by Philippa | Dec 14, 2008 | Allotment
It’s not a timeshare so you will just have to look on jealously as we summer in Abbey Hey for 2009.
We took advantage of a dry day, the first in a little while, to get the shed up. We knew that it was going to take a few hours and so we needed an early ish start today. However, whilst it was dry and not at all windy it was absolutely freezing. The sort of cold that requires gloves which make handling small nuts and bolts almost impossible. So periods of finger numbing use of the screwdriver were interspersed with blowing on our hands and shaking them around to warm up.
But it was all worth it because now we finally have somewhere to put our things and, perhaps more importantly, to shelter from the rain! It is pretty sturdy so we are quite impressed with our efforts. All that remains is to finish fastening it to the base fully. We were only able to put a few brackets on today as we no longer have a power drill that works (long story!). Then Neil is going to put some sealant round the edges to make sure it is waterproof. We have already looked at some cheap shelving for the inside (from Ikea of course) as we need to have plenty of room for our tools and also somewhere to put our gas cooker. Roll on bacon sandwiches and steaming mugs of tea!
by Philippa | Nov 30, 2008 | Allotment
No pictures of the work we did today. Not because we didn’t do any but because we forgot the camera. It was a lovely allotment day today, in the wintery sense. The skies were bright blue but it was very cold with frost on all the plants. We saw some amazing spider webs that were all silvery with frost and dew, they looked just like Christmas decorations draped all over the place instead of baubles. Real shame we didn’t have a camera to capture them.
Although we still have a couple of smaller beds to build we don’t have the wood as yet. There is a backlog at the recycled timber place so we are waiting for some scaffolding boards to be delivered, hopefully in the next week. It meant that there wasn’t too much to be getting on with today. The most pressing job is building the shed. It was delivered to Mum’s mid week and so we collected it yesterday. It almost didn’t fit in the car, but thanks to Neil’s military like packing (and taking all the bits out of the box!) we managed it. Without the scaffolding boards we are using as part of the base we couldn’t put it up today, but Neil did some digging and levelling of the ground so that the frame he built last weekend sits slightly below the surface. It is as level as it is ever going to get I think. We will then put the boards over the frame, construct the shed and fasten it to the base so that it is secure. Neil has made a start on putting some smaller pieces together here in the flat but the rest will have to wait until a dry and unwindy day!
The picture is of one of the many allotment cats. She is called Tammy (but I like to call her Lottie as she is my favourite-apart from our two at home of course). She is a big softy and always comes along for a tickle. There are about another four cats over on our side of the site who we see most days we are there. They are all strays but they are very well looked after. They are neutered and vaccinated annually by a local vet who does it for free. There is an old guy called Chris who is in his eighties (and a very snappy dresser- a bit of a ladies man I think!) who comes on site every day to put food out for the cats even though he doesn’t have a plot. One of the other plot holders also feeds them so they probably get more than most house cats and you can see why they stick around! I had a word in Tammy’s ear last week and she is now keeping guard of the strawberry plants.
Hopefully the next couple of weeks will see a real transformation on the plot with the shed going up and the greenhouse underway. We better watch out, it’s all starting to look a bit professional!
by Philippa | Nov 23, 2008 | Allotment
Is that a round of applause we hear? Yes, we have actual things growing in the soil that we seem to have been shovelling in a groundhog day-esque way for the last month or so. We planted the strawberry plants that Bob kindly donated. They need a fair bit of space as they tend to grow low and wide so we have used half a bed already. It certainly looks good having some greenery in amongst all the soil. We didn’t need to water them in as the good old Manchester weather provided plenty of showers whilst we were there. That combined with us both still feeling poorly meant that it was pretty hard work today so it’s nice that it is all starting to pay off.
We did manage to get some jobs done that we can cross off the list. We ignored a few strange glances in the city centre this morning and went leaf collecting! Funny how this time last week there were loads of leaves all over the place (so many that there was a man with a leaf blower over on the university grass pointlessly blowing them around) yet today they seem to have disappeared. We managed to fill four large bags to take with us to the plot which is pretty impressive considering we are in the heart of the city. This was to fill the leaf composter that Neil made yesterday in true Blue Peter style using some wood offcuts and chicken wire that his Dad had been saving (though I think he had forgotten what for!). This should mulch down over the next year so it can then be used directly on the beds or be added to the compost bins.
