Don't need to take the car to the lotty nearly as often now so we've dug the parking space over ready for winter and next years planting.

Already planted comfrey and horse radish along the right hand edge a couple of months back

Fencing in

Got talking to some contractors working locally who were replacing sections of fencing. They were happy for me to take away the old stuff to save them the cost of dropping it into landfill, so six journeys with the trusty wheelbarrow followed by a bit of nifty work with a hand saw and I've got a fence.

Put some near the back of the plot too 

Old shed down, new shed up

High winds on the day certainly didn't help any 

To stop the shed blowing backwards into the neighbouring garden, Jean held it  with a rope while I sledge hammered the sides out

The yellow hose is just to balance the water level between the two barrels. That way we can take water from the front one only.

Time to address the problem of the shed

First finish planting garlic and shallots.....

..then make a start on the shed. It's listing badly, leaks and is not exactly pleasing on the eye. Top pic is how it looked back in June.

 

 

Oh good, an ironing board, that could be useful!! The roof's already rotted and collapsed so no timber to salvage from here.

Beans

More high winds are forecast. The runner beans have about finished anyway so hacked them down before leaves blew about all over the place.

Made this frame for next years beans, should be more robust than the bamboo wigwams.

Roadkill hare

I didn't run it over but it was very recent. Made six good-sized adult portions of meat plus offal plus stock. 

Shrooms

Collected quite a haul of mushies today. Seems that recent high winds have kept the flies grounded so all this lot were free of grubs. 

Cut and trimmed ready for drying

Sloes

Sloes are ripe enough to gather now. None of this "wait until after the first frost" stuff, by then they'll have all withered and the birds will have had what's left. We bung them in the freezer to release the extra sugars.
Collected just over two kilos, should be enough to make about four bottles of liqueur. 

Rug Rat

A few days back Lew and I got rid of the heavy trunk section left over from when I felled the tree. In moving it we rolled it over a folded up carpet. Next I moved the carpet and found this chap who must have taken refuge under there when we arrived. I guess it just wasn't his lucky day.
Took this pic after leaving the corpse for a couple of days, was hoping a fox might make off with it but the smell was getting too bad so I gave it a suitable burial.

Produce already

Folk from other plots have been really kind. In total we've been given over 90kg of potatoes, 40 onions, carrier bags full of various sized beet roots, broad beans, runner beans, cucumbers, lettuce, grapes, apples, spring onions, cabbages, cauliflowers, black kale, and the biggest squash I've ever seen.
Oh, plus two wood pigeons and a load of scaffolding poles to make bean supports.



Deep in the thickets we found we'd inherited redcurrant and blackcurrant bushes (one of each, both laden with fruit), quite a few gooseberry bushes and a few salvageable raspberry canes.
Of what we planted ourselves we are now harvesting French beans, runner beans, beetroot, perpetual spinach, Swiss chard and the first kale leaves. We've picked five cucumbers from the greenhouse plus loads of tomatoes.

Found a pathway

Found a shared tarmac path between us and our neighbour. 

Also unearthed a patio between the shed and greenhouse.

The Brassica Arch

Other plot holders complain about wood pigeons stripping cabbages and kale etc. The arch measures 3m x 3.5m and for crop rotation is light enough for two people to lift and move.

Difficult to see on the pic but it's covered in a butterfly/bird-proof mesh

Getting stuck in

Double compost bins are made and start on the digging. The ground is full of bindweed roots plus an unimaginable amount of broken glass and shrapnel in the form of rusty nails, hinges, screws etc..

The tree had to go so I could park on the plot. To date I've made 8 trips to the tip.

 

11th June 2011 we have an allotment

After twelve months on the allotment waiting list we were finally offered a plot. Unfortunately when we went to view it we were told that if we turned the offer down our names would be put right to the back of the list. So we took it.. 


Plot five occupies 260 square metres, just over 6m wide it's 42m long. 

 Enough rotten bamboo canes to fill two 1-ton builders bags. Would like to burn them really but site rules only allow fires from November to February and after 16.00 at that.

The big pane is a very heavy double glazed patio unit. There's a couple of Belfast sinks under there too (home to a family of rats). In total there were 20 window units strewn across the plot, most of them full of greenish brown water.

Looks like an outside loo. Full of crud and junk and well used by the rats. 

At least there's a greenhouse, just needed a bit of attention to get the door and window working 

before starting on the inside..