by Neil Wilkinson | Mar 8, 2009 | Allotment
Last week we ticked a few major jobs off our list, so this week we were faced with just a few admin tasks – things we’ve had to do for ages but have had much more interesting things to get on with.
I started the day off by making a waterproof lid for the compost bin – I’m not 100% sure this is necessary for a compost bin but we had a spare pallet and some plastic sheeting so I put one together.
It took me a while as I had to keep running in the greenhouse for some protection from the rain. Whilst I was doing this Pilla was cleaning out the greenhouse. The glass is still very sparkly from the cleaning job Pilla had done on it over Christmas but the frame had all sorts of mud, grass and bugs in it. With the aid of an Ikea kitchen scrubber and a spoon(!) it has cleaned up nicely. It must be a sign of far too much mud in the frame when you find it housing a worm!
It’s days like this you realise the importance of a greenhouse – it’s great for hiding from the weather in. We had lots of rain in between bouts of sunshine and at one point a thunderstorm came our way… complete with a LOT of hail stones.
Still, all the rain had one advantage – it filled one of our water butts enough to give it a good clean. This was a former bin from Oaklands Drive – it still has a way to go to be a ‘proper’ water butt – I want to raise it up a foot and add a tap on the bottom so we can fill a watering can underneath. I did add a lid and put a hole in it for the down pipe to go through. In between bouts of rain I cleaned up the far corner of the plot – it was full of some old floor boards, which I have de-nailed and hidden behind the shed along with the carpet. We are not sure what we are going to do with this bit of the plot, it was going to be a pond, but we might utilise it for growing. It currently has a woodpile and the fruit trees.
After that we were pretty much done, so we went on the hunt for some signs of spring. The rhubarb we planted last week seems to be shooting up – you shouldn’t really take any the first year after planting, but at this rate we’ll be overrun with it! The cherry tree & raspberry canes that we are training along the fence seem to have come to life this week too.
Hopefully next week we should get the seeds we have ordered – let the planting begin!
by Philippa | Feb 22, 2009 | Allotment
Well this weekend (plus the bonus afternoon on Friday) has been jam packed and full of generous gestures. After moving the soil on Friday we wanted to make a start on a few little jobs that have been on the list of things to do for quite a while.
First on the list was planting the trees that were such a bargain from Aldi. Yesterday we realised that we were still in need of a few containers for our trees and also some to use as water butts. For some time we have been asking around friends and family and it just kept getting pushed further down the list. But having bought a plum and a cherry tree which needed planting asap this suddenly became a lot more pressing. We took a walk around the site to ask people where they got their containers from and we ended up with some very useful gifts! We got a big grey barrel for a water butt from Chris which had apparently enjoyed a previous life at the Robertson’s jam factory! He also donated a metal bin to match one that Bob kindly offered us which are perfect for the trees:
It took a surprising amount of time to fill two of them deep enough for planting! In fact, so much time that Neil was very productive in building some greenhouse staging. Neil’s dad provided lots of metal shelving which we adapted for the base and we bought 2m wooden batons to lay across the top.
Neil completed two sides and now only has one more to finish. We think that this will be sufficient for this year’s seedlings and one advantage of DIY staging is that we can take some or all of it down if we find we need more floor space for pots and growbags. We also added an old set of Ikea shelves that had been hanging around at Neil’s dad’s house since they were used in various university flats. I was a bit worried that all this activity in the greenhouse might have frightened Tammy off but she was around for most of the day and getting very friendly at times!
In order to catch up with Neil’s productivity I set about planting our garlic that arrived a couple of weeks ago. It comes in large bulbs which you have to break apart into cloves to plant just under the surface of the soil. Unfortunately for me whilst this again took some time to complete, all my efforts are now under 3-5cm of soil so not very visible-you will just have to trust me that there are now 30 cloves lined up between the canes waiting to grow into big juicy bulbs! Neil did some planting of his own on Friday as during our soil shovelling he found a lonely little unidentified bulb that is just sprouting a green tip. He rescued it and put it in our front border. We have a bet on as to what it might grow into. My money is on it being a crocus while Neil thinks it is a daffodil (as if!). We also put in a tangled cluster of strawberries that Debbie gave us-thanks Debs!
Finally, we popped to the store to buy some seed trays and some Jeyes fluid which we plan to disinfect the greenhouse with before sowing and Neil connected some spare drainpipe to the gifted water butt so after a few rainy Manchester days we will be able to water our fledgling plants without using the tap. All in all a good three days which has made it very hard to summon up sufficient enthusiasm for work on Monday morning!
