by Philippa | Nov 2, 2008 | Allotment
A few weeks absence has meant things have changed quite a lot since we last posted any photos. We have been really busy away from the plot-two half marathons run, a few thousand miles flown etc etc. But once we had a free weekend we were back with bags of enthusiasm. And 15 tonnes of topsoil.
The upside is that we solved our soil dilemma by getting a delivery. The downside was that 15 tonnes were delivered on a Thursday afternoon when I was due to fly to Palma in the early hours of Friday morning and Neil was due to leave for Minnesota on the Saturday! Both of us left work a little early on the Thursday in order to shift the soil. Seeing as how neither of us knew how long it would take to move 1 tonne of soil, we were pretty optimistic about how long it would take us to move 15. How wrong we were. So in swooped Bob to save the day again! Poor guy was leaving the site to go home for his tea when he took up his shovel and he stayed for the remaining three hours of light until we had moved the entire pile! We sort of wish that we had a photo of the big pile of mud before we started work but perhaps with hindsight it’s a good idea we don’t as even the memory of it sends shivers down our spines! Needless to say that for the next couple of days we were pretty sore and blistered! Next item on the list of things to do was build some raised beds. Neil’s friend Nicola had made arrangements with her builder dad to get some unwanted wood from his work site. This was a bit of a gamble as we weren’t sure what quality or quantity to expect but it really paid off. We ended up with enough for four beds and it is really sturdy stuff. It is a very eyecatching shade of blue-am hoping it may repel produce munching pests! We also got some wood from Neil’s friend Leanne to build a further bed, so now we have five made. A huge thank you to those who scavenged wood for us in true ‘don’t pay for anything’ allotment style. Last weekend Neil made the beds whilst I got shovelling…again! So now each of the beds has soil and following a big delivery of horse muck, a good top layer of manure.
ta da! The fence is finished! Nicola came along to help out a couple of weeks ago and between the two of us we did a whole load of painting, with plenty ending up on ourselves as well as the fence. Annnndddd relax. Phew. A whistle stop tour of the work we have done that has finally made it look like a real allotment. The soil sure does help. The next couple of weeks will be more of the same as far as building beds and filling them up goes. We will keep you posted.
by Philippa | Oct 1, 2008 | Allotment
Or it would do if I had followed the instructions on the aforementioned tin. Today was my last day off before going back to work and the last opportunity to do anything at the plot for a couple of weeks. Given that Neil was back at work already the jobs I could do were limited to those requiring only one person and nothing too heavy duty. So that really only left the job of painting the fence.
We got some Ronseal one coat stain in ‘forest green’ at the weekend***. One slight problem though in that it said it should not be applied in damp conditions and the wood should be as dry as possible. Ok, newsflash, we are in Manchester, the whole place is ‘in damp conditions’. And let me tell you that patience is not a virtue of mine. So there I was at the allotment this morning painting the fence despite the frequent rain showers onto wood that was certainly not dried out.
Do not be fooled by the apparent sunshine. A cruel trick of the light as it was actually cold, wet and extremely windy. Which is why I only painted about 10 posts. No, I wasn’t being work shy. It struck me that if the rain continued all the paint I had applied might get washed right off again and leave a river of green coursing down the site ready to poison all that lay in it’s path. So I stopped. Who knows when the weather will allow me to resume, but in the meantime we have a snazzy bit of fence to show we tried.
*** other woodstain products are available at local diy stores
by Philippa | Sep 30, 2008 | Allotment
At least the hard work myself and Neil have put in over the last couple of days has had an unexpected advantage-if we ever find ourselves out of work, we can set ourselves up in business as gravediggers! We have quite a talent, particularly for the shallow ones or the big pile of mud ones. Not sure how we would fare with a proper 6 footer but thankfully we don’t need one of those for the allotment!
