Bit of break lately.

Since April I have been rather busy with clearing my late mother's house prior to contract exchange. Much ebaying, freecycling and bonfiring. Thursday, Friday and Saturday were a major blitz which completed the process with a skip and a hired van.

Yesterday I had a relaxed day of not really doing anything.

On the gardening front, between my last blog and todays I have planted out my sweetcorn, climbing frencg beans and some of my Pigletwillie banana shallot seedlings.

Today I are mostly been gardening in my greenhouse.
Which, fortunately for me has only one slight drip point and is very windproof.
I have:

• dismantled the inner sanctuary, removed the growbag house to the path and disconnected the temporary leccie supply.
• planted four bought in tomato plants in the side bed.
• planted three peppers, hot, across the side of the end bed.
• planted three more peppers, hot, in a growbag in the greenhouse.
• planted three more peppers, hot, in a growbag in the growbag house.
• potted up all my Crown Prince seedlings from tray to 3" pots.
• potted on all my Butternut from 3" to 4" pots.
• potted up my Sweetpea seedlings.
• un-potted and discarding any duds sorted my spring bulbs.
• planted ten French Marigolds amoungst the tomatoes and peppers.
• potted up my sweet pepper seedlings, discarding all the smallest ones.
• planted three sweet pepper seedlings straight into a growbag in the greenhouse.
• potted on my daughters pet geranium, bought a few weeks ago.
• potted on my "Queen of the night" succulent cactus.
• sorted out the hose and soaked all the greenhouse beds, as well as watering all my potting / plantings.
• filled all my watering cans and placed them in the greenhouse to get warm.

Starting work on the onion bed, hoeing out the potato harvesting ridges, nicely weathered by the frost.





























Here it is planted out and with the transplanted garlic, just after being watered.




















Also a long shot showing the four potato rows and the nicely cultivated area between them and the onions.















The Herb Patch, Dalek sanctuary and shed after the squash plot carpet had been gathered up.














The Fruit Terrace , nicely weeded.














My skip winnings.















How to insert a fence post.
First you twists the auger in the ground eight twists,



















then you pull's it out.

Garlic Post

Yet again I forgot the camera.
But, anyway, aren't the longer evenings useful?
Re-planted the garlic I had left soaking in water a couple of days ago, used the leek technique with a trowel rather than a dibber and watered in well.
Hoed with a Wolf three-claw hoe amongst the black and red currents, hmm, some difficulty here, the soil has packed down and smoothed off over the winter and the hoe barely scratched the surface of the clay. I think a session with a spade and a lot of manure may be needed.
Finished the evenings outdoor post work activity by planting another fencepost, hit a root two foot down and had to sledge it in a bit, again.
Hopefully I'll be away from these larger trees by the next fencepost, mostly dead or dying field maples.

Community Service and Potatoes

Went up the allotment and cut up the half a tree I cut down yesterday, met a prospective tenant and let 2a to her. Noticed a Jack Russell wandering far away from any people.
Kathy and co were having problems with the clods on their three rod plot, she had asked a couple of days ago if I would rotovate it for her, I think she thought I wasn't serious with the offer, anyway I went home, came back with the Merry Tiller rotovated the plot with that and was half mugged as I went to leave, said "I haven't finished yet" and left some puzzled looking people. Jack Russell on his twentieth circuit of the park.
Who looked a bit less puzzled when I re-appeared with the Howard 350 and comprehensively minced the plot. Got given £5 for petrol and a bottle of sloe gin and a promise of help with stringing the wire on the new fence. Jack Russell still there.
Too the Howard up to my plot and fitted it with the ridger, then took my ill gotten gains back home and got my four trays of chitted potatoes and some dog biscuits.
At the allotment gate four teenagers were worried about the Jack Russell and a chap with a small dog on a lead asked me if he was my dog. So I went dog catching with the help of this chap, Mr JR was not susceptible to dog biscuits, but was susceptible to other dogs bum's and while having a good sniff, the other dog's owner got him by the collar.
Then I picked him up, one frightened nice little doggie tried half heartedly to chew my hand, then gave up when he realised the size difference and that I meant him no harm.
No tag on the collar, no sign of owner, so we went home, to be greeted with disgust by my dog, delight by my daughter and "What have you got that for?" by my wife. Who then hit the phone while I offered our little guest a drink. Great things Bank Holidays, no council dog warden available, no police interest at the county control room and the only person at our cop-shop was out getting a sarnie! Cut out the middle man and tried the Vets, who advised our local animal rescue charity, who were most helpful and took the little chap in.
After this hour or so interlude, had to retrieve stuff from empty allotment site before driving Mr JR, I resumed gardening, drew four nice furrows with the Howard and was making for the chitted spuds when my mobile went off, the wife.
Our mystery guest had been unmasked as "Gus" from about half a mile, several roads and alot of twists and turns away. The charity had spoken to the police who had already been contacted by Gus's distraught owner after his escape from their property. They were now re-united.
Satisfied with that outcome I planted two 30' rows of Charlotte and two 30' rows of Nicola, then earthed them up, removed the ridger and rotovated between the drawn up ridges, then re-rotovated the other days area, still won't break down to tilth as set hard by the sun.
Back home, mowed the lawns, ran out of petrol after one full bucket and had to go and buy some, "Doh!", re-packed everything back in the shed, had tea and finished the day off with a nice roaring hot after dark wood and perennial herb detritus bonfire.

