Busy Weekend

It's been a bright sunny weekend. So much so that when the time came to actually write up the work to put it on this blog, I just fell asleep totally exhausted. And I also think that I need to take more photos, but then again, how many photos of dug over beds and pulled weeds do you want to see? I mean, I'm sure you have enough of your own.

Now I think I've been foul of the Allotment Regulations for a couple of years now. For one thing, I haven't been displaying my plot number. The last time I saw a plot number was back in 2014, but even that was small and insignificant. So this time I made one bigger and better.

It will definitely need a waterproof lacquer on it, so in the meantime it will have to hang inside the new greenhouse, which is not really the best spot. I used a luminous chalk pen for the letters, and then the same wood stain that I use for the shed to make it really stand out.

Of course whilst I had the wood stain out, I also painted the shed. Not the full blown paint job like last time, but just a touch up where it needed it the most, along drip points and on the south facing side.

Now I need to sort out my beds. I've built a couple more of my stackable frames but I need to clear the space to set them out. So at the moment they're stacked up on what will be the sweetcorn beds. I had a whole load of weed membrane down covering one of the new locations, which I duly pulled up to reveal nice black soil. But of source having been stood for so long and being walked on it's somewhat compacted so will need a good digging over before it gets put into use.

In the meantime the weed membrane is moving to a new home to cover the pestilential couch grass that's everywhere. As this is going to be a pathway, I'll throw a load of wood chip ontop to help suppress it.

But I have a rogue Leaf Beat that's sitting proud in one of my beds. Thought I'd try and move it back into my dedicated bed. Although I seemed to have removed it without damage to the roots, it's not really happy with the move and seems to be wilting. Whether it'll survive or not, I'm unsure. I gave it a shed load of water to help it settle, but I fear I might have killed it. But we did get some leaves off it last week for a pasta dish, and it was a rogue anyway, so not a great loss overall.

The strawberries however are going from strength to strength. I think the wife is very pleased with her Strawberry Empire.

(But don't tell her that I knocked over one of her stacks and had to re-plant them.) Need to find a more stable area for them.

And the apple tree has finally started to blossom.

I'll have to try some Codling Moth traps this year in an attempt to cut down on the number of maggot apples.