Saturday started with rain but not too heavy and it stopped by lunchtime giving us quite a pleasant afternoon. The temperature was around 14 degrees which is really incredible. I was thinking back to Bonfire nights when our daughter was young. Wrapping up warm in hats and gloves to watch the fireworks, your breath steaming in the crisp cold air. Now it’s almost shirt sleeves weather, this climate change stuff is no joke.
I popped down to the plot and started off by taking a pound or so of Brussels sprouts off. I’m afraid some of them are blowing so gave them a feed of Miracle Grow at double strength with extra sulphate of ammonia after making sure any blowing sprouts were removed. This trick often works to save the crop further up the stalk and, if I remember, I’ll give them another feed in a couple of weeks.
Brussels sprouts are in the ground a long time and do tend to exhaust the ground a bit, reacting to this by blown sprouts.
Got the netting fixed back on the sprouts after removing a few yellow leaves, which only serve to harbour slugs anyway, and moved on down to the compost heap at the bottom of plot 5.
Anyhow, each fork full goes into the barrow then fish out the stalks for the new heap. I lost the light so packed up around half four. The heaps getting there though.
Had a chat with Larry who’s improving his soil with a deep trench, three good spits deep and well into the blue clay, which he’s filling with leaves and piling the clay back on.
The council have delivered us a good load of leaves, which always come in handy although something went wrong yesterday and the promised skip didn’t arrive. I’ll be contributing a couple of bags of blighted rotting potatoes and a sheet of broken glass. It should be bringing a load of stones for the paths and car park as well.
One of the plotholders has brought us some sleepers which we’re going to build some beds around the entrance with to make the site more attractive. I’m contributing a couple of pyracantha (firethorn), which will look attractive, have berries for the birds and unfortunately the nastiest thorns you’ll ever come across. I just hope no naughty lads try and climb over the fence and hurt themselves, poor mites.
Talking of unwelcome visitors, we’ve got the workmen in on the site. I said there’s no electricity but that’s not exactly true, there are electric cables that cross the site and then go into the ground at the top end. Last year they needed access so instead of ringing the site rep for the key they just cut the lock off the gate. Did they pay for it? Of course not.
This time they have dug a deep hole by the pylon and put rather fetching red and white barriers around. It’s filling up nicely with water now. I’m not sure how this pond will help the electric supply to the area but you have to assume they have some sort of clue about what they are doing.
Photo Below: Leaves in the centre, compost near the shed and straw to the rear on the other sides.
Like this style with the larger photo placed at the bottom of the diary entry with a few descriptives. Helps me convince myself i’m an allotmenteer myself.
I try to pop the odd photo in but find the allotment photographs section really useful when I’m looking back year on year. When it’s pouring with rain it’s nice to remember the sunshine as well.