Mower mulch?

Well, now I've got my own mower, I'm going to keep the grass mown more often. My 4 compost bins are pretty full already, so I was wondering if I can use the grass clippings as a mulch around plants. Yes? No?

Clingfilm magic & other jobs

Don't you just love pound shops? You can get all sorts of goodies. I picked up these mini poly tunnels for 99p each. I bought 4 to see how I go with them. I'm currently growing some peas under them - single rows of Kelvedon Wonder either side of the trellis.

The daffs are now in full bloom and look very nice in the strawberry bed :)

Tackling the grassy wilderness is my next 'to do' task. I marked out some strip beds (and on Sunday I dug one out into 3 mini beds with paths between).

Brew on!

Nick spotted a palette box and salvaged it. He's super-pleased with his clingfilm cold frame. It is pretty impressive you have to admit.

I put up some willow trellis on the side of the shed for my sweet peas.

The pulmonaria is now in bloom. So pretty!

Nick bought some Orla potatoes which should be ready to plant very soon.

I planted out lots of seeds under the cold frame...

L-R: spring onions, broccoli, radish, kohl rabi, leek, celariac.

We got a fire going to clear the dead leftovers from last year. Mucho smoke!

I moved the two black compost bins to the 'road end' of the plot and filled them up.

Nick dug over the large 1st bed.

And I put down some chipboard to cover up the sticky mud puddle outside the shed door.

Making new beds

Well, down the allotment I went today, with a helper - huzzah! My friend, Nick (a star of a friend, if ever there was one) volunteered digging services today. Of course, I happily accepted :) While I waited for him to arrive, I gave my shed's potting bench a dust down and found these bulb cards hiding. Now I know what should be popping up in the 2nd bed, 'shed end'. This is great as I didn't really make a proper note of what I planted. Tut tut! This is one of the great things about a blog - a searchable record of what went where, when :)

I also took some snaps of yet more shopping I did on Friday evening - more seeds for this year:

Celariac: giant prague, sugarsnap peas: sugar bon
& kohl rabi: purple vienna (which I have never eaten,
in any form, so this will be a proper first!)

Sunflowers: sunburst mixed, marrow: long green bush2 

(LOVE marrows!), leek: lyon2 prizetaker (sounds promising!), 

& some mixed annuals - planning to plant these in strips 

at each end of the veg beds.

The crocuses growing next to the shed are also further on than last week. lots more of these stunning purple ones and each one open. Sigh :) Looks like even more will come out soon too.

So, what did we do? Well, I attacked the 'dump mound', left by the last tenants, next to the globe artichoke, on the end of my herb bed. It was full of old potatoes of various varieties and jerusalem artichokes (all rotten), as well as loads of bloody sloe tree roots! Grr! Ahem. My cunning plan for this area is to build a cold frame. It should then be sheltered by the shed and close to it for moving and acclimatising my new plants. The soil, once I'd attacked it for a couple of hours, was perfect. Just right for purpose :) No raking needed - which is good as I snapped the rake before Xmas! I also dug out last year's woody spinach so there is another bit of bed ready for something new, next to my tree onions. The pic above shows how it looks now. I really want to get hold of some scrap wood to edge these beds, now I know I will be keeping them like this. I shall keep my eye on skips...

Nick, well, he's a digger. A digging machine, who will work as long as there is a supply of tea and biscuits (and cake!). I set him about digging over last Sunday's new bed which I'd de-turfed. I was going to bury the turf but he ended up shifting it onto an existing mound behind the shed. Out of sight out of mind ;) One day I will sort it out. Perhaps. This just needs attacking with a rake - which I need to buy. Nick did take one off the shed (read earlier posts if this sounds odd!), but I reckon it will snap soon enough, like the other one.

Bed dug over, time for tea. Nick brought his camping stove and some chocolate biscuits. Nick rocks! :)

His next task was to dig another new bed, a bit bigger this time, between the strawberries and the other globe artichokes/spring onions/asparagus. Safe to say he did this MUCH quicker than me last weekend. But then I am a feeble girl ;) Again, this just now needs to be raked over, once one is purchased!

The other job we did was to move 3 compost bins out from behind the shed and under the trees, into the open. I am hoping being in full sun will create some heat to break things down faster. It also means they are easier to get to. We put lots of the rotted compost onto the beds and Nick dug it in. I was on barrow duty. I also put the unrotted compost back into the bins. To be honest, a lot of what was in the bins was trash, literally! Jam jar lids, sweet wrappers, crisp packets, carrier bags. Doesn't make any sense to me. Hardly going to rot down eh. There were also lots of sticks, stones and bits of metal I also picked out. At least I know what's in the bins from now on will be useful for the allotment!

This last pic shows the 1st bin we moved - the bin far right was already out on the plot. I now have 2 more black bins between the two. I may move the black ones down to the other end of the plot, the 'road end', so there is compost on each half.

Well, might pop down the allotment tomorrow, might not. We shall see! I do need to mow though. Claire's mower wouldn't get going today so I think it needs some 'go-juice'! Hope you're making the most of the finer weather this weekend. :)

Sunday wasn't a day of rest!

So, first things first - I've been away for a week, skiing :) Had a lovely time and contrary to this photo, it was glorious sunshine most of the week. In fact at times it was too hot! I'm the one in the pink, my little bro is next to me, and his girlfriend's the one on the end. I missed my usual ski pal though, my dad, who couldn't make it this time. Next time eh, pops! ;) x

I was still feeling pretty healthy and energetic, the sun was out, so I went to the allotment for a dig on Sunday. It is official - Spring is here! I have evidence...