We made the final full size bed and filled it with the usual soil/manure mixture and this used up the last of our soil pile-the place almost looks a bit empty without it! Neil then began making a wooden frame which will form the base for the shed. Now we are just waiting upon the shed being delivered and a call from the timber recycling man about some more scaffolding boards and we can start building our shed. It will be a relief to have somewhere to store our things as our car boot has been rattling with a random selection of tools and miscellaneous bits and pieces for far too long. I think a valet of the entire vehicle will soon be required so that we can offer lifts without a lingering sense of shame.
by Neil Wilkinson | Nov 21, 2008 | Allotment
Sniff. That has been the sound of our house this week. Both of us have been ‘got’ by a cold that we think started out from Russ and the babies, and it has not been fun. We did manage to use some of our poorly time to figure out what we are going to grow, fill in our seed form and plan what we need to do next. So here is the list of jobs we need to get done:
- Build shed base (we are using scaffolding planks and wood taken from Russ’s house. Its quick, easy and doesn’t use concrete anything. It should last for ages.)
- Build shed (it’s been ordered, it should come by the end of next week)
- Build greenhouse base
- Fix greenhouse to base
- Fix glass
- Clean greenhouse (it’s a mess)
- Finish building the beds, and a nice surround for the fruit tree.
- Build compost bin
- Sort out a pond
- Buy apple tree
- Plant tree, asparagus, strawberries, redcurrants, garlic, onions.
- Build leaf composters
- Collect leaves
Odds on us getting it done for christmas?
by Neil Wilkinson | Nov 16, 2008 | Allotment
This is getting a little worrying. We have all 11 full size beds in place, and 10 of them are ready to grow things (some of them already are… our first weeds). We started the day not in a good mood, i’m full of a cold and Pilla is still not really back to her normal self, so it took ages to get down to the plot even then it was only achieved by the copious use of Vicks products.
We perked up once we got down there. It was the first sunny Sunday for seemingly ages and the site was full of not only an autumn glow but of people working on their plots. This is the time of year when plots get relinquished if they aren’t being worked sufficiently and so there are lots of new people looking at overgrown plots and scratching their heads pondering where to start.
We had some help today, step forward Russ who owed us a favour and who met us down there. He merrily helped us dig, barrow, and pick axe for 3 hours. We also had some help from Berny and the babies.
Now that we have the soil we really should be growing something. We have our first things to plant courtesy of Bob, some strawberry shoots, which apparently grow virulently wherever you put them, so that should be pretty idiot proof for us beginners. We just need to work out how to put them in! Sheesh this is going to be a learning curve.
by Neil Wilkinson | Nov 12, 2008 | Allotment
We had some bad allotment news during the week. Nic’s dad had a problem with his site and all of a sudden our source of unlimited timber had been shut down. Luckily we had a backup plan in the form of TRiM, which is a timber recycling place that takes in unwanted timber, denails it, cuts it down and sells it on. A quick visit there and we’d secured enough old scaffolding boards and corner posts to make the remaining six full size beds.
After the boards got delivered (by a man with a plait in his beard) we spent Sunday dodging rain showers, cold, food poisoning – dodged by me, but not Pilla unfortunately, and allotment meetings (ok ok, we didn’t dodge it, it was the Christmas show meeting – we’re signed up to make mince pies, cards, buy a few toys for the raffle and man some stalls, which could be interesting as it’s the day after my work Christmas do, not normally a day I get anything useful done!). We made a total of 3 new beds – not a bad return for a cold an rainy November day. We have 3 more left to create, plus a few little ones dotted around the plot.
You might be able to see the massive pile of soil is slowly giving way to proper beds. We are a little bit concerned about how many worms we’re going to have, so have been playing ‘count the worm’ when we’re shifting the soil.
We also got our first plants. Out allotment legend, Bob, gave us two redcurrent bushes and said we could have some strawberry shoots.
We also got some good news about our shed. The allotment society is going to refund the cost, so one visit to Tesco Direct and a shiny new 6’2″ x 4’2″ metal shed is on it’s way to us. We’ve applied for planning permission from the council, so it could be weeks (months?) before we can actually put it up, but still, having a shed is a cornerstone of any allotment as a place to stay dry and make tea, so once we get one our little car park should start looking a lot more allotment-like.
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