A Little Ray of Sunshine



Decorate Your Compost Heap for Christmas

New Years Eve morning surprised me with some sunshine. The air temperature had risen considerable the night before and the rain held off until the evening so I spent the afternoon down the plot. The soil was fairly wet but "workable" enough on my Raspberry bed to clear the weeds and dead leaves away.

I took all the Christmas wrapping paper & cardboard with me and deposited it onto the compost heap, covering it with the weeds etc, from the Raspberry bed.

Raspberry Bed Before Weeding

Raspberry Bed After Weeding

No rain again on New Years Day so I was back down the plot, late morning but just after I arrived the rain started again and the temperature dropped. I spent some time filling seed trays with compost for later use. I thought the compost would warm better in trays, than if it was left in a 60litre bag in the corner of my shed?

HOOKS & PEGS

When you re-cycle your Christmas Tree try using some of it for hooks/pegs.

Saw the main stem just below each set of side branchs, (they are usually growing in threes or fours at the same height around the stem). Leave one part of the stem longer than the other and sharpen it. Ideal for pegging down netting or using as hooks in your shed. They last a long time.

Christmas Tree Pegs

The Bluebells were making an appearance underneath my fruit trees on the drainage ditch bank.


Bluebells Pushing Through

I took the following photograph of the other plot I was working on in 2011. At the beginning of 2011 it was smothered in Bindweed. I spent many hours trying to eradicate it by hand. Although a few weeds are growing I coudn't see any Bindweed at the moment, so fingers crossed. Two full plots to cultivate this year. Bring it on.

Bind weed Free Hopefully?







Looks Like More Rain Dear

Almost midday again & the rain is still coming down accompanied by a stiffening breeze. Although last weekend was dryish the last 2 days have been wet again and its getting really frustrating now thinking about the jobs I could be doing down the plot, wondering what's in store (or won't be) for 2012. Anyway that's the moaning over with.
 Yesterday I decided to re-cycle and shred all the used Christmas wrapping paper & cardboard. All was going well until 1300 (lucky number 13)? when the shredder didn't like the fact that an unused Christmas cracker exploded as I shredded it, and gave up the ghost. Well you live & learn. By the time I'd finished tearing up the rest of the cardboard & paper I had 3 binbags full of good composting material. I'd salvaged a handful of string, (useful for plant ties later) and the plastic coated bits of wire (regularly found securing presents to cardboard these days) will also come in handy for plant ties.
The bin men came round this morning but didn't say thanks for saving them some effort, expect they were wet & miserable, like the weather?? Poor chaps.

There's always tomorrow!!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

Mild Monday 28th Nov 2011

Work in Progress on the
Allotment Road (or)
 (If you get it wrong I'll
slap u like this)??

After a rainy weekend I managed a visit to the plot on Monday morning. A slight breeze & weak sunshine had dried the ground enough to do some weeding and hoeing. I had finished the lower half of the plot by mid-afternoon. Then I cleared the dead leaves from underneath the Currant bushes, earthing them up and loosening the surrounding soil as I went along. Several other plot holders were taking advantage of the mild afternoon to work on their plots. Our site rep and one of our committee members were working on the allotment access road, laying new hardcore and tarmac, to improve the roads' surface.

Alpine Strawberries still fruiting

My Lemon Balm had self seeded, so I lifted the 5 new plants and potted them up for later use. Due to the mild weather three of my Runner beans were growing away, from roots I had left in the ground. My Alpine strawberries were still producing fruit and flowering too. After doing some more tidying up it was starting to turn a little colder and looked like it was about to rain, so by the time I had pulled some Carrots for my tea it was time for home. There's always tomorrow??

Huge amount of teazel plants
 weeded out and composted



Carrots For Tea