These pretty purple and yellow crocuses are growing next to my shed. They're so lovely :) Anyhoo, back to digging. Yep, I dug myself a new bed. Aren't I good?! So far I've just de-turfed it. I am going to bury the grass, grass-side-down, a spade's depth in the bed. (I read that is what I need to do!) That will be next weekend's task. I got a bit bored of digging after two hours and had some other tasks I wanted to do too. However, I was very proud of my achievement :) Look what I made...

Yes, it is a pile of turf and a muddy strip in the grass, but it is just so noble and magnificent... :P

Here, I took another pic of it to show the position, next to my two other strip beds at the 'shed end'. The ground was nice and soft to dig, which was a relief. (Cath - I used your Xmas pressie spade. Worked a treat and easier to use than my bigger one, which I try to load up with too much at once!)

Next came the fun part - having a fire. This went reasonably well, until I got a little nervous when the flames got pretty big and I suddenly realised I hadn't got the two watering cans of water ready in case it got out of control! I ran into the shed and got that sorted just after I threw some damp grass on to calm the flames :) Phew! Clears a lot of space, having a fire.

While the burning was happening, and I kept one eye on it, I had a poke about the rest of the 'shed end' of the allotment to see what was coming through, as well as tidying up and throwing any dried dead stuff onto the fire. I was very pleased to see some of the annuals starting to show new growth:

Both the lupins are coming through again, one more advanced than
the other. They were really pretty last year so I am happy they
made it through the snowy winter.

Mrs Bradshaw, my double geum is also showing strong signs of life.
I look forward to enjoying her again this year :)

The aquilegia is also emerging. I have now pulled off all
the dead stalks from last year's growth.

I was concerned last year that I'd wasted my money on the
caraway plant I bought. It spent most of the summer being floppy
then died back to nothing in autumn. However, it seems to still be
alive and has put on some healthy-looking growth already.
Let's hope it fares better this year :)

The tree onions I moved last year are making an
appearance, so they're still happy.

I wasn't expecting to see the spring onions, already in the allotment
when I took it on, coming through again. Hopefully they will be ok.
I'll see, andif not, they will have to go.

The three globe artichokes are all coming through again. I love the
thistle-type flowers they put on and they taste lovely so I look
forward to munching these when they are ready :)

In the strawberry bed there is this line of daffs. They were
flowering when I took the plot over almost a year ago so I
was expecting to see them again.
Note to self: change straw under strawberries once you've weeded ;)

And look at this - the garlic I planted before Xmas is making
a strong start :) The other bulbs I put in at the same time are
all coming through, some slightly more advanced than others.
Photos will be taken to show their progress.

This is a snap of the herb bed, next to the shed. I have now pulled out the dead growth and have tidied it a little. I managed to edge one side and will do the other next weekend. The caraway can be seen on the bottom edge of the photo - a bright vibrant green. I am still surprised to see it!

Another job I did was I finally trimmed out all the old wood from the raspberries and pruned the black/red/whitecurrant and gooseberry bushes, so this summer I can actually walk around them to harvest the fruit, without being impaled so much! They did fight back though and my arms look like I've lost a fight with a cat! I know really I should've done this job in the autumn. I didn't get round to it then, but I found it easy to spot the new canes v the old canes on the raspberries, as the new ones had buds on, the old ones didn't. The buds & new growth on the currants etc also showed me where to cut the branches back to. Maybe I've mucked it all up but there is only one way to see - wait a few weeks :) I am hoping that it is all pretty resilient and I've not messed up the growth too much, if at all.

I worked right up until it went dark and felt a big sense of achievement. Seeing the new growth coming through and anticipating the new growing year ahead I am now officially excited :)

I took my seed box home with me to plan what to do over the next few months. I can see I need to buy some seeds, as well as wait a while and cheat with some seedling plants. ;) I've been perusing my allotment books and I look forward to going down again on Saturday (still too dark in the evenings at 6.30pm when I get home from work). This time I'll have a helper so I should get twice as much done!


----------
Edit: Oh, I didn't mention that I noticed John, my next-plot-neighbour @ the 'shed end' must be giving up. I didn't see him much over the late summer. His sheds have gone and his plot seems pretty much abandoned. :(

I also managed a whole lottie time without being interrupted, just me and ma tunes! Huzzah :) Get so much more done like that. I will be more sociable soon, I'm sure!

One girl went to mow...

So, all this heat and rain has made everything grow crazy-fast and the worst culprit is the grass and the weeds! I was fed up of 'wading' through knee-high grass when watering my allotment, so I borrowed a lawnmower from my friend Claire. I spent the early part of this evening at hers, being shown how to use it and of course, mowing her lawn for her!

My friend's lawn, half done - the mower overheated so here it is, taking a breather :)

Claire had a go at mowing too - a team effort. Look at that idyllic view she has from her garden. *Jealous!*

I went off to take photos of her lovely cherry tree...

Then we wrestled to get the mower in my car (annoyingly scratching my painted plastic bumper - argh!). Got to the allotment and mowed the grass there. No rest for the wicked! Here is the 'before' photo...

...and the 'after'. Much improved, though it might not look it on these photos!

Hmm, not the best footwear to cut a lawn then an allotment in! sorry about the feet photo!!

I've taken lots of 'what's growing' photos as I've been meaning to do it for ages. I have put them on flickr but will blog about them asap here. Just one before I sign off, for Jo at The Good Life...