Sunday, November 12, 2006


Now for some good news .
I have acquired a 10 ft X 7 ft shed and built it up with no hitches .. It has also been reinforced with lots of extra nails to keep the wind at bay. I have filled up the shed with the important things first ---------> tea pot , kettle , stove , mugs , seat and last but not least my garden tools. I am just in the process of looking for a log burner to keep me nice and warm through the winter months. I should be getting some wood this week so i can make a start on the cold frames i hope to have plenty of pics to post on here and also some dimensions to give people a helping hand at making them.


I have told the other half that she is banned from the plot but she has ignored my order and made herself right at home


The shed is now turned into the workers tea hut , Just to keep

them all sweet whilst there digging in these cold conditions


Bad news

Operation greenhouse has failed . We started to erect the greenhouse and somehow had managed to lose some of the steel plates So we left it half standing whilst we went away to make some new brackets . On our return we were greeted with a pile of bent metal and broken glass ( mother nature had her way and trashed it ) So with the glass i have salvaged im going to build a few cold frames and not bother with a greenhouse.....

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Quick update

I Went down the allotment yesterday and had a nice bonfire to keep me warm while I spent most of the day chatting to the neighbour... When I finally did some work I covered all of the top end of the plot with some black weed membrane .

I will be removing this in Feb some time ... I have now joined my local free cycle group so when I got home I checked my emails to see what bargains were going for free . And to my surprise there was a greenhouse so off I replied and won it .. Picked it up today and dropped it off at the allotments . If all goes to plan I will be going down on Saturday to build it back together ( looks like one hard puzzle in a million bits ) Hope to have some pics to post up after the greenhouse mission is completed...

Thursday, September 28, 2006

MAIN CLEARANCE






After debating long and hard on where to start I decided to hit the worst area first. The majority of the weeds consisted of brambles and nettles. After a good few hours of digging the roots out and removing the growth I had cleared half of the bottom end of the plot.

I
then decided to give the weeding a rest and to start laying the shed base. After a bit of raking the ground level I started to move the slabs, which I had acquired for free off a mate, into position. The base is 10' x 8'. After I had finished this I went back to my weeding duties and finished the other half of the plot at the bottom end. I have also found a network of tunnels which belong to the rabbit family so I did the right thing and filled them in! There will be no more rabbits on my plot!


Looking at how much work I'd done in a few hours I was very pleased with it and so I decided to hang up my fork and spade until next time.




My next jobs are as follows ....
For the month of october
Clear all of the scrap metal off the plot ( trip to the tip )

Burn all of the weeds I removed
Continue to dig over the middle section of the plot
Cover all dug beds with black weed suppresser

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

I went down to the plot today after a good month of neglect .To find that all the weeds had reared their ugly heads and I was back to square one. All my own fault for not finding anytime for it.So I have altered my diary for the foreseeable future and dedicated Wednesdays , Fridays and Sunday mornings to the plot. So there should be no more getting side tracked.

Had to call my mate to drop off the petrol strimmer and off I went and strimmed the whole plot again. Then me and Mr kerruish finished off the outer fence. Then it was time for the old shed to meet its end so off we went and knocked it down and built a nice big bonfire. Hopefully I will be getting my new shed dropped off on Sunday and some frame work with netting on it for my fruit cage.

Plans for the rest of the week are as follows. Tomorrow go and buy some more fence posts and also some black plastic membrane. On Sunday I'm going to cover the whole plot with black plastic to kill off the weeds. Just need to decide now on what system to use, do I go for raised beds or stick to the rows?!