We started digging the beds over the weekend and it wasn’t a particularly positive experience at first. The toptrek surface is quite compacted and so getting started was the most difficult bit. Even after we had broken the surface it seemed like we weren’t making much progress. We had a feeling that there was a really good technique for the digging but we weren’t sure what it was! So we tried a variety of tools-spades, forks, chisels with hammers, crowbars with hammers etc etc. Fortunately Gilly then offered us the use of his pick axe. I say fortunately as we were still on the first bed, boy would we have been mad if we had struggled on with a lot more before his kind offer. After mastering the technique with the pick axe we were cooking on gas! We were almost rained off today as the weather was forecast to be showery all day and for once the forecast was right. But with us having the day off we didn’t want to waste any time so we layered up and carried on regardless, although the coats were on and off all morning as it was warm work despite the rain!
So here is the evidence of all that work…
Unfortunately the next two weekends are pretty busy for us as Sunday is Neil’s Great North Run and the weekend after I am in Palma and Neil is in Minnesota. So we won’t be able to dig the remaining 5 or 7 beds(depending on the final layout) for another couple of weeks. And in the meantime we may have a whole load of soil to deal with. Not sure where that will go just yet.
Injury update (both mine unfortunately)
Blister from using the chisel and hammer method of digging beds, not recommended.
Blister number 2 from the more traditional spade method, highly recommended in comparison.
by Philippa | Sep 30, 2008 | Allotment
Ok so it doesn’t have desks or computers or a water cooler but allotment politics are a bit like office politics. It sometimes feels like there is a rule book that lots of people have read when we haven’t even found the bookshop.
So what are all the politics about? World peace? The financial markets? Nope, greenhouses. You saw the jigsaw earlier and today we began putting it together. This in itself was a bit of an adventure which involved me having to stand on a pile of pallets to combat being height disadvantaged. But before long we had the frame mostly erected. And it was at this point that a fellow allotmenteer wandered past and in a very casual manner asked whether we had filled a form in for it. We haven’t, but we did know that we had to get one and had asked for a form last week, so no problem there. But then he said, and this was in even more of a casual manner and accompanied with a sucking in of air through the teeth, “it might be too big”.
What?!?! The greenhouse has been in pieces on our plot for over a month now and many have admired it in passing. Many have been told of it’s dimensions. Yet no one has mentioned the rule about the maximum size for greenhouses! Cue a few panicked phone calls to allotment committee members and finally it looks like we are ok with the greenhouse going up (partially because our plot is so barren that we need all the growing space we can get!). Phew. So here it is…
Check out the fence! Finally finished it is our pride and joy. And it is soon to be green.
by Philippa | Sep 14, 2008 | Allotment
No, the title of the post isn’t what myself and Neil get up to behind closed doors, its ‘work in progress’. As you will see from the photos below the fence still isn’t finished! I’m sure the Berlin wall was quicker to put up, but what with some rubbish weather and a weekend in Jersey for me (while Neil did some tiling at Mum’s) we haven’t had many opportunities to get much done.
So this morning we started with a new burst of energy. Neil broke pallets into pieces whilst I nailed them into place. We make quite a production line! We are hoping to have enough pallets for the whole fence, so maybe next weekend it will finally be finished-phew!
Slight confession here-we had some help for a little while today. Bob, the resident allotment expert from plot number 117 who is always very generous with his time (and his produce!), offered some pearls of wisdom on the best way to break the pallets up without splitting the pieces. He lent us his work bench then he oiled our saw and even did some sawing for us. We took some height off the fence posts so they are more even and boy was it hard work, particularly as they are above shoulder height for me so is quite difficult to get the saw going smoothly. So Bob stepped in and did about three for me! Legend.
So what’s the next challenge I hear you ask? Well, does anyone have instructions to our giant greenhouse jigsaw…
PS. I have also decided to document Neil’s injuries. There have been quite a few (the blisters from hammering the posts in, the cut from moving the greenhouse glass) but so far he has spared you having to look at them. So here is today’s injury, inflicted by the saw-ouch!
by Neil Wilkinson | Aug 26, 2008 | Allotment
Our beautiful new fence:
I should really take a picture of the blister on my hand, because that is probably more impressive.
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