Category: Allotment

  • Glueing up a butt hole

    Glueing up a butt hole

    At the allotment I’ve moved the water butt so it can catch rain off the shed roof, rather than not catching rain off the greenhouse’s broken roof.

    The butt is quite old, the plastic has faded in the sunlight and the tap leaks. The first job was attaching guttering to the shed.

    As it’s metal and about two millimetres thick I used rivets and they seem to hold it well enough.

    I managed to build a little platform out of a paving slab and some highly dubious wood that isn’t entirely rotten. It’s straight enough…

    Next door’s chickens were assessing the quality of the workmanship. There was some suspicious clucking but I think it passed.

    Finally I had to glue the tap in to stop it leaking. I used some cheap pound shop epoxy, it should be good enough.

    Now I just need it to rain!

  • Weeding and tidying

    Now we’re harvesting the various crops that have been growing, it’s a good time to do some tidying.

    After harvesting all the potatoes, I’ve dug the bed over ready for next year. At some point I’ll throw some fertiliser on it, and let the weather have a go at it too.

    It’s also been a chance to tidy up the piles of plant pots and boxes allotments seem to accumulate.

    And then finally some weeding to help the corn and beans keep growing.

  • Corn! Beans!

    Corn! Beans!

    Now the weather has cooled down a bit and there’s been some rain, the corn has grown pretty quickly.

    The beans have also gone a bit mad. I think next year I’ll remember where I’ve planted them and put up a little frame for them to grow up.

  • Shed Upgrade

    Shed Upgrade

    Our existing shed was given to us free when we first had the plot.

    Slowly over time it has fallen apart and is less a shed and more a pile of semi rotten wood. The roof doesn’t really exist any more.

    A rather large amount of bindweed had tried making the place its home, but I also think it’s structural.

    Our “new” shed isn’t much better, it’s an old metal thing I bought after moving house and needed somewhere to store things while we moved in.

    It’s spent the past year in a pile but has mostly gone back together.