Penellype's Allotment

[nickdub]

A veritable horticultural Stakhanovite - by contrast I've done bugger-all really, apart form replacing the lid hinge on my one compost bin - a job which should have taken about 1 hour and ended up being about 4, with quite a lot of swearing thrown in.

[Penellype]

A veritable horticultural Stakhanovite - by contrast I've done bugger-all really, apart form replacing the lid hinge on my one compost bin - a job which should have taken about 1 hour and ended up being about 4, with quite a lot of swearing thrown in.

I had to google Stakhanovite

The allotment is proving usefully therapeutic and is an escape from a somewhat difficult and frustrating time at work (which is nobody's fault, but is not having a positive effect on my mood!). I do have a tendency to fling myself into things in this sort of situation, which is better than sitting staring into space and moping.

[nickdub]

definitely a positive for me, particularity getting outside and working with growing things. My character is composed of 8 parts laziness, 1 part enthusiasm and 1 part stubbornness - which leads to prolonged periods of doing not very much with the occasional burst of something happening - most people would probably take me for mad, but I think I was probably born this way.

Anyway I read a lot, which gives me a load of theoretical knowledge, but doesn't get the garden dug or weeded too well.

[geepee]

I had to google Stakhanovite

The allotment is proving usefully therapeutic and is an escape from a somewhat difficult and frustrating time at work (which is nobody's fault, but is not having a positive effect on my mood!). I do have a tendency to fling myself into things in this sort of situation, which is better than sitting staring into space and moping.

Pen'
YOUR NEVER DOING WRONG IF YOUR DOING SOMETHING..!!

Nick ..you should take a look at your life and take a 'LEAF FROM Pen's book...

[Penellype]

Finally the top end of the allotment has dried out enough for me to dig over the fruit bed again and remove some more horsetail roots. As with the raspberry bed I am probably fighting a losing battle here, but the blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes are in 30 litre pots and won't come to any harm where they are, unlike the bare root raspberries, so I am going to give this my best shot. Some of the roots that came out this time had some green growth on them, so hopefully soon the horsetail will start to appear above ground, and then it will be easier to see how much of it I have missed and where I need to dig again.

Other than that all I did was walk round and check, and give the plants in the hotbed some water.

[Snoop Puss]

Penellype, might something like an asparagus knife help with the horsetail? Just keep cutting it off as low as you can rather than keep digging... Even hoeing.

[Penellype]

Penellype, might something like an asparagus knife help with the horsetail? Just keep cutting it off as low as you can rather than keep digging... Even hoeing.

I think I am going to have to adopt several different approaches in different parts of the allotment. At the moment the biggest problem is finding the stuff, as it is all below ground, so digging is the quickest way. The method I am using for the fruit bed has worked well twice before, completely eradicating ground elder and convolvulus in the veg plot I had when I was married (about 1/4 acre) and more recently getting rid of creeping thistle and couch grass in my friend's rather smaller veg garden.

Long term the issues with the horsetail in this particular piece of ground will be roots that are so deep that I can't dig them out and invading roots from the paths at the edges. Once the bushes are planted I obviously won't be able to dig. However, at the moment, with the current weather playing havoc with various plans along with the issues at work, the occasional opportunity to vent some frustration by digging is very welcome!

[Penellype]

Today's job was to start weeding the strawberries, which are in between the rhubarb and the first of the raised beds. As with everything else, these are infested with horsetail and willowherb, and there are thousands of very tiny green seedlings popping up everywhere.

I spent a good hour removing the willowherb that was large enough to handle and digging out horsetail roots from the bare area between the rhubarb and strawberry plants. I also cut off a load of dead leaves, old fruit stems and runners. There are flower buds on some of the plants, but whether they will have survived the frost remains to be seen.

Plenty more of the same to do tomorrow.

[Penellype]

More progress today with weeding the strawberries, although its a very slow process. I'm about half way down the row now.

