Newt's Allotment 2018

[Dead Dogs]

Looks great Newt. I will follow you with interest as I am in almost the same position here.

Snap.
Got a plot with in 10 minute walk of the new home.
Cannot wait for spring.

[Dead Dogs]

I made an attempt to mark out my plots, but the brown rusty stakes and brown string aren't very visible against the brown straw! So I'm going to get the brightest paint I can and dip both stakes and string in that before marking out again.

Reminds me of a line from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
“Every time you try to operate one of these weird black controls, which are labeled in black on a black background, a small black light lights up black to let you know you've done it.“

[Newt]

Decided that since I've been looking for an excuse to try some of Stuart Semple's art supplies, I'd use this as a totally valid reason to buy some of his pigments. They are *painfully bright and saturated* so my allotment markers should be visible from the next town over!

Got some of his Blackest Black, some superbase, am debating picking up some Pinkest Pink since it'll probably show up against pretty much anything I have. But first I'm going to see what allotment string and pegs look like dipped in THIS

[Newt]

I've decided on a project to make good use of the wasted space where the junky compost heap is, since the space is in deep shade all day and all year and since fully digging it out to move anything like the mini toolshed there is going to take some time.

Treated myself today to some mushroom plugs from Ann Miller's. Got some plugs for chicken-of-the-woods, lions mane and coral fungi that will go into hardwood logs and get set up as stumps in that area.

I also picked up some mushroom plugs for morels and king stropharia, which apparently grow well in mulch! So later in the year once some of my taller crops are growing well or once I've planted some of my fruit bushes, I'll be able to seed these in the mulch around them.

I've always wanted to learn mushroom harvesting - I've taken wild food foraging courses before, but don't have access to any wild spaces in my area that I know are free from pesticides or other nasties, and in any case I wouldn't want to go picking and eating wild mushrooms until I've had a lot of guidance from an expert in the specific area I'd be picking in. So this feels like a good way to get to enjoy wild fungi safely.

[Newt]

The weather was abysmal today - hard and constant rain all day, making it hard to get much done. But we had a huge stack of boxes brought round by a friend, so I was able to get the Spouse out to help, and got the boxes down and the hay on top in good time.

We also moved the bee house from the back garden to the side of the shed, and sat in said shed with a cuppa getting some soft metal rods bent over at the top to form loops, so I can string yarn through them for marking out the plots.

Sadly there wasn't time to do the plot marking as well, but at least I'll be ready to do it when I go back tomorrow.

Pics!

View from the shed, of the Spouse working out ways to make that last patch of path less deadly-slippery


More progress on the mulch! I swear even if each new picture doesn't look like a big change, it actually represents about 60sq ft additional space covered.


Thoroughly sodden and ready to get home. He#s not actually grumpy, that's just his face.

[jackarmy]

Is that a Newt or a Badger ?

looking good bud.

[Newt]

Ha! Nah he's the badger, I'm the Newt

One of us is more content in the damp weather than the other!

[jackarmy]

I was focusing on the grey streak in the beard,

ah the newt took the fotos ?

[Newt]

That's the one!

Yeah his grey streaks are coming along quite nicely I must say. Starting to get one at each temple, too. A good look for any man lucky enough to have as much hair as he does, I think (you can't see in these pics but his hair when not tied back comes down to half-way down his biceps).

[jackarmy]

He i a fine figure of a man newt though dishevelled

[Newt]

He i a fine figure of a man newt though dishevelled

You know, I don't think he's ever been shevelled.

[Penellype]

Coming along nicely Newt

[jackarmy]

Always thought Shevelled was overated anyway

[Newt]

Set out early today to try and get something done before the rain started up again. Managed to get a few plots marked out with red yarn and some of the bent-over rods, and the whole thing's much more visible now.

It did also make it starkly clear just how incredibly wonky the allotment plots are! By 3 beds in my markings had gone from rectangular to rather skewed! I'm going to have a little fiddle with the vegplotter app with this new information and see if I can't figure out some ways to be more efficient in how I lay it all out.

[Penellype]

I found similar when I lined up my raised beds - the gap between the tunnel and the beds is 2ft at the road end and 3ft at the hedge end.