Allotment 2015

Allotment 2015

There not having been much to write about the allotments during the winter/early spring I have only now gathered a few photos & something to write about.

Like previous years I plan on writing – at least once a month – a blog on the progress of things on the allotments I’m sharing with my friend Gerry from church. I’m back to sharing with him after having to give up my plot (12A) last September due to time constraints & the demands made on me. 

As April has been a an unseasonably warm & dry month I’ve been able to get down to Gerry’s allotments a little more often.

View from the top of Plot 58 on 1st April 2015:

Lets start with some colour from March:

Crocuses flowering under dwarf apple tree in front of the greenhouse:

Some Daffodils flowering in front of our shed:

In April lots of lovely red Tulips in the bed in front of the shed:

I’ve been able to do some sowings & some work on the ground. Gerry has done the “Lion’s share” of the digging & has planted lots of potatoes.

Potatoes recently sown:

At the time of taking the photo I didn’t know Gerry had planted his seed potatoes in these couple of beds that’s why the caption reads: Beds recently manured. All that was visible were remains of the horse manure he’d previously dug in!

I haven’t planted any at all though there is still time yet to put in 2nd earlies & maincrop spuds. Not all is lost!

Garlic ‘Marco’:

I planted out a few cloves of Garlic ‘Marco’ back in December in the bed in front of the greenhouse. Now they are growing nicely.

Leeks at the top of the plot with some Lettuces planted alongside them:

The day I went down to the plot with my son I had intended to dig up the last of the Leeks that I had transplanted from my old plot last September but I discovered Gerry had planted these Lettuces right alongside them! Digging up the Leeks would have disturbed the soil around the too much I thought & they might not survive. I therefore left the Leeks where they were. Oh well, perhaps we can save some seed from them to sow next year! At least we will be treated to some great ball shaped flowerheads for a few weeks!

I sowed a packet of Broadbeans in toilet roll tubes:

As well as some Beetroot seed & Lettuces – 2 different varieties in the greenhouse.

Broadbean plants before/after I’d planted them out:

Beetroot ‘Bolthardy’ before/after I finished planting them out:

The Beetroot germinated very well & I’ve since planted it out on the plot. In fact I made two sowings & planted them out with only a few days of difference between them.

Beetroot ‘Bolthardy’ 2nd sowing just planted out:

All these seedlings were planted out in a raised bed I made up on Plot 58 between November 2014 & March 2015.

As the Lettuce hadn’t germinated I had none to plant out! One of the two trays of seeds has produced a very few seedlings which for the present are still in their tray. No more seeds seem to be germinating though.

After planting out the Beetroot I sowed a couple of rows of Lettuces directly into the soil this time of both varieties.

I also sowed a couple of rows of Beetroot seed as I have several packets of seeds still:

(My brother has since given me another packet!)

View from top of Plot 59B:

Mixed runner beans just sown at the base of the netting on the plot division:

Jonathan hoeing red onion bed:

I’ve even “roped in” my son, Jonathan, to give me a hand. He is my youngest son, he’ll be 38 this year. He hasn’t helped me on Gerry’s main plot, 58, so far that’s why the only photo I managed to grab of him was while he was busy hoeing the red onion bed near the end of Plot 59B, Gerry’s half allotment.

The first day he came down with me he helped me get the green netting on the plot division between Gerry’s half plot & his neighbour’s plot set up much better. It’s now stronger & better held up than last year. I don’t have any photos of this work as I didn’t think to get “before & after” photos. Though the after ones I can get any time now, obviously! I could even dig out (excuse the pun!) some photos from last year where the netting is quite clear but I doubt anyone would be interested in seeing “before & after” photos of some netting!!!

He also helped me with the raised bed we have made up on Gerry’s side of the plot division. This is something I’ve wanted to do for several years but had neither the time nor the wood with which to do it. Using some of the planks from my old plot we were able to make it up.

Raised bed beside plot division being made up:

Raised bed beside plot division now finished:

Some months ago we changed the flooring in our flat. We had had vinyl flooring since we moved in in 2001. We put vinyl flooring down instead of carpeting as we had 5 little dogs. A few years ago the last of the dogs died but we didn’t change the flooring. During the last 3 months of 2014 we decided it was time to change the flooring so we started to buy carpets which I, & one of my brothers, put down. We then kept the old vinyl to put down on the allotments. During April I covered most of the paths on Gerry’s half plot with this vinyl making a waterproof access to any of the beds.

