Shovelin' 5h1t an' makin' mounds.

Yesterday was a day for fixing and repairing. Today was a day for making mounds of stuff.

There was a new delivery of manure first thing this morning. It was well rotted with minimal additional stuff in it. In other words, damn good stuff. So it was time to get truckin' with the barrow.

Firstly there is the original mound. This needs to have a good layer thrown on it, then dig up the soil from around the base. (Mr. Fox had a dig in there last night and left some nifty holes.) This will become the new courgette mound.

Then at the back of the plot there is going to be the new mound for the German Pumpkins.

Finally I made a mound by sieving last years compost. This has certainly broken  down well and has turned out great. Despite not turning or forking it in any way. I just piled it up and let it go.

This will mostly go in the new strawberry bed I built yesterday to give them some much needed nutrient boost.

And finally a look at the new blueberry pots. I did these yesterday but forgot to take a picture of them.

I seriously suspect that they're going to have to be netted in some manner as those pesky pigeons will be after them.

Roof on

Been a busy old day down the plot today. First things first though... coffee.

Whilst I spent an hour up a ladder replacing the roof on the shed, (If you remember, the roofing felt got ripped off by the storm), the Wife started clearing out the rubbish in the greenhouse and giving it a damn good clean out.

She seemed happy doing that, so I went off the build a new Strawberry bed for all those strawberries that have been over wintering in the greenhouse.

Don't worry, the foxes have moved out. Just as well, because there has been a delivery of manure. Something of a rarity on our side. The West Side usually gets the big deliveries, but we managed to get a decent pile this week. So tomorrow, I'll be digging the mound over and adding a liberal amount of manure ready for turning it into a courgette mound again. Also at the far back of the plot, I'll be piling up more manure for our German Pumpkins.

Elsewhere on the plot things are a little more alive. The Kale is still rather pigeon'ified, but that doesn't stop other creatures moving in. And they're a darn site more welcome.

So now the greenhouse is nice and clean. The Strawberries are moved back inside. There is still a slight chance of frost, but it's not that I'm concerned about. I need to dig out the old compost bin properly to put the compost into the new bed. That (and the afore mentioned manure) is tomorrows job.

But it does look a lot cleaner in there. Maybe it's because I re-planted the blueberries into bigger pots so they are now outside. Gotta make a net cover for them otherwise those damn pigeons will have 'em.

Somebody else's rubbish is my treasure

The weather reports said that today would be nice and dry. So I thought I could get a whole load of stuff done down the plot. Word to the wise. Do not trust the weather reports.

One thing I noticed the moment I drove in. That big pile of wood chip from last week... gone. And yes it was a big pile, but there is none left now. Nor is there any manure left.

Well the first thing I did was start setting out my spuds in the greenhouse. A few of them have got little shoots on them, but they need a little more warmth and more light to get going properly. Also put in a few more onions that were left over from the batch I put in last November.Yes, they'll be maturing later but that's no problem.

Time to cut back the buddleja. Its sort of taken over in it's spot between the water barrels. Even more so as it has fallen over and now falls onto next door's plot. So it needs a damn good cutting back.

Whilst I was then tidying up the plot and pulling out a few weeds I took a look at the Swiss Chard that had grown in the 1st bed for the last two years. Last year there were big stumps in there, and they sprouted into a fine crop of leaves again. I expected this year to be the same. But no. The stumps were almost hollow and fell over as I was weeding the bed.

It would seem that Swiss Chard is a biennial. If I'd have taken the time to read up on it, I would have known this. However it's not a problem.The seeds that it produced last year dropped all over the bed and there are lots of little plants now appearing. So more Chard this year. Woo hoo!

I still had some rubbish that I pulled out from clearing out the fox mound. So I took it round to the waste bin area of the site, and there I saw that somebody had thrown away an old cloche. The metal frame was not much use, but what caught my eye was the fact that the covering was a tough clear polycarbonate. That could certainly be put to use.

My shed has had damaged windows for a while. Yes, at the moment the roof needs doing, but those windows have been broken far longer. So a little measuring and cutting and there are now two new windows in place. Somebody else's waste becomes my new windows.

However no sooner had I finished that than it started getting really cold, and dark clouds loomed. A few spots of rain got me heading into the greenhouse. Just as well as no sooner had I got inside than it started throwing down hail.

I spent the next 5 minutes listening to it bouncing off the greenhouse roof before deciding that I shouldn't have trusted the weather reports and headed for home.

Shop and Woodchips

Had to do my stint in the shop today. It was pretty damn cold on the plot, but the new shop managers have re-done the shop over winter and there is now some electric heaters that kick on about 30 mins before the shop opens. So it makes it very comfortable to work in. We were surprisingly busy today. Mostly selling seed potatoes which people should now be chitting.

Afterwards I headed to B&Q rather than go to the plot. I bought a roll of roofing felt for the shed. But it was still a little too windy to try fixing the roof. However no sooner had I driven in than I noticed there had been a wood chip delivery.

We've been out of wood chip on the East Side for a while so it's time to put the wheelbarrow to full use.

The paths on the plot definitely needed a new covering. Mind you, after 17 barrowfuls I wasn't much in the mood for taking photos of the finished thing. Anyway, I hope there will be some left next week as there is more paths and beds I need to put down. There's always more to do... and I haven't even started chitting my spuds yet. :(

Roof off

I didn't get to the plot this weekend until late on Sunday, and even then it was just for a quick check-over.

However it seems that Storm Imogen which hit the UK last week has had a bit of an effect on the plot. I've been pretty lucky over the past few weeks that there has been no damage to the plot other than small things such as blowing over the compost "daleks" and occasionally putting in the already damaged window on the shed. But this time it has actually done some real damage. Nothing major but it's certainly something which should be looked at.

The roof of the shed has been taken off.

Fortunately only the roofing felt has been ripped off. When I built the shed, I only tacked it down around the edges, neglecting to put any of the tacks into the central part. So when the wind got underneath and loosened the edge tacks, it flipped the felt back and tore out the holding tacks. This left it flapping around and it tore all the way across.

Now the actual shed I got (from Tiger Sheds) has a slotted roof which is pretty secure so no water has got in. But the roof is more than a little damp so it might take a while to dry out... if I actually let it dry. I could simply tack a new piece of felt back on and let it go at that. It will dry out internally over time, and it'll probably survive. But to let it dry thoroughly is always better.

Bit of a moot point of course, as I won't be able to get it fixed until next weekend. So I hope it stays dry this week and for the next weekend.