Thursday, August 24, 2006

FIRST HARVEST

Just getting my first harvest of tomatoes now. Seems a bit late but then again these have been outside and not in a greenhouse ...... As you can see the chief taster seamed to like them ( he wasn't to keen when he took a bite on a green one )

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Back garden
Even though this blog is about my allotment plot I thought i would add an entry to do with what im growing at home in the back garden ( small one at that )So here are a few pics of what im growing
We have runner beans , cabbages , beet root , carrots , herbs and tomatoes

Were getting loads of runner beans so im freezing them every day , At this rate we should have runners every day through the winter

Monday, July 31, 2006

SUNDAY

Well Sunday didn't go exactly to plan , we didn't turn up at 7 we got down there about 9.30 after going out on the beer the night before . One of the other lads who was meant to help made some excuse about taking his Mrs. to work ( yeah right ) So it was just me and Kerruishy . I thought the digging was going to be the hardest bit but it took us no time at all , I think it helped with it not being that warm and the rain the night before softened up the ground ..... Once we had dug the trench we then positioned all of the stakes .Thank god i bought a post driver instead of sledge hammering them into the ground. They flew in using the stake basher as i have named it . Then we had to nip to B n Q to get some tin snips to cut the chicken wire and via the way back we stopped at a food van and had a couple of bacon butties and a cup of tea , once back we cut the chicken wire and tacked it to the stakes then we threaded the retaining wire through the chicken wire ( not before me getting into a mess with it ) and then we sat back and admired our work and called it a day. Even though there wasn't much sun we both still managed to get sun burnt. Think im going back down on Thursday to tidy up the last bits ......




I thought i best add a picture of my bald mug on here , Its a good job i look busy ( my work mates dont do all of the work ) Honest

BINDWEED

When i turned up on Sunday i noticed that at least half the plot has been attacked by the dreaded bindweed . Im debating on whether to dig it up the hard way or kill it off using roundup. Think i will have to flick a coin on which way to go



MY BROTHER While Kerruishy was gardening in Hathern
Some thought it was a total eclipse
But Mark had just taken his top off
And blocked out the sun with his tits.

Alan Titchmarsh he definately isn't
But what he is I just don't know
Well at least while he's helping out digging
It saves Limby getting a scarecrow.

With hair that looks like a haystack
And a body that resembles jelly
He's a dead ringer for Worzel Gummidge
Except for his much bigger belly.

Friday, July 28, 2006

WORK MATES

This is one of my work mates who came down to help me , even though he spent most of the time looking into his smoking cauldron ,However he was good enough to lend me his petrol lawnmower for a small price of some home grown beet root


Hubble bubble cauldron of trouble,There's a spell which will make you tremble.Warthogs toes and dragon scales,Witches warts and vampires teeth,Sour blood and tongue of snake,Eye of hydra and acid of demon,Bats wings and leg of the grim reaper,Tail of hellhound and heart of tentacle.Hubble bubble toil and trouble,Here's a spellwhich will make you tremble.

And his side kick Simon salt on the right


Im all ready for the weekend now , My trench is dug and i have all of the kit to start erecting my fence , I even managed to get a couple more new volunteers to help me ( I DON'T THINK THEY REALISE YET WHAT THEY HAVE LET THEM SELF'S IN FOR ) ha ha .. Just checked the weather and it looks like rain for Sunday . At least it will be cool and even more cooler at 7 in the morning

Monday, July 24, 2006








Me and a couple of work mates waited for a nice day and then we hit the plot ( operation ground clearance ) was the mission name. With a mower and a petrol strimmer we went to work on it ... after a couple of hours and several bonfires later , it was starting to look quite good . We could even see the ground .

Whilst there we even had a visit from some of the local wildlife


So now that the plot is looking like a football pitch and not a mad overgrown field i have started to plan where i want my beds and greenhouse and few other things like that .Today im going to nip down to the local farm shop and get some chicken wire and then im off to a timber yard to get some fence posts. I will also try and get down on Wednesday to dig at least a 2ft trench around the perimeter so that the pesky rabbits cant dig under the fence .. But looking at the 5 day weather forecast it looks like its going to be to hot. I will have to see.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

MY PLOT


I have just rented my first plot , and at the minute it looks like an overgrown field ..... I have a lot of work to do and quite a bit of time as IM not planting anything till March next year , As I have quite a few vegetables growing in my garden at home .. IM growing runner beans , tomatoes , carrots , beetroot and cabbages ..
My first job on the Plot is to get the petrol strimmer out and flatten it all and then put a perimeter fence up to keep the rabbits out. Im also going to purchase some of the plastic membrane to keep the weeds at bay as I dig a bit at a time