Finally met the man who has the next door plot - he has had his since the autumn, so not much longer than I have had mine. He has a large pile of "rubbish" in the corner of his plot, which he says he is going to get rid of, and I can take what I like. Some useful looking bits of wood and possibly other useable items lurking in there

Took a couple of photos of progress in the hotbed:



Spinach, carrots, mixed lettuce and more carrots at this end. The spinach and lettuces will need thinning soon.



Harder to see this end, but more spinach, red beetroot, red lettuce and yellow beetroot here.

The idea is that the spinach and lettuce will be ready fairly quickly and will be eaten, leaving more room for the carrots and beetroot later.

Brought home some rhubarb for tea.

[Penellype]

Today I finished off weeding the strawberries and digging out some of the horsetail. It will need going over several times but the job is done for now.

Then I got to sorting through the pile of "rubbish" in the plot next door. It consisted of a large pile of leylandii (I have plenty of that, thanks) mixed with various pieces of wood, some rotting and some in good condition, plus some lengths of plastic and some metal rods, plus bits of tattered plastic sheeting. I salvaged the metal and plastic (but not the sheeting) and a fair amount of the wood, which looks extremely useful. There are about 10 pieces of reasonable 2x1 inch wood about 8ft long, which will do nicely for the runner beans (I was going to buy 8ft canes) and will also make a top bar for another hoop frame. There are some decent lengths of probably 2 inch square fencing posts which should do nicely as supports for pea nets and there are plenty of shorter pieces which I can use for weighting down nets, cloches etc and various other stuff. All in all an excellent haul - I'm really glad he didn't get rid of it before I met him!

[nickdub]

Are you sure you haven't been tidying up my garden by mistake ?

[Penellype]

Yuck, yuck, yuck!

So this is Penellype's allotment, warts and all. And today was definitely one of the less good days.

Today's job was to tidy the wood shed, meaning basically to rearrange the wood so that I could fit the bits from next door in. Not hard. It should have taken me 5 minutes, but... when I last tidied it out there was a can of creocote which I am 90% certain never to want to use. But I hate throwing things away so I put it on a shelf at the back. Whether I managed to dislodge it at some point, or whether it fell off in the wind or a cat or something has been in there I have no idea, but when I looked in there today the can was upside down on top of a half full bag of compost. It had a cap on - one of those stupid child proof things, of course. The cap was loose (I have yet to meet a waterproof child proof top) and most of the stuff had leaked out - I have no idea how full it was to start with.

As far as I can tell the main casualties are the bag of compost (left at the allotment by the previous owner), which went in the bin, and a plastic chair, which I would really rather like to sit on. The shed has an earth floor and some may have soaked into that. I decided to try to clean up the chair, and succeeded in only making an almighty mess. Belatedly I decided that a filthy cloth and cold water were not going to do the job, and went home to get some washing up liquid, cloths and rubber gloves. That was rather better, but I now had a muddy, oily puddle on the floor. I scraped it up as best I could with my snow shovel and put the contaminated soil under the dead part of the leylandii hedge (the best place I could think of at the time). I just hope it doesn't kill any wildlife, but I can hardly be the first person to spill creocote!

Gloves and coat have gone in the washing machine and I've washed my hands thoroughly twice but they still stink. I think I must be more tired than I am aware of as yesterday I managed to spill half a mug of coffee all over my desk. I'm not normally clumsy, and I wouldn't normally tackle a cleanup job in such a stupid way without thinking it out first.

[nickdub]

Sounds like hard work, but if you get desperate no doubt you have the makings an impressive bonfire.

I always used to rather enjoy creosoting things, not quite the same with the modern stuff as it doesn't smell quite right - used to get an impressive fake tan up your arms too.

[1Bee]

Hugs! What a nightmare, glad it wasn't worse.

[geepee]

Sorry to read of your disaster..!!!
Remember NOT to rub your eyes however tired, whilst youve got any trace of Creosote on your hands.
On the 'Upside' Rats hate creosote...!! and the smell should keep any self respecting wood worm away.