Vinyl covered paths on Plot 59B:

Potatoes just planted out:

Here you can see the vinyl flooring on the paths either side of this bed of potatoes. Unfortunately there won’t be enough to cover much of Gerry’s main allotment. All the paths are approximately the width of the rake head +/- 12″. This just gives me enough room to turn face forward across the width of the beds so I can reach the centre from either side without having to step on the soil when it is wet.

Views of the apple tree over shed:

This cooker, perhaps a ‘Brambly Seedling’, is now starting to flower so I took a couple of pictures which will serve to close this the first blog on the allotments I share with Gerry for this year.

The apple flowers are so pretty when seen close up I thought I’d take a really close up photo:

Next month I hope to be back with the goings on down at the plots. Till then “Keep on gardening!”

Gardener’s Delight?

Gardener’s Delight?

This year I have only been growing two varieties of tomatoes on my allotment plot, ‘Sunstream’ & ‘Gardener’s Delight’. The first is a small plum shaped tomato.

‘Sunstream’:

‘Gardener’s Delight’:

I’ve found that while ‘Sunstream’ is a very vigorous plant it suffers from BER (Bloom End Rot) as I’ve found one or two on most of the ripening trusses, especially the first to form. Yet on ‘Gardener’s Delight’ I can’t remember having found even one fruit with BER!

Here is a photo showing ‘Sunstream’ with BER:

These plants are growing in two beds on my allotment which are side by side & received the same preparation back in the spring, namely lots of well rotted horse manure being dug in & used as a mulch as well.

‘Gardener’s Delight’:

‘Sunstream’:

I also have some plants of ‘Gardener’s Delight’ growing on my balcony at home. None of the trusses of fruit have shown any sign of BER. There plants are growing in compost obviously as garden soil can’t be used in pots. They are growing well, albeit a little more spindly than the plants on the allotment. The first fruits are now ripening – a couple of weeks behind the ones on my plot.

Now I wish I’d brought home a few plants of ‘Sunstream’ then I’d have been able to compare the results of the two varieties, those grown in soil on the allotment with those grown in compost on the balcony.

Shame we are at the end of the season & that Blight has reared its ugly head & is killing on my plants on the allotment. I reckon I have no more than a week to ten days to harvest what I can before they are irretrievably lost.

Just a few photos showing some of the tomatoes I’ve picked so far this August to put an end to this blog:

June Plots

June Plots

There wasn’t all that much going on during May on the allotments so I didn’t have much material to work with, besides having spent 10 days in Cuenca, Spain, at the beginning of the month also put me even more behind. Then came the half-term holidays for our granddaughter which got me even further behind again!

Now during June I’ve been going down in the evenings & I’m able to spend an average of about 2 hours per evening! 🙂 Now I’ve been able to spend more time down there on a more regular basis things are – slowly – getting a little more under control!

Early Potatoes ‘Rocket’ at the end of May on my plot:

Early Potatoes ‘Rocket’ a month later:

Carrots & Parsnips at the end of May:

Carrots & Parsnips a month later:

Onion sets Sturon & Leeks at the end of May:

Onions from sets, ‘Sturon’, a fortnight later:

Onions from sets ‘Sturon’ after a further two weeks of growth at the end of June:

What a difference a month makes at this time of the year!

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Gerry’s plots during the middle of May:

Gerry brought some plants down to the allotment from his own greenhouse at home & he, himself, planted them out!

Sweetcorn planted out middle of May:

Sweetcorn middle of June:

Sweetcorn now at the end of June:

Broadbeans planted out middle of May:

Broadbeans 3rd week of June:

Lettuce ‘Ballon’ middle of May:

Lettuce ‘Ballon’ 3rd week of June:

Lettuce ‘Ballon’ end of June:

I’ve picked about half of them by now! But there is still about half the bed left, though they will need to be harvested pretty soon or they will bolt! They have turned out very well.

Peas middle of May:

Peas 3rd week of June:

About the beginning of June my daughter & granddaughter, Kirsty, sowed some Pumpkin seeds in the tiny greenhouse in their back garden. A day or two later we had some very strong winds which blew the greenhouse over. As they had been out for the day they didn’t discover what had happened till late evening. Kirsty was very upset so my daughter said she would get some more. I said I would grow some for her on the allotment. So next day I bought a packet of seeds & sowed them in the greenhouse on the allotment:

Pumpkin ‘Jack O’Lantern’ seeds just sown 3rd June:

They germinated within a few days:

Within a week the true leaves had developed!:

In less then 3 weeks I was planting them in the allotment!:

Ten days later:

This is the first time I’ve ever grown them from seed! I grew two plants last year that were given to me by a fellow allotmenteer but they were already bigger than the plants you see here in the ground.

