Today was manure day. Lots of manure.
After pic. But not the last.
A job well done I thought. But no, apparently root veg don’t like manure so Helen demanured a bed.
Whilst I laid more patio in the green house and we both got rid of the snails.
Sam helped!
It’s been a year in the new place and I’ve gotten round to making the video from the time lapse recorder. I’m ashamed to say after the first two or three months, the camera ran out of juice, but the important bits were captured!
It’s time to move the camera and it’s now focused purely on the vegetable beds and greenhouse now. Hopefully we won’t see too much of the cats using the raised beds as giant litter trays…
I’ve been worried about my greenhouse temps, but someone on one of my forums I frequent gave me the advice of propping it open with a bit of wood. The openers work fine, but I’m worried of them slipping and the resulting hard crash smashing glass, so this seems a top idea. The louvre on the opposite side is open and the roof panel on the opposite side ought to give a good stirring draught to clear the heat!
After what seems an age, the greenhouse is fully glassed. In fact, Helen and I have even built staging for it today!
And filled with plants
All the plants in the house have now been relocated into the greenhouse.
And now I’m hiding out here whilst the April showers continue!
Glass is now in both sides of the greenhouse but not the back and front.
It’s not very stable at the moment and I’m almost out of clips.
It looks suspiciously like we’ve got a greenhouse being built… Well on the plus side if we get it sorted sometime by the end of this weekend it’ll be just in time for the snow!
The seed order went in yesterday – a wopping amount (about £69) which should do us for a couple of years – more so if we do seed saving. Next of course we need to get the greenhouse setup which’ll take a great deal more time and money. Because of my height, I just can’t easily fit in a ‘normal’ greenhouse. We were given an old greenhouse from my Grandfather, who’d actually got it from my other grandfather a number of years ago. A few bits and bobs were rotten and many more panes of glass were broken, but it still has the same height problem. So I’m looking to get it raised higher by adding concrete blocks under the frame. This means it’s got to be made level and proper foundations installed.
Yesterday we took down my grandfathers greenhouse. He’s tired of growing stuff, and he’s had it for about 20 years. It was already 2nd hand when he got it, so it’s good it’s still being recycled.
On the downside it’s got a few broken panes, so I’ll be out and about looking for new glass, about six need immediate replacement but we’re not in a hurry. We want to put the greenhouse on a wall to raise it up about 6″ which’ll mean I’ll find it more comfortable to work in
My grandfather had also made a self watering system out of copper piping in there, so it’ll be interesting to see how well it works!
Gah, parish councils!
On wednesday night I spoke to my good friend and fellow scout leader who I believed to be on the parish council, to find out how it went. Unfortunately he left because the parish council did more than make petty squabbles.
So I was unsuprised when I rang up the parish council to find out that whilst my greenhouse was mentioned, it was not properly discussed because it was not on the agenda (there was me thinking it came under ‘any other business’ but I didn’t feel the need to press the point…) and it has been put back to the 25th of april.
I’m in a mind to just go down and put the blinking thing up now…
Whilst we didn’t get much of a chance to get out this weekend to deal with any pressing issues at the allotment, I was donated three new plastic compost bins! So we dropped them off and did a quick inspection. We were also offered a greenhouse – but I’ve got to check with the allotment as it’d be the first on the allotments. Pond – check (still there & full) still awaiting frog spawn waterbutt – still standing proud… compost heap – check Wooden boxes & straw – check (none has made a run for freedom) asparagus bed – check! AND ASPARAGUS!
w00h00 Didn’t know what to expect when asparagus started to shoot. It’s not growing up straight but quite curly… We watered the parched and cracked ground (don’t know how, it’s been raining constantly) and checked on the onions which are sprouting nicely. I was convinced I’d killed it when I planted it, so at least I have four living plants out of thirty! Is there any good companion planter I can fit in around the rows? Even my french beans are going at a rate of knots… I’ll be planting them around the main compost bin (which is a slatted afair so should give them something to climb up!
I'm Tim, a 31yr old ex-Allotmenteer. My wife and I used to have a small 5 rod plot in South Essex where we grew all manner of veg. I'm also involved in brewing the odd keg of beer.
When getting down the allotment got too hard and our circumstances changed we bought a house with a 65ftx30ft garden, which we're converting into a mini orchard and veg beds.
We get up to some weird and wonderful projects - we've built a small boat, a pig roaster (powered by a windscreen wiper), a chicken run, raised beds and try our hands at all sorts of stuff getting us closer to being 'self sufficientish'.
The hope is to introduce chickens soon and hopefully let them free range during the day.
If you want to contact me, you can do so here