horsetail from the hotbed, and harvested a nice big bagful of spinach leaves from the hotbed for tea.

[nickdub]

"I put the couple of sacks of leylandii that I have already chopped into the black dalek and chopped some more to go with it. "

You might want to consider putting this to one side out of the way in a large bag or whatever - I found the stuff I had took over 2 years to partially breakdown.

[bikermike]

could you use it as path cover? it either breaks down quickly (exposure and traffic) and you can compost it then, or it takes ages and you have a long-lasting path.

[1Bee]

Yay! I made Penellype's day a little bit better!

*Achievement Unlocked*

I'd like to do the nematode thing this year, as I have a lot of the little brown slugs in the soil, in spite of the bad winter. I'm always put off by the conditions you have to achieve for them to work. Perhaps I'll have another look.

[Penellype]

The daleks are not my favourite things and that's why I am putting the leylandii in one, at least for now. There is so much of it that I'd need several sacks, which would then get wet and provide homes for slugs. I might use it on the paths - I haven't decided. That was my original plan, but the paths are woven plastic weed matting and I might find that leylandii on top of them could be rather slippery. The first objective is to get the stuff chopped up, then I can decide what to do with it.

Nematodes are rather fussy about conditions and a bit of a pain to apply, but I do find that they help (although they don't completely eliminate slugs). In my garden I do 2 or 3 treatments a year depending on the weather (Spring, Autumn and Summer if wet). I haven't decided how often to use them at the allotment - I'm going to try one treatment for now and see how it goes.

[geepee]

could you use it as path cover? it either breaks down quickly (exposure and traffic) and you can compost it then, or it takes ages and you have a long-lasting path.

I think you'll find PEN' commented to this effect in an earlier post ...!!

[geepee]

"I put the couple of sacks of leylandii that I have already chopped into the black dalek and chopped some more to go with it. "

You might want to consider putting this to one side out of the way in a large bag or whatever - I found the stuff I had took over 2 years to partially breakdown.

Maybe you should look at some earlier posts in this thread......i'm sure Pen' already commented very similar ...! ?