These are astounding me with the speed of their growth! In just a fortnight they are already about 3x as big as when I put them in!!!

At the same time as I sowed the Pumpkin seeds I also sowed a couple of packets of squash seeds that my sister in Texas, USA, sent me way back in February. Owing to such a cold spring I hadn’t got around to sowing them but I decided I’d sow them now.

Green Squash seeds just sown 3rd June:

Yellow Squash seeds just sown 3rd June:

The Squash seeds were as quick to germinate as the Pumpkins. Their subsequent growth has been a little slower but I was also surprised that they grew so fast.

Squashes with true leaves 19th June:

I planted them out at the very top of Gerry’s allotment. He had dumped some well rotted horse manure there which I’d cleared away a week or so before putting in the Squash seedlings. As there was still some left I dug it in & levelled the ground a bit as there is a slope there. The seedlings are looking quite well & are growing almost as fast as the Pumpkins!

Green & Yellow Squashes just planted out 20th June:

Green & Yellow Squashes 9 days later:

As I have no views from the shed this year I’m going to finish this blog here. Over the coming months/blogs I’ll show you the progress of the Pumpkins & Squashes as well as the results of the harvesting that has already begun!

It’s all go now that spring has sprung!

It’s all go now that spring has sprung!

As most of you will know that is the pure truth for us gardeners! Now that we also have the extra hour of light in the evening & the lengthening days when the sun is getting stronger & we notice the difference day by day we are desperate to get out & get our hands dirty!

I’ve had little to say about the allotments during the winter but that is now about to change. I will try to bring you up to date on what I’ve been doing over the winter & the helper who has been a real Godsend to me during the last month or so.

I hope to start my fortnightly blogs on the allotments I share with Gerry & my very own half allotment, Plot 12A.

How should I do it I wonder??? Should I make a weekly blog, alternating Gerry’s plots with Plot 12A, my own plot? Or should I “mix ‘n’ match” them both in the same fortnightly blogs. I think perhaps I’ll start this new season of blogs with the “mix ‘n’ match” approach as there is so much to mention.

Let’s make a start with my very own plot 12A as this has undergone the greatest transformation:

First a look at what Plot 12A looked like when I first took it over in September 2011:

The first 3 photos give you an idea of what work I had to contend with at the start & the state of the plot whose tenancy I took on in September 2011. This is just a quick look, month by month, of what I’ve done since. Please bear with me:

This first photo shows the first of the old Raspberry beds that I dug up as they were terribly overgrown & would never produce any decent crops in the future:

This 2nd photo is a view of the bed above now finished. It took me a long time because first I had to skim off the Couch grass or Twitch & the old Raspberry canes. Having done that I had to dig over the bed with a fork trying to remove as much as possible of the roots of both these plants. When that was complete I had to go back over the bed & add horse & chicken manure. Once that was done it was a case of raking it more or less level & then covering it with soil improver:

As Gerry was able to make several trips to get hold of horse manure & soil improver I dug the former in each bed & then, after covering the beds, I used soil improver to fill up the paths between beds making it much easier to access them without standing on the soil:

As my daughter was able to get hold of a couple of really big packing cases from the firm where she works & Gerry was able to bring them down to the plot I was able to start laying out the wooden boards to make up the raised beds I wanted to do:

Here is one of the beds after I had put in the temporary pegs to hold the boards in place as I went along:

Many of you will still recall the heavy snow & frosts we had in February. Well this is how my plot looked at that time. Snow stopped work:

At the beginning of March one of my brothers came down from Northants & stayed with us for some weeks. Thanks to his work on my allotment I was able to get an awful lot more work done than if he hadn’t have helped me. That allowed me to get my very first crop of new potatoes into the ground. He cut the hoops to size for me & even pushed them into the ground:

Finally here is my helper, Ken, as he was finishing off the remodelled compost heap. The compost bin has now been completed & the plot is practically finished.

That then has been a quick run through of the work that has been done on Plot 12A since September 2011 to March 2012.

