Farcebook

Category: Maintenance

  • Preparing for Spring

    Preparing for Spring

    It’s been pretty windy here again, so I went to the plot to see if the shed had tried to escape again…

    It hasn’t quite done a Wizard of Oz this time, but did seem to have moved a bit which is surprising given it has about 30 kilos of water sat on its roof. Also the plastic box next to it has been obliterated, and the wooden cold frame clearly needs something heavier inside it.

    The actual point of today wasn’t to tidy up, but to do some tidying. Grass is an annoying thing, it grows quite happily all over the plot, especially if you don’t dig it out. At home, my lawn is all thin and patchy.

    Managed to get the majority of it cleared before the batteries gave out on the rotavator. It’s certainly a lot better than doing it by hand.

    This bit is next, It’s full of grass and junk that has grass growing over it. I’ll need to give it a mow and attack it with the strimmer a bit first to get it short enough the rotavator can chew it up without getting tangled.

    The wind wasn’t all bad though, I somehow gained a giant sheet of plastic from somewhere, and two large builders’ sacks. The plastic will keep the weeds down on the end of the plot I dug over earlier, and the sacks will be useful for gathering up rubbish.

    I’ve made an attempt at tidying, I’m sure the wind will help reorganise things soon.

  • And the Shed Blew Over

    And the Shed Blew Over

    Got a bit of a surprise when I visited the plot yesterday, seems my shed tried to do a Wizard of Oz and take off. Didn’t get very far though…

    After checking for any flattened witches I set about trying to rectify the mess. I’d only gone there to dump some kitchen waste in the compost bin. It’s been raining for the past month so the ground is too soggy to do anything in. Also it’s winter.

    Can confirm, shed is not stood up correctly. Also it’s only gone and blown the bloody doors off. Those things are terrible and always need a good kicking to stay in their tracks at the best of times. Next door’s chickens were warily watching…

    It’s only a light metal shed so fortunately quite easy to stand up again. I even managed to get the drain pipe back in the water butt. Even better, all of this was done without slashing my wrists and face on the insanely sharp metal edging.

    In an attempt at stopping it from happening again I’ve put some plastic boxes on the roof full of water. They were originally stood on the floor full of water, so they might as well be useful. Helps increase my water storage capacity too.

    Yes, at some point in the future I will securely attach the whole thing to the ground somehow.

    Trying to make best of an annoying situation, I then figured the wind was hitting the big flat side of the shed, so moved the compost bins in front of it to give some shelter. It was also a good excuse to turn the contents of the compost bins over and realise thick branches don’t break down very quickly.

    Moving the compost also means I have a more open and regular plot that I can go down and clear with the mower, strimmer, rotavator and a big binbag ready for planting.

    Yeah that’s the next plan. Tidy up. While digging I kept finding bits of rubbish lost in the grass and weeds.

  • Welcome to the frozen North

    It’s a bit cold now, and I’ve not been to the allotment for a few weeks. I’m only here now because the food waste bins are full and starting to smell nasty.

    The recent frost has killed all the weak plants that were fooled by November’s mild weather.

    This rotavator continues to impress me, chewing through slightly frozen ground with no real trouble providing I went slowly.

    I don’t care if it takes three or four goes to get this broken up, it’s much better than digging by hand!

    In addition to hoarding rotten food, I’ve been storing cardboard to put down. It should keep the weeds away and also rot down to improve the soil.

    Next time I need to bring the strimmer and remove the long grass and tougher weeds that the rotavator can’t manage.

    This is all stuff I normally do last minute in March, so the fact I have the plot cleared by December is a novelty. Maybe I’ll get my plants in at the right time next year!

  • Mr Rotavator

    Mr Rotavator

    Since getting this allotment one of the more tedious jobs has been digging over the plot each year. It’s like painting the Forth Bridge – by the time I get to the end, the start is overgrown.

    I’ve always wanted a rotavator but they’ve either been too expensive, bulky to store, or built around crappy two stroke engines that don’t always start.

    Not any more! While browsing Amazon I came across this. It’s a battery powered tiller / rotavator. It’s light, easy to carry and the batteries actually last a decent amount of time.

    I gave it a good test today. My plot is overgrown with lots of grass and weed, but it managed to turn this…

    Into this…

    With minimal effort from me. Normally this would have taken several hours spread over two days. I’m tall, the ground is far away, I hate digging.

    Then it managed to also do this…

    It doesn’t like long grass, so I need to mow or strim that first, but that’s not much effort either.

  • Monsoon Season

    Monsoon Season

    Seems the weather has switched from hot and dry to “wet”. It’s a bit hard to do anything on an allotment when it’s raining.

    I did notice the water butt on my shed at home was full though.

    And the small one on my other shed was looking a bit full too.

    So I figured I’d buy another water butt from Wickes and set it up to fill from the overflow of the first one.

    I also moved the water pump into the new butt. I’ll use that to water the roof garden in the summer.

    The finished setup looks quite tidy, although the second butt is half full already. I need to sort out an overflow so it doesn’t flood the area around my shed. The drainage isn’t great and a shed sat in a pool of water isn’t the best.

    Also out of curiosity I went to the allotment to see how the water butt there was doing. It seems to be filling up and holding water OK.

    At some point I’m sure I’ll add a second butt there too.