Neil would like a special mention for the newly hung plot number which now adorns the gate. This was made out of a broken piece of pallet which Neil chiselled and scorched the number into. Very homely 🙂
by Neil Wilkinson | Jan 25, 2009 | Allotment
Phew. After what has probably been about four or five weeks the greenhouse is finally done. Today was the last push to get the remainder completed. Neil’s OCD and greenhouse related insomnia meant that he ended up changing a few panes around yesterday so that they were in the ‘right order’ and I have to admit that it does look better for it. When we arrived today the first job was to make some extra pieces out of some thin hardboard to cover those areas that had broken glass or we had run out of panes for. In the event we were only short two small rectangular pieces and Chris from the allotment opposite gave us some polycarbonate sheeting that we cut to fit. We then patched two very small areas of broken glass with some hardboard cut to fit. This is just a temporary job as we have kept a few sheets of glass that are a bit broken but still about 3/4 original size so pieces can be cut out of these at a later date. Neil had a go using a glass cutter but needs a bit more practice so we might ask Bob from the other side of the site to cut them for us as apparently he is a bit of an expert.
We have deliberately left a small opening at the back of the greenhouse as it is just the right size for Tammy to get through. In fact Neil found her asleep in our greenhouse when he arrived yesterday. She seems to be making herself at home.
Another job we made progress with is the building of the remaining beds. We had two left to build which are smaller than our standard beds so we have room by the gate to get things in and out. Neil did some nifty angled cutting and recycled some nails to build them. Next week we will build the last smaller bed to go round the base of the fruit tree we are planting and we will have to do some more digging through the gravel surface so they are ready to fill with soil once it has been ordered.
So it really feels like we are ticking some major jobs off the list now. Once these last beds are filled with soil we will tidy up the ground in front of the fencing so we can have some tubs of flowers out there and then sort out some staging for inside the greenhouse. Then it will be planting, planting, planting!
by Neil Wilkinson | Jan 18, 2009 | Allotment
For a long time I never thought that I would get to say this. To get this far required two trips to Wales, one to Wigan and a few to B&Q to sort out the base (the design of which literally kept me awake at night). We’ve been lugging bits of it around the plot for months. Every time the glass settled somewhere we had to move it. We had it in pallets, but needed those for the fence. We decided on a nice bit by the concrete bays – until the guy that delivers the manure crashed into them and smashed some glass. We moved them in the frame, but then had to move them to build the base. Every time we moved them we broke some panes. It came with no instructions and plenty of missing bits. We also decided to start glazing it during the coldest week of the coldest December for years. And now. The. Greenhouse. Is. Almost. Done.
It’s true! Look:
We have a working door and every bit of glass we have has been cleaned to within an inch of it’s life by Pilla. We started the day today by taking out some of the panes we had previously put in (all to do with having the little pieces at the bottom – don’t know if that’s important or not?) which was frustrating – but ended the day having all but 15 pieces done. And, fingers crossed, the rest should be straightforward.
So far we have put in 82 panes of glass. We don’t quite have enough glass to do the rest, we are about 3 little panes short – not bad at all. We might even be able to deal with that by lots of overlapping panes.
To make me feel better, here is what it looked like when we first got it:
So now we need to deal with staging for inside and we’ll be all set to grow. It almost felt spring-like today – it was sunny, warm and there were lots of people about. You can almost sense the ‘it’s almost spring, we’d better get things sorted’ feeling running through the place!
by Neil Wilkinson | Jan 17, 2009 | Allotment
Another day, more greenhouse glass. For a day that we were not really planning on going to the plot we did a good few hours and managed to get a good amount of glass in. For the first time in ages we didn’t have to wear coats and at some points we were actually getting too warm (well until pilla decided to start fighting with the tap and got covered in water).
We have completed the roof, and put glass 2 panes high around most of the ‘house. We have some tricky bits coming up because we know there are some broken bits of shaped glass, and there must be some pieces holding the glass in missing. Our pane count is now up at 54. Thats 54 panes of glass that had to be prized apart, scrubbed, rinsed, squeeged, proped up and then put in place. Oddly enough, even though it’s only about two thirds done and no walls are finished yet it did feel a bit warmer being in it today! The weather forecast for tomorrow is not great, so we might not get much done but hopefully we are only a few hours away from finishing the thing! Woo!
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