Making the shed look horrible! - 30 August 2006

Look what I've done to my beautiful shed with one coat of wood preserver, I really hope it looks better after 2 coats! Moo oo :-(

New veranda step and . . . digging! - 25 August 2006

As you can see I've begun making a step up to the veranda, it was a bit of a drop before and the ground slopes away to the left side. Am hoping to blag 4 pavers to put on top.

Also starting digging the next strip which is extremely weedy! Hardly any glass or stones which makes a pleasant change. Done about 1 metre square - only 7 or 8 more of these to complete the strip, woo hoo!! Have also run out of edges bricks so will have to start looking on skips and maybe freecycle.

Other upcoming big task is painting the shed, have bought some forest green wood preserver from Focus (on their summer sale now), just £7.99 for 10 or 15 litres.

Lots of news and photos - 24 August 2006

Finally finished digging the first strip and here's the proof!

Made a scarecrow out of CD's as described earlier.

My alfalfa seeds are doing well, they look like clover and are an excellent green manure which can be dug in in the spring. They also stop some of the weeds from taking hold.

Wasn't too sure what I needed to do with my strawberry runners and have loads since my Mum, and Matt and Claire have given me lots of strawberry plants. Visited and joined the grapevine forum
A forum member called Nick the Grief gave me lots of helpful advice and quickly. He said runners with roots can be cut away from main plant and planted in the ground. Runners without roots can be either planted directly into the ground using pots for easy transplanting later or. . .

. . . planted in multi-compost manure. The runners need to be held down about an inch from the new plant and so I used hairpins to do this. Nick also said that the first plant on a runner is the strongest and so cut away most of the second or third plants coming off the runners.


These pots are either side of my veranda which looks lovely. The bricks are there to raise the pots up so that the runners reach!

The next phrase of digging is ready, have moved back the plastic sheeting. This will be my fruit section, posted a question on the grapevine forum about the best layout for fruit.

Claire and Matt also gave me this garlic plant - does anyone know what to do with this to make it grow next year?

Slugs and . . .more digging! - 17 August 2006

Yesterday it rained and so I decided to go slug hunting. Much to my relief there weren't any in my planted area - the brick edging really seems to help with this. However there were 5 or 6 gathered on the wet carpet, I picked them up with some lettuce leaves which I had brought up for composting and chucked them on the communal compost heap. I hope this is okay to do?

Dug some more but failed to complete the first third of plot - moo!

Claire & Matt visit bearing gifts - 20 August 2006

Have moved Steve's studio up to the spare bedroom and so had to downsize our furniture, so I gained a desk for the shed which I can use as a potting table. Steve helped me move it up there but did point out what a boring picture this would be, so it had to go on!


This afternoon I returned to the allotment and made a scarecrow devise with an old curtain rail, 2o CD's, string, and some electrical tape. Quite pleased with the result will photograph it next time. Also finally finished digging the first third of the plot - yeah!


Had some surprise visitors today, Matt and Claire called up with loads of strawberry plants which have lots of baby strawberry plants attached (can't remember their proper name!). It was lovely to see them and I sent them home with some of John's runner beans and a couple of my chilli's.

Weeding and digging - 13 August 2006

Yesterday Debbie explained that one of my plants was actually a weed and so I tackled it. Need to hoe when the soil is dry to get the rest of the weeds which have appeared amoungst my vegetables.

Dug another 3 rows and I could hardly stand up straight afterwards. I think that 3 hours tomorrow should finish the first third - yippee! Will keep you posted on progress.

Rob & Debbie visit - 12 August 2006

Rob and Debbie came to stay this weekend and so we took them up to the allotment. Someone has been in my shed and ripped the curtains that I only put up on Thursday night. I was trying to make it less open to theft and just encouraged the vandals instead - oh well, c'est la vie.

Fruits of my labour - 9 August 2006

I have two melon plants which have grown lots, think it might be too late for fruit this year but they look great.

My lettuce is growing well although I can't remember what the plant in the foreground is?

And here's the first of the green chilli crop!

Been doing more digging and hope to finish the first third of the plot soon. Will keep you posted regarding this monumental event!!

Summerhouse goes up - 1 August 2006

My Mum and I took delivery of the shed from a very nice B&Q driver who had to reverse his 20tonne lorry through the narrow gates. We also finished of the foundations.

Steve and Matt, a genius web developer (alledgedly!) did the construction work in just an hour and a half with the help of some cans of stella and the promise of chips.

The final product - yeah! Looking good. Just need to get a lock for the door and window and paint it with wood preserver - umm what colour shall we go?!