Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

A gorgeous sunny day, but cold, and because the allotment doesn't get any sunshine it was just about frozen all day.

Collected another car load of rotted muck from the stables. This involves 2 trips to the muck heap which is currently about a 4 minute walk from the car. Muscles that are not used to this sort of thing were feeling rather worse for wear by the time I had finished.

Went to Wyevale for some weed suppressant fabric (they have a buy 1 get 1 half price offer at the moment). Its probably still extortionate but I wanted to see if they have any seed potatoes yet. They do, but no Lady C . Maybe they will get some in a bit later on, if not I will have to look elsewhere.

Went back to the plot armed with some cardboard boxes which are to go under the compost heaps. I have a better idea about what I want to do round there, so the temporary compost bin will probably be coming down soon. I just need to decide exactly what I want where.

Pulled up a few more weeds in the bits that were slightly less frozen, by which time it was getting dark. At least today I didn't come home with an inch of wet mud on my boots!

Rang my Mum, who confirms that she is collecting cardboard and shredded paper for me, and as she has a small wood next to her garden, I'm hoping to come back with some sacks of leaves next time I visit.

[Penellype]

Walked down to the plot to see how frozen it is:





The ground is so hard that I couldn't pull the fork out of the soil (right hand side of lower photo).

The first photo shows the hedge I cut back the other day (needs more work but at least I can now walk down there without being scratched) and the compost area, the 2nd shows where I have been marking out the first couple of beds. The pile of stuff at the back is tubs and sacks of rotted horse manure and there is another pile of it on some cardboard on the right. I've also removed some of the taller weeds near the tunnel.

As these photos were taken just before mid day, there is not going to be any sun on the plot at all. The forecast is for slightly milder nights (2 as opposed to -2) but cold days (around 4). I suspect it will be some time before I can make any further progress with anything very much. This is why I have been going at it a bit like a "bull at a gate" recently!

[Snoop Puss]

Is the hedge to the left causing all the shade? There's quite a bit of sun at the far end of the photo and even on top of the tunnel.

[Penellype]

No, I was standing facing north - there is an even bigger, more solid leylandii hedge behind me, and houses behind that, and its these that are causing the shade. It will be better in summer.

[Penellype]

Conditions had improved considerably today, although there was still ice on the water butt and an icy layer in places on the soil. Having managed to extract the fork I decided to dig up the remaining raspberries and remove some of the grass. Its amazing how warm you can get at 4 degrees in grey mizzle when digging!

Also took a car load of stuff down - 2 spare dustbins - 1 metal (for perennial roots) and one plastic (for use as a water butt), a roll of weed suppressant fabric and a load of cardboard and some more mesh for making compost bins. I'd forgotten to bring my rubber mallet so I couldn't actually make the compost bins, which was probably just as well as my back had had enough.

[Penellype]

Raining this morning, but as it was only drizzle and forecast to get worse, I went to the plot first thing. As I feared, the mud had returned, but I did manage to do a bit more digging up of weeds before the rain got heavier and I came home to do some work.

I went to Wickes to get some bricks, as I need to put weed suppressant fabric down on the paths and there isn't really anything on the plot that's suitable for holding it in place without actually pegging it down, which I don't want to do permanently until I get the raised beds. I noticed they had some broken and chipped ones which suited me fine. I also got a couple of 18 inch paving slabs (one of which was broken in half so easier for me to lift) which are to go under water butts. They gave me a discount on the broken stuff so the whole lot cost me about £8 which was somewhat less than I was expecting to pay when I set out.

Having dumped that lot at the plot and taken the car home (it inconveniences the buses so I don't park it there unless I have to), I went back to the plot and set up the plastic dustbin on the broken paving slab near the shed. I then emptied as much water as possible from the blue barrel into the dustbin (holds 70 litres), leaving the barrel about half full. I could then wiggle the barrel back a bit so that it is slightly less in the way but still catches the drips from the homemade gutter on the shed roof. I could do with sorting this a bit better and also moving the water butt the other side of the shed back a bit as well, but that will have to wait until summer when they are emptier and I can get them out properly and make a decent level place for them to stand. Today's job was intended simply to catch a bit more rain while I can.

