Digging out Brambles!

On the way to the plot today I dropped in to Stewarts to get some clips and bolts for glazing the greenhouse at home. For once they are not much more expensive than online! Arriving at the site I cleaned down the blackboard to put up the notice about the new Facebook page, 'Roeshot Hill Allotment Association'.
I thought I had made it members only but on the way out Mike tells me it is open to the public - that is anyone and everyone. He says that there are privacy settings but I have checked and cannot find them! While I am happy if anyone can see the page I would like it if just Roeshot allotmenteers and friends could comment and add their photos etc. Hopefully I will find how to do it, perhaps with your help via the page or the website contact page.

At the plot I spent an hour or so clearing some of the nettles and brambles on the fence line between me and Frank. He has dug his side but I have a wooden board and the wire netting buried on my side. However, I managed to dig out most of it though some bramble roots go way down. There was also quite a bit of bindweed root as well and I could see some of the bindweed root on Frank's side that he had missed and had been washed to the surface by the recent rains. I must remember to point it out to him when we next meet. After all the rain we've had, the soil was pretty wet, almost sticky, even though on my plot it is quite sandy.

Then I remembered promising to post a photo of the corners and joints of my 'raised' strawberry bed using lengths of arris rail for pegs. So here it is, with no corners for slugs and snails to hide in.​​

  







When I opened up the compost bin to dump the bin of kitchen waste there was a rat sized hole in the top so I may have residents inside. The compost was quite warm to touch so it is probably very cosy. I used the kitchen waste to plug the hole in the hope that the rats will be disturbed and move elsewhere. Cutting a rotting pumpkin up into pieces with the spade probably frightened anything inside the bin! I also poked a cane down the side with a pop bottle windmill on top. The noise of it spinning disturbs moles so it may make life more uncomfortable for rats!

The purple sprouting had a few heads on it, which I cut to take home along with a few heads of 'Sutherland' Kale, plants given to me by a friend for me to try. I also pulled the only swede that had swelled. It was almost the size of a tennis ball so it wouldn't win any prizes! I must sow them earlier next year!

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