Sunday, March 19, 2006

Getting Down To It

Finally, a break in the weather, and a chance to get some work done on the allotment. Unfortunately, following an accident during the week, resulting in a sprained wrist and damaged tendons, not much heavy work for me this week, bugger!!

So, decided to work on the old shed area, getting the new hosepipe installed, and ready for the waterbutt, which will be moved to the allotment next weekend. Have ran a pipe from the standpipe outside my fence, along the internal fence, down to the ground, up the side of my shed, along to my new hosepipe. I can then just throw the end over the fence, and connect to the standpipe as and when necessary.
The blue upturned thingy is to stand the waterbutt on, then I can put some drainpipe round the shed, with a downpipe into the top of the butt.
The little green poly house has been moved from my back yard to here. Using it to start seeds of in, as the frosts seem to have now gone.

Have started of some seeds in there, Gardeners Delight tomatoes, cherry tomatoes (can't remember the variety at the minute) and Jalepeno chilli's. These will be potted up into 4 inch pots, ready to be transplanted into the greenhouse in a few weeks time (hopefully).

The greenhouse should be finished next week. Only about 8 panes of glass left to go into it. Have fitted an automatic vent unit to the top vent, and the west side has the bubble wrap ready in place. Put a few bags of topsoil into the beds, and mixed it in with the organic compost that I put down the other week. Should make for a nice growing medium.
After that, I turned to the left hand side bed, and as you can see from the photo, it is quite overgrown.
This is a mixture of weeds, brambles, nettles and rubbish, so set to work. All the rubbish picked up and moved to behind the shed, ready for bagging up and being taken to the tip. I then took to the tall stuff with a spade, in the form of a scythe, seemed the best thing to do. Ten minutes later, no tall stuff. A visit to Wilko's this weekend for an incinerator will take care of the cut down stuff, and then it will be ready for raking over to remove the top growth, and then dig over.
So, with the top growth cut down, you can actually see from the other end of the plot. Hopefully by next week, I should have a fair bit of the ground turned over, ready to be marked out into raised beds.
incidentally, the brambles will be dug out as best as I can, and transplanted into troughs, to be grown at the back of the plot. The troughs should keep them under control, and I will put a mesh panel up behind them, and try to train them to grow up it. Can't beat apple and bramble pie.

P.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Glazing Stuff


Woke up this morning to a nice white vista. Didn't think I was going to get anything done, but by lunchtime the snow had started to melt.

Finished putting the remaining glass into the greenhouse so I could see how many pieces I was missing (or had broken in transit). Then started turning the ground over.

Two hours and three bags of organic soil conditioning compost later, the greenhouse is almost there. A couple of bags of topsoil will go in in about two weeks time, and be mixed in with the compost.

Hopefully I will have the rest of the glass for the greenhouse by the time my seeds are ready to move from the cold frame into the greenhouse.

Pinsrap

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Starting Out



Hi, welcome and thanks for dropping by.

I took over this plot at the beginning of February, and as you can see I have got my work cut out for me.

The two sheds and three greenhouse were kindly donated by a friend in exchange for a case of Carling, which seemed like a fair swap to me.

The plot will be entirely organic, and is my first attempt at any type of gardening really, so should be an experience.

Pinsrap