Tuesday 17th January Over Sunday morning and today most of my work has been directed towards improving the soil on my plot. On Sunday I crammed even more leaves into my stacked bags before shifting some soil out of my unglazed greenhouse and emptying the compost bags into the hollows ready to dig in. I took home some parsnips, one very cankered, and some small ones. This year's crop is very variable. On my way out I met a chap delivering a trailer load of mixed goat and chicken manure with hay and straw, much better than the majority of the 'manure' in the heaps. I must bring the trailer down to collect some. Today I brought the trailer. As I loaded the fresh goat manure into my trailer I realised it was too strong to use directly so I put a good layer onto two of my compost bins. One of my neighbours was very happy to take what was left in the trailer when my bins were full and overflowing. I then went round again, this time collecting the normal horse litter to mulch one of the vacant patches on my plot. Finally I got out my 'loppers' and started on pruning the gooseberries. I spent some time removing the branches that were laying, or almost laying, on the ground, being very careful as these gooseberries are covered in vicious spines. Later I shall come down with some very thick gloves and trim back the rest of the branches to get a better crop - as long as I net them to keep the birds off! I had just finished replenishing the rat poison when a near neighbour offered me a parsnip that put my measly harvest on Sunday completely to shame. Over 4 inches across the top and tapering beautifully down for over a foot! And he had several more like it in his bag! We discussed sowing techniques and variety (White Gem). It seemed only right to offer to help his wife keep the plot going if she needed help while he goes into hospital for a hip replacement next week. Friday 13th January Friday 13th was a good day for me. A trip to the plot was both stimulating and effective. While the wind was quite strong and rather cold, the sun was warm and I had some physical work to do. Before I started I had to rescue a couple of plastic tunnel cloches that were being blown across a neighbouring plot and stack them safely inside the greenhouse on the plot I think they came from. My first task was to rearrange some of the leaves so as to empty some bags. My neighbour still has about six bags of leaves to collect so he needs his bags back and I need to stack my bags and completely fill them. I started moving double handfuls of leaves from the latest arrivals into the bags stacked up until they were absolutely full. Even those that were full last time had space for quite a bit more as they settled so I finished up with several empty bags. I also emptied a whole bag full into the main bin. I finished up with only one bag still needing to be emptied and a row of bags double stacked with space for more leaves in some of the top ones. I also trimmed down the strip of carpet on top so it is less likely to get blown away. However the second task I wanted to complete was to clear the ground inside my greenhouse frame ready for me to glaze it. The wind was pretty strong so glazing was out of the question but I have sited the greenhouse in a fairly sheltered spot so weeding it was reasonably comfortable. Once the ground was cleared I had a barrowload of weeds to add to the compost bin covering the kitchen waste I had brought down. The compost in the old growbags will improve the soil in the greenhouse, though I will probably have to dig out some of the soil to make room for it.
Thursday 5th January 2017 No! This isn't my first visit to the plot since I got back from my Christmas break but it was the first where I did some useful work! My first visit on Monday was with my neighbour in his van as we brought down two of his very large and three of my new not-so-large builder's bags of leaves from his garden, dumping then around the leaf bins. One was too heavy and bulky to get through the gate so we left it outside for me to shovel over into the bin by hand later. I was then soundly told off at home for not bringing the veg required for dinner with my son and his family so I made a quick visit to do the harvesting on Tuesday. Too my disgust something has had a go at another of my cauliflowers! The middle one had been eaten away just like the other before Christmas. I pulled the bigger of the two that ere left and covered the head of the last one over with bent/broken leaves. I left the half eaten one hoping the rats (I am sure it must be rats) will stick with eating that one. I also picked a load of Brussels and pulled some leeks. Finally I dug up a few parsnips, quite small and misshapen but useable. At home we discovered most of the Brussels had gone brown in the middle and were not eatable so I made a quick trip to Sainsbury's! Today I planned to sort out the leaves a bit and start digging over inside the glassless greenhouse. There is so much grass and weed in there it will be easier to work on it before I glaze it. However, it was so cold and the ground in the greenhouse was so frozen I decided to concentrate on the leaves. The bags and bins are already compacting down and with a little help from me there was soon space to add more. It didn't take long to scoop handfuls from the 'too big' bag into the bin until the bag was light enough to lift and empty. Having covered the bin over with carpet and bricks I started on the bags at the back. Bags are only half full when they arrive otherwise they are too heavy to lift so it was a quick job to finish filling the two bags stacked on top from the second very large bag and one of the new smaller bags. The rest can wait until my next visit! Just before leaving I set out more rat poison, more in hope than expectation, though all that I put out before Christmas has disappeared and one of my traps has been sprung - though empty. It was good to get back into the swing of things, especially as I met quite a few friends and neighbours to wish a Happy New Year to. We also had a last visit from my neighbour who has been conspicuous by his absence. He came to collect his tools having been given notice for the end of last year. With luck I shall soon have a new neighbour to swap ideas and tips with, though there will be a bit of heavy work to be done at first to clear the wilderness! Home into another lovely sunset.
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May 2023
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