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Gerry’s allotments Spring 2012

Now I shall add a few photos from Gerry’s allotments & a few comments.

Gerry dumped the soil conditioner he brought in his trailer here, at the very top of his plot. I’ve already removed a great deal of it in this photo but you can get an idea of what it is like:

This soil conditioner is made from the composted green material that the local council collects all over the county & which is composted on a site they have a couple of miles from Huntingdon, where we live. This is an industrial process & the resulting material is sterile & probably doesn’t contain nutrients for the plants but it makes an excellent mulch! It won’t allow weeds through either, well, at least not the annual ones. Most perennial weeds have been removed during the last few years I’ve worked on the plots with Gerry:

Gerry bought some new potatoes, ‘Rocket’, which are 1st Earlies & my brother, Ken, planted them for him:

At the beginning of March Gerry brought down some Broad beans which I put in the soil. I don’t know the name of the variety & he doesn’t remember! After planting them out I then covered the ground with soil conditioner:

I also planted some Broad beans, Aquadulce Claudia, of my own that I had received in a swap with a gardener on another forum where I also post. I planted them alongside Gerry’s as I want to compare how the plants do & the final yield we obtain from them:

At the end of March the Rhubarb alongside the shed is beginning to grow strongly & there was a nice clump of bright yellow Daffs. I thought they made a good photo opportunity & something to cheer up a rather dismal looking plot at the present moment:

A short time ago I bought a 2nd bag of seed potatoes. The first bag, ‘Rocket’, I put in on my own plot at the very beginning of March. These spuds are also 1st Earlies but they are called ‘Arran Pilot’. They have been planted a month after ‘Rocket’.

I used a very thick dibber to plant them in a bed filled with compost. After I finished putting them in I watered the soil back down over them. The compost & the soil were very dry in spite of some rain a few days before. After I had finished watering them in I covered the whole bed in a thick layer of soil conditioner which I hope will allow them to go through their growing period without further watering. I’m doing my very best to use as little water as possible this summer:

The Onion sets, ‘Sturon’, which we planted between Ken & myself in the bed just in front of the greenhouse, are now beginning to grow. I lost my seed onions, ‘Alisa Craig’, to a mouse that got into the GH & dug all the seedling out of the compost & left them to die on the surface of the compost one weekend. So I got some sets. I’ve also planted some sets in my plot & have another bag I must sow in the next few days:

Some of you may remember we have a couple of Fig trees growing on the allotments. As we have had late frosts for two years in a row during May I decided that this year I would try & do something to stop them getting frosted this year. So when Gerry brought down a couple of bags of horticultural fleece I thought I’d use it to cover the trees & hopefully stop them from getting frosted the following spring. That’s why they look like “wigwams”! The bed has been covered in soil conditioner to stop the weeds from coming up amongst the Raspberry canes.

View from the Shed

To finish this first blog of the new growing season I’m including one of my “traditional” photos of the “View from the Shed” that I try to end my blogs with:

Here then are some lovely Daffs that contrast so strongly with the rather dismal scene of the rest of the allotment as seen from the shed on a misty day!

Please leave comments on the blog below. *ALL* comments are welcome. Until next time, happy gardening to one & all.

Plot 12A Raised beds

Plot 12A Raised beds

A couple of weeks I got some wood for the raised beds I want to make on my allotment. My daughter called me to ask me if I still wanted the wood from some crates that had arrived at the factory during the night but which had now been emptied but the wood had to be picked up the same day as the management didn’t want it on site during the weekend because it was a potential fire hazard. I told her that indeed I still wanted it & then I phoned Gerry & we arranged a time to go & pick it up in his trailer.

Wood for raised beds:

We went & picked it up at the agreed time & took it down to the allotment. Once there we decided to stack it in the area of the compost heap that I had been clearing out. A space that is becoming very useful of late as a place to dump bags of horse & chicken manure while I get on with preparing the ground. Fortunately I’d already used half the bags Gerry brought me down a couple of weeks ago so it was quite quick to remove the remaining bags & put them closer to the last bed that needs digging up before I can incorporate the manure into the soil.

Boards for raised beds laid out:

As most of the beds have been dug up & the manure incorporated I now just have to make up the wooden frames to go around them. The planks are quite thick & the wood is very hard & heavy. The planks are about 2,5cm thick with varying lengths but most about 1,5m long & about 20cm or so wide.

For the moment at least the beds will be built just one plank width high, though ideally I’d like them to be twice or three times that height. My daughter says there is a great demand for these crates, so much so that the management has a waiting list of people who want them! It seems they don’t get them now as frequently as they used to. Unusually it seems 3 crates arrived therefore they were able to save two for me! I’m happy to have two at least so I can make a good start on the raised beds before the planting season gets underway!

Raised bed #1 Before the boards were put in place:

Raised bed #1 After the boards were put in place:

I’ve taken some photos of the boards laid out on the ground alongside the beds. I’ve now set them in place & held them up for now with thin,white tubes the previous tenant used for marking out his sowings/plantings.

I’m adding some of the photos I took yesterday so you can see how I’m getting on. As the weather has been freezing or raining these last few days I’ve spent very little time on the allotment.

Raised bed #2 Before the boards were put in place:

Raised bed #2 After the boards were put in place:

On Monday Gerry & I got some more bags of soil conditioner. I will spread some over the beds I’ve finished digging to try to keep the weeds down & hopefully warm up the soil earlier as it’s black & will therefore retain some of the heat it acquires during the day.

Raised bed #3 Before the boards were put in place:

Raised bed #3 After the boards were put in place:

Last Monday (23rd January) Gerry took some of the short, thick pieces of wood from the crates home to cut up to make some stakes for me. It would be impossible to cut them with a hand saw on the allotment. They really needed to be cut with a power saw & as I don’t have one I asked Gerry if he had one. He said he had & offered to cut them for me.

Numbering of plots

Today, Saturday, I put some plastic milk bottles with numbers on them on canes to identify what the beds will be used for. Originally I had intended to number them from the compost heap, which is at the very beginning of my plot, but as I started to clear & manure them from the far end I decided today to start my numbering system from that end.

The early potatoes I will put in bed #1 at the far end of my plot:

Seed potatoes ‘Rocket’ chitting in the greenhouse:

Well that’s the latest instalment for the moment on my own allotment. Shortly I will be making another on Gerry’s allotments where I continue to help him. There’s not a lot at the moment to show but over the coming weeks things will start changing once again as the growing season makes a start. Everything of course depends on the weather we have during the coming weeks.

Happy gardening!

The overgrown Raspberry bed’s demise

The overgrown Raspberry bed’s demise

The overgrown Raspberry bed’s demise is well under way! Just over a week ago I dug up the first 3 or 4 rows in this bed & afterwards I dug in horse manure & sprinkled a little chicken manure on top of it in the hope that it would help it rot down faster. I then covered the whole bed with soil improver – the name given to the composted gardening waste the local council collects from people’s homes.

This is composted on an industrial scale & reaches very high temps & is therefore sterile. When Gerry & I went to the place they do it there was an enormous mountain of the stuff for free collection by anyone. Every time we broke away some to shovel into bags you could see the steam rising & feel the heat it gave off! Even after a couple of days in the bags on the allotment it was still warm!

The overgrown Raspberry bed in September:

The overgrown Raspberry bed is being dug up to make way for other crops next year. I don’t believe they are worth keeping & anyway they occupy far too much space for a half allotment. They haven’t been looked after for years & are full of dead wood from previous years as well as tons of couch grass, which, as most people will know, is very invasive & is terrible to get rid of as the smallest piece will grow into another plant which will spread its roots everywhere as well after a few months!

Gerry also has two beds on his allotments (1 & 1/2) & this year I’ve eaten tons of them, (to the point I began to think my face must look like a Raspberry! LOL! ), & as I will continue to help him with them I don’t want any more on my new plot!

The Raspberry bed is roughly divided up into about 4 rows with rows of canes 3 or 4 wide. It looks as if originally about 4 rows were planted with a path between each but these rows were subdivided into 3 or 4 rows in each subdivision. As Raspberries make new canes alongside the originals there isn’t a very clear division between rows. The paths may have been made just by the previous tenant over years of walking alongside the rows, perhaps when he first used to tend them &/or when picking the fruit. When I took over the plot at the beginning of September there were a couple of fairly clear paths where it was obvious the grass had been trodden down fairly recently.

Raspberry bed in October – A start being made:

This is what the the bed looks like now! It’s covered in the black soil improver which I’ve put on as a mulch after soaking the soil, to kick start the decomposition process of the horse/chicken manure & to try to stop as many weed seeds as possible from germinating.