[Penellype]

So, having been unable to do anything on the plot yesterday, I was pleased to find that there wasn't much happening on the work front and I could get quite a bit done.

This is how things looked when I arrived this morning:





The first job was to deal with the compost area. Having had the pile there for a week, I'm happy that I can walk either side of 1m wide bins in that area, so the plan was to put down some weed suppressant fabric along that line and use the green mesh to make the backs and one side of a long line of bins that I can divide up later as I find I need to. The orange mesh has been useful but is already sagging under the weight of the compost that is in it.

I spent a good 90 minutes this morning experimenting and ended up with the weed fabric down and the mesh in place. The cardboard is now on the soil the other side of the tunnel and I chucked the pile of compost over to where the cardboard was so that I could put a single piece of weed fabric the whole length of the area. I had to take up the wire mesh that is on the floor in the photos as it was too wide for the pathway. I have put the orange mesh down temporarily, but will probably put weed fabric down on the path as well as it is very muddy. I've also removed several randomly placed stakes including the one in the front of the top picture, and added several to support the green mesh.

After lunch I took down 3 bags of leaf/grass mixture that I got from my Mum's and put them in the compost area. Then I cleaned out the gutters on the shed which were full of leaves. I spent the rest of the afternoon clearing some more of the area in the lower picture, digging out dandelions and removing dead weeds and grass. I came across a few potatoes and some shallots and red onions, most of which were rather soft, so they went in the bin too. I was pleased with the progress I've made today.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera back this afternoon, but I will take more pictures tomorrow.

[Penellype]

Photos from this morning:

[jackarmy]

Looking great Pen , you must be buzzing

[Penellype]

I'm pinching spare hours here there and everywhere (and getting little else done) as I am aware that we are heading for a cold spell next week. I don't think its going to be a big freeze as such, but I could find that the plot is either frozen and won't defrost due to low daytime temperatures and no sun on the soil, or it could be covered in snow. So I'm clearing it while I can.

Back is sore tonight though

[Snoop Puss]

Wow, Penellype! That's looking amazing. All your hard work is paying off. Time for a relaxing bath, maybe?

[Penellype]

Today I cleared more of the beds on the left side and added more marker sticks - nearly finished this now. There will be 5x 6ft 6in by 3ft beds on each side of a 2ft wide path up the middle and paths between each. There will also be an access path alongside the tunnel, which is not quite straight so the path will be wider at the hedge end than the road end.

The 2 beds nearest the hedge will be for fruit - I have a blackcurrant and a gooseberry at home which can go here, and I plan to get another gooseberry and a pink blueberry for the other side. Because these are permanent plantings and will have to go deeper than the raised beds, I thought I might try to dig out the horsetail from the bed on the left having removed the grass, annual weeds and dandelions. There is a huge network of horsetail roots and I managed about a third of the bed before my back decided I had done too much. This may take me some time. The hedge end bed on the right is much weedier and may also take a while to clear.

I also transferred some water from the big water butt into the little blue barrel, which is now full. That means when it rains on Monday the water from the shed roof has some space to go into on both sides. Plan is to get a couple more water butts.

[lottie dolly]

Well done Pen,your not hanging around are you,pity you not nearer,i have some spare barrels you could have.

[Penellype]

Well done Pen,your not hanging around are you,pity you not nearer,i have some spare barrels you could have.

Thanks for the kind thoughts lottie, appreciated.

[Penellype]

This is where I was after yesterday's marathon:





Today's job was to finish off clearing all but the grassy bed near the hedge and the bit near the tunnel which I'm leaving for now as its probably the best place to put the raised beds together and if I start digging it will turn into a muddy mire. I've pretty much completed what I wanted to including removing the cabbages (the insides of which I brought home for tea).

I've also put some weed suppressant fabric down on 2 of the paths, although I can't peg it down yet as I want to adjust it so that it fits nicely under the edges of the raised beds without encroaching too far. I'm folding the excess part underneath rather than cutting it - I made the mistake of cutting down the length of this stuff at my friend's and the result was frayed bits of plastic everywhere.

I thought it best not to do any more digging today as my back is still very stiff.

This is what it looks like now: