Planted some beans, peas, chillis and tomatoes in the greenhouse thing I made last month from bits of old plastic greenhouse.
This is the greenhouse thing
The allotment looks a bit tidier too after we stuck some bags of manure on it and dug over the weeds. The tiny row of boxes is easier to manage compared to a plot of land bigger than my house.
Went to the (new) allotment. It was super muddy. Digging over a set of smaller raised beds was much easier than a whole plot though.
The onions we planted earlier are growing properly, and I dumped three bags of manure on the potato box.
I’ve got a grass problem on my plot, the grass grows better than anything else. It’s a constant battle trying to keep the grass short and has so far caused the end of a petrol mower. I took my battery mower from home one weekend, but the batteries need charging half way through and I get the feeling the mower isn’t really designed for mowing such a large area. The batteries get quite hot.
I also tried using a strimmer, it’s awkward and takes ages. So while randomly watching TV one night I saw a YouTube video of someone explaining how to service their push mower. Turns out these things aren’t just a prop you see on old cartoons, but really do exist. And they’re super cheap.
Mine came from Amazon and actually cut the grass really well. It seems to eat through long grass pretty easily and doesn’t really get stuck. You do need to push it with some force to make the blades spin, and it locks up if something thicker than grass gets in the blades but otherwise works really well.
There is a little grass catcher on the back, but I found the grass comes out so fast it often misses, and it’s awkward to remove to empty it. The thing fills pretty quickly too and after detaching it twice in two minutes I gave up and took it off.
It’s only taken half a year, but my greenhouse is now finally ready for things to be planted in it! It has all its windows, won’t blow away and after a trip to Wickes the ground is now suitable for growing plants again.
Can confirm the manure is real manure, from real cows, it might take a bit to get the smell out the car. The compost is some sort of weird fluffy nonsense full of sticks and a random nail. It’s not very good. I’ve used it to plant some beans and peas so they can germinate out the reaches of hungry pigeons. It’s not even pretending to be shredded wood or the other poorly composted garden waste they normally sell in bags.
The greenhouse now stinks a bit, so I will leave the manure to rot down a bit more. I’ve dug it into the soil so hopefully the worms and things will get at it too. This is a before photo, I didn’t think to take an after one.
Here’s the green manure I sowed the other week. It’s rained a lot recently so everything is starting to grow really well.
There’s a small weed problem over on the bit where I am trying to grow carrots and parsnips. I can’t tell what anything is, and without picking out individual weeds this mess is just going to have to fight it out until nothing is at risk from an unexpected hoe slicing its leaves off.
Now the shed is in a better place I’ve been going around the plot unearthing all sorts of rubbish, items I’d forgotten about and random pieces of broken glass. I’m now piling things up in different parts of the plot ready for a run to the tip at some point.
Something I’ve discovered while tidying and organising is that there’s often a “correct” place to put things. The plot works so much better with the shed behind the greenhouse, and the bin store thing next to the side of the greenhouse. There’s enough space to get into the shed and I’m trampling all over a big patch of brambles which might help get rid of them.
It’s quite important doing this now, before things start properly growing. I always make the mistake of leaving things too late and end up visiting the plot one day with the intention of doing something useful, and instead spend all morning clearing weeds, only for them to grow back the next week.
I have no idea what to do about the old shed or the bathtub full of crap. I have even less idea what to do with the pile of carpet behind the shed. I think I’ll ignore it and pretend it’s not there.
While digging around to get rid of the greenhouse I remembered there’s a section of weed fabric I laid with gravel. Since there’s no greenhouse there any more the weed fabric needed to come up.
I think weed fabric should be banned on allotments just like carpet is. Sure, it smothers weeds, but after a while a new layer of soil builds up on top of it and the grass just grows on top instead. And then its roots get into the fibres.
While moving some plastic sheeting around I found a rather large toad, and under the weed fabric (that’s been down for about 7 years) I found one of our spoons from the kitchen. I have no idea how it got there.
