Sunny Day for Cleaning

Well now. There's a surprise. A brilliantly sunny and warm day in February. Just the sort of day to highlight how much work we have to do on the plot to get ready for this year's growing season.

Our two greenhouses are in a bit of a state. They need a damn good clean. But the problem there is that the water to the site is still turned off. There are ways around that of course, but only for the small greenhouse. The bigger one will have to suffice with just a sweep-up for now and will have to face a big wash later in the year.

The big greenhouse has the wooden work bench in it.

The smaller has just plain shelving racks.

The small greenhouse was washed down inside. Easy enough to wash the windows, but trying to rinse off the suds if not so easy. Fortunately a watering can with a rose fitted to the end and large amounts of swinging it around to splash the water up onto the roof panes managed to do the trick. It now looks much, much better in there. It is surprising how much of the bloom from tomatoes gets onto the glass.

The big greenhouse just got a general sweep out.

There was plenty of weeding to be down outside as well. We removed a whole mess of weeds that were infesting some of the paths between beds. As well as starting a new compost heap to deposit said weeds in. After that we liberally made use of the huge wood chip pile to put down a thick layer of chips. These will get more added as they settle.

There are also some other areas which need attention. The willow fence that I made as seen better days. But as the new tenants of plot 29 have seen fit to completely chop down the willow tree, I'm not sure where I'll be able to get replacements, if at all.

I might be able to rescue part of it, but it may end up in the fire.

Slowly but surely, we're bringing the plot back to life. It's going to be a while but I have some holiday booked off in a couple of weeks, so we can get things sorted. Meanwhile, the Daffs are going full speed ahead to bring the first flowers to the plot.

A slow New Year

Did nothing happen during January? Well, pretty much. January is such a cold miserable time down the plot. Nothing did really get done.

That's not to say that we didn't visit. After all there is only so much organic stuff we can keep in the kitchen before it festers into a rotting, mould strewn pile of smelly... so yes we did pop down the plot every weekend to offload or kitchen waste into the compost bin and generally keep an eye on things, but it has been just a little bit too cold and damp to do any actual work down there.

So when February rolls round, then it's time to make a start down there again. But last week was a wash out because I caught a cold and ended up snuffling and shivering in bed. Coughing so hard that I actually lost my voice. So now we have this weekend, and this time my wife is cursing, because it's her who now has my cold and can't get out and about. But I had allotment shop duty this week so I had to do my stint down there.

It all looks a little wild down there are the moment. There has definitely been an incursion of weeds into most of the beds. Hardly surprising as we haven't been around to maintain the place. But it's not so bad. Nothing a couple of hours with a spade couldn't fix.

Mr Fox has been having a dig into one of the compost bins. Fortunately not the one with all the yuck in it, no this was the "soil conditioner" tub. I piled all the loose soil and some of the weeds into the bin. Mixed in with the spent soil from the potato bags should have given everything a mix through and allowed it to become useful again this year. And Mr Fox has dug a lot of the loose stuff out and broken up the dried chunks from last year so it's ready to be used in pots, trays and beds again.

The council (or at least, the company working on behalf of the council) have visited and cleared out the waste bays. However they have left the place in an absolute mess. Their equipment has churned up the central area into a muddy quagmire. There is no chance of pushing a wheelbarrow through those ruts.

On the plus side, the wood chip bay is now fully stocked with wood chips. So much so that it's overflowing into said quagmire.

But alas, I can't really stay long. A quick water of the strawberries we have over wintering in the greenhouse and I have to get back to a sick wife. I'm sure the plot will be there for a later time. There is still plenty of stuff to do... when it's warmer and we're fitter.