a weblog with an allotment attached
30 September 2007
Today the ordure we ordered (try saying that after a bevvy or two) was delivered.
I have spent the best part of the day digging the manure in to various beds. I’m shattered and I reckon I’m only about halfway through.
My back tells me that I won’t be getting around to finishing this for a little […]
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 2:05 pm
29 September 2007
Or, In Kings Heath no-one can hear you scream!
Or, Revenge of the homeless web-spinners!
I have a difficult relationship with spiders. I am terrified of them. It’s irrational, I know. They just want to be left alone to munch insects in peace and would far prefer it if I wasn’t clumping around nearly treading […]
Filed under: Wildlife — Clare @ 4:36 pm
28 September 2007
Last weekend while digging over one of the beds in the middle of the garden I hit a snag. A very hard snag. I was trying to dig a trench at a spade’s depth and reached concrete. When we moved in there was a massive pile of rubbish at that end of […]
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 3:52 pm
27 September 2007
Having leaf sacks is only half the story. As I’ve told you many times before, our garden is tiny - far too small for trees. The trees in our near neighbours’ gardens are yukky conifers that are getting taller and taller and mean we will have to politely ask that they be trimmed, […]
Filed under: Hard labour — Clare @ 11:12 am
26 September 2007
(Don’t worry - no P45s involved)
I wrote a little while ago about wanting to order some leaf sacks from Wiggly Wigglers and mentioned that I wasn’t going to order them until the raised beds were completed. Ahem. They’re not done yet, almost there but not quite. I ordered the sacks anyway. Well, […]
Filed under: Mulch, Potager project — Clare @ 4:21 pm
25 September 2007
It’s taken us a while, but this weekend we put the finishing touches to the shed.
It might be small, not even a shed at all really (”Grande Storage” is what the manufacturer calls it), but it absolutely does what we want it to do. Look at the foldaway table on the door - how useful […]
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 3:59 pm
24 September 2007
Mel has harvested the last of her squash. I am envious. This is the best I have been able to manage this year - a tiny, sad Uchiki Kuri that is smaller than an egg.
Not much soup out of that, then.
Filed under: Mulch — Clare @ 6:13 pm
23 September 2007
In 2006, the composer Sir Malcolm Arnold died, and I was excitedly planning a bumper garlic harvest. I hope the two events are unrelated.
I did, as planned, plant vast quantities of garlic, but never harvested them due to my total abandonment of the allotment. The new Potager means that I am making similar plans […]
Filed under: On this day — Clare @ 6:01 pm
22 September 2007
It’s rained a lot here recently, but for now that’s OK. For starters, it means that the soil in the soon-to-be-raised beds is still soft enough to dig and turn over so I can prepare them properly. Even better than that, the rain has washed away a lot of the dust from the […]
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 3:58 pm
21 September 2007
We have today ordered 30 sacks of well-rotted (4 years old) horse manure from Mr Muck’s. It’s reasonably priced (if there is such a thing as reasonably priced faeces) and delivery is free (well of course, I don’t charge to deliver mine, do you?). We expect our poo to arrive a week on Monday, […]
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 3:31 pm
20 September 2007
I’ve been pondering the benefits and downsides of growing vegetables in the garden as opposed to down the allotment. Here are my thoughts:
Pros:
Less space - more manageable
Less lawn = less mowing
Closer to home - easier to pop out for short periods more often
Not surrounded by people using Roundup
No bindweed
Feel better about investing money into […]
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 5:38 pm
19 September 2007
Ask me which is my favourite season and I would probably tell you that it depends and that at this time of year I would have to say autumn. Of course, if you asked me again in April, I would say spring. It’s not that I’m fickle, it’s just that both have such […]
Filed under: Seasons - autumn — Clare @ 4:02 pm
18 September 2007
The shed is almost complete (won’t be finished now until the weekend, and even then it’ll only be if the weather’s OK) and time is pushing on. I still have to finish preparing the beds before we can give them a proper filling. I’m working my way through the largest beds to start […]
Filed under: Hard labour, Potager project — Clare @ 6:40 pm
17 September 2007
Having completed the raised beds (bar the compost) and the shed building (bar the painting) I have been entertaining myself by planning what I might plant where. Knowing myself as I do I think it’s safe to say that the plan I have drawn up will not be stuck to, but it’s a starting […]
Filed under: Potager project, Review & plan — Clare @ 7:34 pm
16 September 2007
The end of summer is proving to be far more spectacular than the beginning.
Filed under: Seasons - summer, This much I know — Clare @ 5:58 pm
15 September 2007
You might think that a shed as small as ours would take less work to put together than one of average size, but it turns out you would be wrong. There are still the same number of walls and therefore the same number of joins to make, don’t forget. Add to that the […]
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 10:12 pm
14 September 2007
If it seems as though I have been writing a lot lately, well, that’s because I’ve been writing a lot lately. What I mean is, I’ve been writing a lot for work and once I get going it’s difficult to shut me up and I end up being all inspired to write blog posts […]
13 September 2007
It’s possible that the title of this post is something of an exaggeration. Still, our very tiny shed has been delivered and so we’ll be spending the weekend trying to decipher the instructions so we can put it together.
Then we’ll have a hoedown.
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 3:11 pm
12 September 2007
Ok, so it’s a somewhat emotive headline and inaccurate (probably), but it is prompted by reading this story on the BBC news website. It goes something like this…
It has been discovered that a compound called Salvestrol Q40 found in tangerine peel, but also present in brassicas, kills cancer cells. This can only be […]
Filed under: Organic — Clare @ 1:48 pm
12 September 2007
Has anybody seen Wiggly Wigglers recently? I’m a big WW fan - our wormery, beehive composters, bird feeders and bird food have all come from there. I particularly like how as a company they put a lot of thought into making it easier for people to start composting, to encourage wildlife into their […]
Filed under: Potager project, Sustainable living — Clare @ 11:56 am
11 September 2007
Yesterday was Richard and Sally’s Wedding at Rowton Castle near Shrewsbury.
We all had a brilliant time celebrating and dancing ’til dawn. This time I have no bruises or grazes or broken bones, but I am pretty tired from too much shimmying. I just can’t party like I used to.
Filed under: Mulch — Clare @ 11:54 am
9 September 2007
The good news is that after yesterday’s funk, I am now feeling a lot more sociable and friendly. Which is just as well given that we’re going to our friends’ wedding tomorrow (by all means visit the site, but you’re not really invited - that’s not up to me), for which Owen and I […]
Filed under: Music — Clare @ 1:31 pm
8 September 2007
I’ve had one of those ‘feeling at complete odds with the World’ days.
Meh.
Filed under: Mulch — Clare @ 9:54 pm
7 September 2007
Just in case you were wondering how the Potager Project is coming along, given that we worked very hard at it over the bank holiday, I thought I would finally let the cat out of the bag (or the mice out of the compost, if you prefer) and show you just what we achieved.
Here’s pretty […]
Filed under: Potager project — Clare @ 9:39 am
6 September 2007
As well as rodent drama, the garden refurb also unearthed a couple of frogs.
This chap was living behind the same compost bin that was home to the Brum Family Mouse. He hopped away somewhere shady and cool when I removed his hiding nook. Clearly I am a heartless wildlife home-wrecker.
This slightly smaller, […]
Filed under: Potager project, Wildlife — Clare @ 6:03 pm
6 September 2007
You may have noticed that I haven’t written for a while. No, I have not been buried under a pile of slate chips, struggling to free myself. But we were without our broadband connection for a long, long time, and then we went on holiday.
Now we’re back and so is our broadband so […]
Filed under: Mulch — Clare @ 1:58 pm