Farcebook

Tag: Weeding

  • Things are starting to grow

    Things are starting to grow

    Now there’s been some rain, things are starting to grow on the allotment. Not all the things are wanted though. I’m getting a lot of grass and bindweed appearing, trying to choke things out…

    The bindweed just sprouts out the ground at random, climbs the closest thing and snakes across the grass. Dealing with this stuff is the main job.

    Some of the fruit bushes are having a go at making fruit, but it’s that dry malformed stuff you get when the weather is too hot. A few strawberries appear to have survived the mower too!

    In one of the main areas various things are growing. The beans are a bit stunted, I grew them from last year’s crop so maybe they’re not a good strain or something. I have a feeling all the ground needs more nutrients in it too.

    Something that is growing well is the random grape vine that appeared from nowhere. It seems to be growing out of a neighbouring house’s garden. I’ve also planted some cucumbers, I am quite certain they’ll grow a lovely crop of bitter tasting veg.

    The pumpkins have so far survived the slugs and other pests that want to eat anything with leaves. All my peas have gone, I’m suspecting the pigeons.

    Last year I attempted to grow some leaks, but they didn’t really do much and after accidentally mowing their tops off I decided to give up. The plants however had other ideas and managed to survive, so I’ve let them flower, the bees seem to like them anyway.

  • What Lurks in the Long Grass?

    What Lurks in the Long Grass?

    Now the intense mowing has got the grass under control, and the strimming has temporarily put the brambles in their place, I can get on with removing the long grass that’s growing amongst the fruit bushes.

    There’s bushes in here somewhere
    Where there’s grass, there’s bindweed
    After…
    Now the light can get to the plants

    This grass is a pest, it smothers the smaller plants and since it grows right amongst the bushes I can’t stick my strimmer in there otherwise it’ll damage the plants I want to keep.

    The solution I’ve found is to use more traditional grass removal tools. I have what Amazon calls a “Japanese Weeding Hoe”. It’s sharp – well it was sharp, dragging it through the ground and stabbing at stubborn weeds has given it a less sharp edge now. I need a file. Since it’s hand held I can get right amongst the bushes and rip out the grass with it.

    I’m a bit fearful of the brambles and nettles though, the grass has a habit of whipping back on itself as you try to cut it, and goes right where my hands are. This is fine with grass, but being whacked on the hand with some nettles doesn’t seem like fun.

    A giant thorny triffid
    Yeah this thing is sharp

    The bit between the fruit trees is too long to strim, and since I can’t see where the trees are amongst the grass it’s not safe to just stick the strimmer in and wave it around. I might cut my own leg off or damage the trees.

    I can’t even get in there
    Chickens are a good way to remove grass

    This part contains three rhubarb plants, can you see them? No? Me neither, I thought they’d died.

    There’s also a lot of rubbish in here. I’m sure I’ll find that in the winter.

    With some careful weeding it turns out the rhubarb are still there! Next year they should produce enough that I can harvest their stems.

    To get in amongst the longer grass I need a bigger tool.

    Something like this will work. Not sure how you get a large sharp object through the mail, but it’ll be fun finding out!

  • Jungle Clearance

    Jungle Clearance

    Due to the weather being quite rubbish I didn’t get over to the allotment much in the past month. And it seems things are now starting to grow! A lot! Before I could even start I needed to mow the space my car parks on.

    The knackered petrol mower I’ve had for years did actually start up, which was surprising. It got rewarded by being made to chew through thigh high wet grass.

    On the right hand side is a patch of ground that used to be clear and had beans on it. Now it also has grass. Some more vigorous mowing and then a chewing over with the rotavator soon turned it into usable ground. There’s two rows of potatoes in it now.

    Since that took up most of the time I had, all I managed to actually do on the main plot was plant some onions and remove some new weeds that had sprouted up.

    The trees are flowering nicely. Maybe the cherry tree will give us more than a small handful of fruit this year. I did mean to prune it, but that’ll now have to wait.

  • 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.