Civil Engineering

Noticed earlier in the weekend that my neighbour across the road was ripping out his wooden deck from his back garden, preparatory to some building works, so I had asked if I could do a bit of skip diving. Went over today with my little trolley and collected three good loads of timber, proper deck planks, structural bits from underneath, some concrete edging and a two person iron and timber garden seat. Lugged the whole lot up to the allotment, where a severe screw removal session will have to occur before I can use my booty.
After that I decided to continue with the northen fence. Managed to insert four fence posts during the afternoon. Doesn't sound like much and indeed the first two did not take long. However number three I hit a big root two foot down and could not use my auger any deeper. So I ended up banging the post down using the sledge hammer, I had no option as I could not go to either side due to obstructions.
Number four was even worse, hit a root one foot down, so moved the auger away a bit, then hit another root at just under two foot, so went to sledge it and hit a third root after another six inches. Number four is a bit high and will have to have some straining wire holes drilled in it. Grrrr.
Finished off by weeding and harvesting asparagus on the only vacant plot on the site, must contact next off my list to try and let it tomorrow.

Heavy Plant

Plot seventeen has now had the heavy plant treatment. The middle five rod section, comprising two and a half rod covered in carpet, where last years Squash plot was, a narrow grass path and the everything else section from last year, was given a thorough going over.
Carpet and woven black plastic, gathered up and stacked up above the herb area on top of a couple of pallets. This is the utility area and Dalek Sanctuary and that work took a good couple of hours.
The remaining Bright Lights Swiss chard cut off at ground level by spade and the tops popped on an unused bit of plot eighteen to wilt. I rescued some nicely sprouting Garlic, last years planting, which had not grown due to being overshadowed by the Blackcurrent bushes and popped them in a tub of water prior to re-planting. Said Blackcurrent bushes are now no more, well they are, but elsewhere, nice when someone does the heavy uprooting for you and they get the bushes they wanted. also some Onion Sets from last years sowing had sprouted, must have been the hot dry weather last year, then this spring the dormant bulbs had enough water to burst out.
Then fetched Hacken-Slash and his friend Slicen-Dice out of the shed for their first outing of the year.
Hacken-Slash is a Merry Tiller and quite good company, though inclined to wobble a bit. Anyway he slowly hacked and slashed his way through the five rods leaving a lumpy tilth behind.
Then Slicen-Dice took over and thoroughly minced the clods. Slicen-Dice is a Howard 350 and is a very noisy chap who works very hard, very fast.
A quite noticable difference in the tilth on the dug area, the top half that was exposed is fine and seed beddy, while the bit that was covered in carpet is much lumpier as it was so much damper.
So now ready to re-do in a few days, once the lumps have dried a little bit, if I use the ridger then the spuds can go straight in.
After that lot I was knackered and my back was protesting gently, so I wne thome and had a hot bath.

Warm sunshine, strong wind.

Strange but lovely day, wonderful warm sunshine with a cold strong easterly wind.
Two T-shirts and a fleece tied round the waist needed to keep my back happy.

The dog forced me to construct her a sheltered sunny spot using garden trolley plus coat, then she settled down to supervise my work.

I hoed out three 18' harvesting ridges from last years spuds. Leaving the soil in ridges over the winter really lets the weather work on it, this nicely weathered soil went straight to seedbed tilth. After raking in a light dusting of pelleted chicken manure I planted 120 Sturon onion sets and one 18' row of Early Nantes pelleted carrot seed, 300 seeds. Gave the carrot row one 11L rainstorm.

Then I set to work weeding my fruit terrace,. I started at the western end amoungst the "new" currant bushes where grass tufts and seed drift from my herb patch were the main offenders. As I moved east into and through the raspberries the weeds shifted to being strawberry runners, 90% strawberry runners. I have no need for more strawberries and thus nearly filled a 300L compost bin with strawberry runners plus other weeds. Towards the end of this stint I was working in the shade and my tiny hand wos frozen.

