Allotments 4 All

Went up today cos it's supposed to be raining all weekend here in Brum and anyway my house rabbit Bert is having a lady friend coming tommorow. A white lionhead named Alexis.pmsl. Of course she is a rescue bunnie.I wasn't gonn have anymore but he has been so down since Belle died. Did manage to dig some more chrysanths up. Tone got the autumn raspberries up that are having to be replaced cos they are not as good as the others. Still we have enough to transplant. Dug a couple of leeks up and saw that they had been attacked by the leek moth. (not gonna bother with leeks again.)Did get some lovely parsnips though. Put the garlic in as well. In fact got more done than we expected

Went out and measured all the broken/missing/cracked panes on the five greenhouses, my three, the Rycote and the School's... went out to get the glass and take the car in to the garage... just got back and it's going dark!!  :-X

Swept up more oak leaves for my dalek to process. Once the sun goes, so do I, back inside to keep warm  ::)

Nothing, played tennis.  Loads of leaves outside to sweep up.  Does anyone know if all leaves are good, or do I have to sort my trees if you see what I mean. Hoping the Council will come and do it for me and I can nick or ask them for a few bags. I could be the first lady to go to court for stealing Council leaves. Also my parsnip leaves seem to be growing well, is it too early to dig them up??

Dig a few up Borlotti should be fine, I thought you've already been to court Borlotti, didn't you say you had played tennis.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D 

Quote from: caroline7758 on November 07, 2008, 15:25:26
Think we must all be getting a touch of S.A.D. It took me until 1:00 to get out even though it was sunny,

i know exactly what you mean..... :(

nothing it is still RAINING :'(

helped get everything ready for our big bbq/firework 'do' tonight..should be a laugh, especially if it rains  ;D

Raked up even more oak leaves. I've got about another 4 or 5 weeks doing that. They have only just started to fall. Before my plot, I use to curse them  ::), but now I have a huge dalek to save them in, a garden and lottie to use them on, I'm sweeping and raking them up daily. Bootiful for the soil next year.  ;D

Lots of cutting back- I can see out of the kitchen window now! Just looked out and saw a robim inspecting my work!Probably not happy that I've cleared some seedheads away.

Nothing today, pouring with rain.

But yesterday I attacked my eyesore lasagna bed in the most satisfying way. For over a year it has been a 7m x 1m compost heap with hideous plastic bags of old weeds from my dug beds on it, covered by a huge ugly tarpaulin, weighed down by more bags of dead weeds plus any old bits of wood or rubbish that got in my way on the rest of the plot.

Hurray! Have dragged everything off, folded the tarpaulin away, dragged out some ever hopeful bindweed and couchgrass roots snaking about, tipped out the bags of weeds (now ordinary looking earth heaving with happy worms), raked it over and hammered boards into the soft ground to define the edges.

It's not perfect, but now, instead of coarse meadow grass and weeds, I have a 7m x 1m bed of weedless soil waiting for planting. Pity it's November.

I have a confession to make.  Today........I cheated......and had the lottie rotavated.  Not because I'm lazy and not because I don't like digging (I do my best thinking whilst digging).  Unfortunately due to some family issues, I just won't have as much time as I'd like to get it sorted over winter.  So it's been rotavated and covered over with plastic so I can uncover it as I plant.  It's not ideal, I didn't really want to get it done but better that than end up with a jungle I guess.  On the plus side, it means I can just do the fiddly bits and pieces that I never seem to have time to do.  :)

Bagged up another 5 bags of leaves from the park in the rain and got some funny looks, put some pallet size pieces of carboard down on some of the ground already dug over, mixed a compost bin.  ;D ;D ;D

Too wet to do anything on the land so cleaned me shed out.

Squelched.

;D

After all the rain yesterday I thought it would be like a bog today but it wasn't, in fact, the ground was perfect for digging. So guess what I did???? I've now cleared a huge space for the broad beans go out into next week and the rest of it is well prepared for the spring. It was so lovely to be out there for the morning in the sunshine after the miserable weather we have had so I really made the most of it.

Also attempted the annual "try to dig out the horseradish" farce that I go through. The stuff is a real nuisance and no matter how deep I dig it comes back every year. Still, better than a workout at the gym!

Far too soggy so topped the bird feeders up and took a few photos.

took down my outdoor tomato cover and but the tomato plants on the burn heap. cleared the remainder of the borlotto bean plants to the compost bin. cut off the heads of the radicchio to force under terracotta pots (hopefully then it will be more palatable for me and the family :-X :-\. cleaned and netted ponds, raked up apple tree leaves off of the lawn. oh yeah put down more rat poison >:(.

Nothing- too wet and windy. Hope to get out there tomorrow. :(

Far to wet and windy to go out so I decided to dig out my greenhouse borders as it would be dry (or so I thought).  Ended up chucking the soil out of the door and got totally soaked trying to get the manure I had humped from the lottie in my shopping trolley in. 

Wish I had a few days dry weather so I can actually get something done!!  Also wish I had more time.