[snowdrops]

Mr S & I went up to clear some rubbish as the site is having a skip tomorrow 9-3 Great for us that work. Hoped to find someone who would put mine in for me,there was already a huge pile by the gate,goodness knows where they've found it all,it will have to be a humongus skip to get it all in. I hadn't got much. Did get my lid back for my comfrey bin & hubby found some angle stuff for the corner of the shed as it is leaking there. Why people don't take it all away with them I really don't know after all they took it there.

[Yana]

Put up new shed that OH built from scratch!!    
Prepared the ground yesterday by finishing laying slab base and concreting around the slabs so they don't move. Today put the shed up and also have water butt connected to guttering, internal solar driven light (because I opted for a shed with no windows) and surrounding ground ready to lay paths to new raised beds.
Got home just as the sun was going down, feeling absolutely shattered and remembered half bottle of red wine from last night. Oh yes, the new shed is going to get launched.

[snowdrops]

A well earned tincture as Growster would say Yana

[pompeyboy61]

Painted 12 cordon apple trees with Grease Paint. Learnt already that they are a magnet for bugs etc.dug three mini trenches in a raised bed and back filled with compost from unused grow bags. Onions and garlic go in on Thursday. Vain hope that this will beat ' Onion Rot ' dug up leeks and carrots for just eaten roast dinner . Excellent flavour.

[Aled]

Well it was dry yesterday for a change, so i pulled the beetroot, was pleasantly surprised at how much i had! The compost dalek is full, but i need a few more days of dry weather before i can dig and compost the veg patch properly but there is more rain on the way all week! Need to buy 4 planks of wood to put around the veg patch to make it look neater. This gardening lark is quite time consumming!
Cheers
Aled

[Fairy Plotmother]

Well it was dry yesterday for a change, so i pulled the beetroot, was pleasantly surprised at how much i had! The compost dalek is full, but i need a few more days of dry weather before i can dig and compost the veg patch properly but there is more rain on the way all week! Need to buy 4 planks of wood to put around the veg patch to make it look neater. This gardening lark is quite time consumming!
Cheers
Aled

Wait and see what happens next season.......it will have taken over your life!

[Aled]

Oh no not another obsession to go with fishing.... :blink:.
Cheers
Aled

[Fairy Plotmother]

Oh no not another obsession to go with fishing.... :blink:.
Cheers
Aled

That's about the size of it! 

[Aled]

Oh well at least the wife and children will be able to see me working on the plot, its right outside the TV room at home.
Cheers
Aled

[Yana]

Put up new shed that OH built from scratch!!    
Prepared the ground yesterday by finishing laying slab base and concreting around the slabs so they don't move. Today put the shed up and also have water butt connected to guttering, internal solar driven light (because I opted for a shed with no windows) and surrounding ground ready to lay paths to new raised beds.
Got home just as the sun was going down, feeling absolutely shattered and remembered half bottle of red wine from last night. Oh yes, the new shed is going to get launched.

Checked on new shed and guttering after downpour last night. Tiny bit of water inside one corner of the shed (which to be honest OH expected he now tells me) but other than that, it's still standing. Water issue is because we ran out of time to seal the floor to the side walls. Easy to fix (apparently).

[Annen]

I managed to keep a fire going for over an hour, this must be some kind of record for me 

[wneva]

Just back in failing light.  Hooray - I've dug over  the top bed - and removed another half sack of couch weeds - and manured it ready for the Aquadulce broad beans which I bought last weekend.  Hope to get 'em in tomorrow. 

This leaves me 6 more beds covered in weed fabric, one already dug out, and 5 to go.  As well as a few beds not covered, but needing to be dug over and weeded.  I've decided to also dig out the paths between the beds, because there's more couch lurking under there, waiting to strike out sideways.  Weeds are my main crop.

I'm getting ahead with my planning for next year - which I do find quite difficult.  I've ordered some globe artichokes as little plants to be delivered in May.  I assume as they're perennials (well, I gather they have a few years in 'em) I'll need to decide on a 3 to 4 year home for them.  Are they brassicas?  They're a bit of a vanity project really - but R says we don't get enough sun here to grow globe artichokes properly.

I've got a load of leeks, planted at the end of June.  Some are looking quite plump, but others are still quite skinny.  Book says they need 6 months minimum - which will be January at the earliest.  I've planted them too close together to allow earthing up - so every year I get a crop of little stubby items.  As my granddad used to say - "Think on, lad!"  Maybe I'll get it right next year. 

What's really worrying me is that last spring we went on the local town twinning trip to Brittany where we stayed for a couple of nights with a small farmer and his family.  His mum (who's 84) was i/c vegetables and kept the equivalent of 4 allotments under management - not a weed in sight and everything beautifully in order.  It's the turn of the French to come here next year, and we may find ourselves hosting the farmer and his wife (if they decide to come over).  They're really nice people, but they'll sure as eggs want to see my allotment!  Perhaps I should hire a local gardener to get it ready?   Aaargh.

[blackberryjam]

Not much done today just popped in to check on  the garlic in the green house,and cut a cabbage. 

[rowan57]

FINALLY got guttering up on the shed thanks to Dad. Had 2 IBC's in place for the best part of a year and nothing to get water into them. Tested it with poured water and it all looked fine, but it's certainly raining plentifully at the moment so we shall see Also dug over a good area, took one of the bean trellises down, and rolled out weed matting over the whole second half plot for the winter.

[diospyros]

Went up first thing to dump a car-boot load of dead leaves collected off the car park at work yesterday.  Whilst collecting them it reminded a colleague that she had a huge pile of chipped bark in the garden she didn't know what to do with... so guess where I went once I'd dumped the leaves!  12 bags of rather damp semi-rotted chipped bark, my poor car, am going back tomorrow for another load and help her cut her hedge in return!  I scraped off the top few inches of soil and made a path from the corner of the plot where we come onto it to the middle where the compost bins are.  The next load will make a path from the middle out to the corner where we will go when we fetch water.  Unfortunately no lines were laid out to make sure the path was straight or anything... The way things are going my plot is going to look rather curvy and random!