To finish my afternoons gardening I did the noisy stuff, strimmed and mowed the site drive and my plot side paths. Using the strimmer with my back to the wind was funny as I kept getting nice gusts of warmth across my arms from the exhaust.

As always my gardening is paced and I make full allowance for my bad back, half an hour of squatting to weed leads to quarter of an hour back stretching break lying straight and stretched out in the sunshine with my furry supervisor standing watch, or using me as a centrally heated windbreak.

Intentions versus reality.

I had intended to plant my onion sets on plot seventeen, but my back insisted it did not want to get exposed to cold drizzle and biting wind.

So I went and bought ten bags of postcrete for continusing witht the northern fence replacement, as I had run out of it, so was unable to pop a post in when I had the time.

On returning home I retreated to the unheated, but sheltered greenhouse and pricked out my "Piglet Willies" aka banana shallots supplied by Pigletwillie from GYO.
From one hurried sowing in a single tray on 23rd Jan, I now have ninety-seven pots, ninety three with single seedlings and four each having an additional little sprout.

The rest of the contents of the inner sanctum (growbag house with single-tray heated propagator in) to the main bench also got reorganised.

Moved the Climbing French Bean seedlings straight onto the main bench.

Pricked out the nine best seedling Cayenne Chilli Peppers, discarded the rest and a whole mini-tray that had dried out , sowed another tray of sweet peppers. The whole lot staying in the sanctum. Pricked out the eight nice little Butternut Squash seedlings and replaced them in the sanctum. Turned the fifty nicely growing sweetcorn seedlings round, as they had a slight lean.

Watered everything, then did some site agent stuff to agree with Michelle how much of the available five rods she wanted.

The finer weather means I need to be more disciplined about watering my seedlings, the max-min thermometer shows that the inner sanctum is regularly exceeding 40 degrees and as a result I lost a tray of pepper seedlings that just plain dried out.

At last a nice day when I can garden.

Sunday 11th.
Rhino bruised his elbow at school during the week, suspected break, but just bruising, anyway, he only lasted at rugby training up to the first tackle he made on someone in the practice game.

So I got an extra hour at the allotment.
However had to be careful as I carried a bit of kit at work from one building to another, it was well within my lifting limits, however my back objected and ten minutes after sitting down at my desk it started to "squirm".

Dug off the neolithic barrow from last post I set up on the fence to the position for the next one, dug the hole and set it using the very last bag of postcrete. Need to get some more, plus reciept.
Attempted to tidy the sunniest strawberry bed, oh dear oh dear.
Note to self, this year I must cut back the plants hard once they finish fruiting to prevent runners. The furthest I found was six feet outside the bed. I ended up weeding out a good hundred plants along the edges, then raked the dead stuff and oak leaves off the rest of the bed, dug out some weeds and left the higgledy-piggledy plants as they were.
Took a rest with my supervisor, the dog, nearly went to sleep lying on my plastic bag and old scourer underlay bed in the sun, noisy kids made me look up and there was my furry little guard keeping watch. About five other people there all the time, though different ones at any given time.
Removed the last of the carrots from the raised bed, why is it commercial carrots have so little flavour? It can't be like commercial tomatoes, where hendling qualities outweigh flavour and texture, carrots are hard and resilient veggies.
Weeded about half the plot used by last years early potatoes, then decided discretion was the better part of valour and went home to a beer, a hot bath and a roast pork dinner.

Monday 12th
Great days these as the daylight zone starts to extend into the evening.
Got home early enough to go up the allotment and spray the resurgent couch grass on plot 18.
About four other people up there enjoying the warm sunlight.

I've started, hopefully I'll finish.

On Monday February 5th my mother passed away, the old peoples friend pneumonia took her quickly, after a long illness. I have therefore been a little busy with non-gardening matters. To compound things when I have had time the weather has removed my inclination as the plot has been way too soggy.

However, last friday 23rd feb, I had some spare time after dealing with some legal paperwork, so I ran an extension lead, off an RCD, down to the greenhouse and initiated plan "Frost-free".
Inside the greenhouse is a complete plastic covered "growbag" greenhouse, inside that is a single tray electric propagator.
I sowed last years seed : butternut squash, peppers, tomatoes, climbing french bean and sweetcorn and this years seed; some banana shallot seed from the most excellent Pigletwillie, a good KG and GYO forum friend.
Today I took these pictures.
The growbag house in the greenhouse.




















The butternut seedlings, cover removed for photographic purposes, the peppers and tomatoes not yet showing clearly, but on the way.















This slightly fuzzy phot is of Pigletwillies banana shallots.
















Just outside the greenhouse door I have this lovely display of lenten roses.














Inside on the bench various flowering bulbs, which were repotted last friday 23rd Feb.
Just visible in the foreground are my lettuce seedlings