Raspberry bed in November – The battle continues

I spent the better part of 4 hours on the next bit of the bed today, 5th November. I started off with clearing as much of the top growth of Raspberry canes & Couch grass as I possibly could. Just that phase took more than an hour! Then I started to dig as much as possible of the roots out – a mammoth task! As the grass roots form a thick, almost impenetrable layer several inches thick it’s very difficult to dig them out & is a backbreaking exercise – even for someone with a healthy back & mine is by no means healthy! So it requires constant stopping for a breather while stretching my back. I also had to be very careful to lift each forkful with my legs rather than my back! I only managed to finish 3/4 of the bed, but then I’m in no great hurry as I have all winter in which to get the canes & grass dug out. I’m only doing it now because the mild weather is giving me time!

I’ve got rid of the rusty old barrel you’ll have seen in previous photos! I had hoped it was full of composted waste but no, it was mostly full of Couch grass roots & a few canes & tons of stones & a little soil. I dug out the grass & canes & tipped the remains on the ground to dig in!

An hour later:

On Monday I hope to finish digging out the roots in the last 1/4 of the bed so I can start to dig in the horse manure. I doubt I’ll have sufficient time on Monday to finish digging in the manure so that’s a job to finish off on Tuesday.

Time now to go home & refuel!

My very own plot – This time 12A!

My very own plot – This time 12A!

As of 1st September 2011 I’ve become, officially this time, the new tenant of PLOT 12A! Just this morning, 3rd September, the papers came in the post & I’ve filled them out & sent them back to the Town Council offices with a cheque for £12 – the year’s rent till 31st August 2012.

I spent a disheartening/discouraging 15 -20 mins walking around them before deciding on one. I’d already turned down two plots on 2 previous occasions this year! I couldn’t go back with a negative the third time! So when I got home I immediately phoned them & told them I was interested in Plot 12A. I was told the paperwork would be put in the post right away.

Here is a view of my new plot taken from the central path & looking down the length of mine. The plot only goes a bit beyond the rusty barrel you can see:

I think I may have found the one with the least work to do on it & which I can make a go of. It’s “major” drawback is the out-of-control Raspberry bed, that will need digging out I’m very much afraid! That will be a major job as well! That will have to wait till they die back for the winter. It will probably also be a job over several seasons till I eradicate it all! They make a lot of suckers & the roots can go quite deep & extend a couple of metres to the sides of the bed! I’m not sure whether I’ll keep any plants as yet, I’ll need to examine them closer up to see if it’s worthwhile.

Raspberry bed:

Raspberry bed:

It’s not very far from Gerry’s plot either but on the other side of the central path for cars. No doubt Gerry will offer me the continued use of his shed/greenhouse/tools. When I thought I had plot 19A in June he said I could continue to use his things as I have none of my own, well who would need gardening tools on a balcony!

While I was checking the plots out I checked out 19 B. No work has been done on it in months! The Sunflowers, both Tall & Mini, are now flowering but, as they haven’t been watered in months & we have had little rainfall in that time, they are all stunted & the Tall ones are little higher than the Mini’s!

Here’re a couple of photos that I took:

Sunflowers “Mini”:

Sunflowers “Tall”:

Like in June I will continue to help Gerry with his plots, obviously not quite as much but after running 1 & 1/2 plots for almost 2 seasons my own 1/2 plot will seem very small indeed!

A couple of more views of the overrun plot I’ve taken on:

There are some runner beans growing up a framework:

I gave them a couple of canfuls of water as the soil was so dry.

I discovered a row of Beetroots & gave them a watering as well after removing the weeds. Likewise with a row of Carrot seedlings I also found. I also found what look like Spring onions seedlings – I say Spring Onions as you wouldn’t sow normal onions so late in the year. These also got a good soaking!

Where the plot begins, alongside the central pathway, there is a compost heap that runs the entire width of the plot:

I shall have to empty it & divide it in two, only it will have to wait for some time yet as I discovered that there is a wasps’ nest in it!!!

Gerry came down while I was digging a bed alongside the compost heap & brought a load of bags of horse manure in his trailer! He asked me if I wanted them & I accepted so we lugged them out of his trailer & dumped the bags on top of the compost heap for the time being – but away from the nest!

Well I shall be posting updates on my new plot in the future though until Spring next year there won’t be much to blog about! I’ll be posting a new blog on Gerry’s plot soon.