1st visit of the year - just browsing

I managed to fracture, chip and dislocate my shoulder on 8 December, so this is the first time I'd been able to get to the allotment.  I only took photos this time round, and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of work needed - I'd imagined it a million times worse!  All beds need some work, and if I was back to full health, it's really only a full day's work.  I need to be patient and pace myself, which will be hard.

Dogwood rose (rosehips)

Asparagus bed

Monty frame for beans/peas

3 sisters bed

Strawberries & herbs

Bed 2

Bed 1 - turnips & swede still okay

Bed 3 - bronze fennel ok

Bed 4 - yams & roots ok

Manx Codlin apple tree

Strawberries

Bed 5 - not used yet

Fruit cage

Rhubarb corner

I wasn't expecting a harvest!

9 Mar 2014 - The Fruit Cage Continues!

I had tried really, really, really, really, really hard to do this on my own.  I had bought the 6ft posts and sledgehammered them all in only to be beaten by two staplers!  Go figure!  Could I get them to work?  Could I buggery.

I called on my faithful assistant who suggested we buy new netting for the job, so it wasn't patchy and we could do it in one go - he's not just a pretty face!  Because I had been trying to do this myself, he said he'd just hold the netting for me and be the third hand (after he tried fixing the staplers, threw one away & found the correct staples for the other one DOH!).


Well I still couldn't manage to press down the stapler with it above my head (which isn't fair, cos I can sledgehammer higher above my head!!!), so in true allotment fashion....I delegated!




After 2 hours of us both working (the netting was doubled over on the roll), we both had to admit that anyone with less than 3 arms would have struggled on their own!  We decided on the doorway and I need to get one more post for that.  Then we sort out the doorway, but at least the netting is up before the raspberries get too big!  I've still got half a bed to play with, not sure what's going in there yet, and the pathway down the middle to tidy up.  We ripped up the edging for the second bed because it's changing shape slightly and I need to nail the boards to the outside of the netting to stop longtails coming in.

I know I would have come home a baldycoot if I'd not had help, either tearing my hair out, or having it stuck in the netting!!!

Anyway, in my last fruitcage blog, I'd mentioned that I moved the canes that had appeared in the pathway because basically, they were in the way and if they lived that was fab, and if they didn't, then they weren't any use to us where they were!  All 8 have survived and got new growth on already!










There will be a further update - need to finish doorway and then put a roof on!

26 Feb 2014 - Raspberries & Fruit Cage

We've had a bumper crop of raspberries a couple of years ago, and then last year a plank (or two) of wood fell on some of them and we didn't do quite so well last year (obviously!), so I decided to spoil them and build a fruit cage for them.  This was planned last year some time, but the weather's not been so good and we couldn't do anything while there were fruit on them, so it had to wait until after December.

The "weather v my time off" has been less than hospitable, but I finally started getting down to the allotment in the last couple of weeks.  I enjoyed my time with the sledgehammer, although I've been doing a lot of swimming this week, so my arms are about to drop off, but I did get the 6 posts I bought put up. 

I failed miserably with both staplers when I tried to put the netting up, but maybe that's a good thing, cos we think the netting is not quite right.  Now that I think about it, I *may* have used the office stapler on my last project, but we'll just keep that to ourselves!! haha!

Here's a few pics, it's 2.5 hours work - I cleared some of the weeds (until the stinging nettles got me), bashed in 6 posts, turned over a new bit of bed (basically, the fruit cage will cover both beds, and there's a new bit of bed at the end, making it a U shape), dug up about 8 new canes that had appeared in the pathway and transplanted them in the spaces and new bit.  I'm quite pleased with myself!

before

after

before

after

Proof that I'm not theonly mad one!