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Tuesday, 28th October
Nippy last night, wasn't it? Yesterday I put all my containers
and baskets in the greenhouse after a warning of cold weather. I went
to use my wheelbarrow but the wheel wouldn't go round. It's one of those
solid plastic jobbies so I got out the spanner and removed it, cleaned
it and oiled it before replacing it. It went round much more freely after
that but fell off altogether when I had a full load on! I've tightened
it up a bit now.
In fact, the frost put me off going to the allotment for quite a while
this morning but actually it was lovely out there. The sun was shining
and the ground was very diggable as I forked out yet more couch and bindweed.
After an hour you could barely tell I'd made any progress but I consoled
myself with a few more raspberries and carrots. (I think I might be getting
a bit of help gathering the last remaining raspberries from our feathered
friends but I can't begrudge them a few at this stage of the season.)
Then I had to knock off as we were going out for lunch - a very rare event
in the Ned household - and somewhere I've never been called "The
Last Resort". You have to be a member but somebody signed us in (It
was her birthday so you got a free bottle of wine - nice place!) and the
fish pie was delicious. On enquiring I was told it was free to join between
now and the New Year so I joined up there and then. That means I get a
couple of months free trial before I decide if I'm going to shell out
the annual £25 membership for me and the missus. Then it's out again
tonight as it's Pub Night! Just one hectic social whirl, isn't it?
Thursday, 23rd October
On
the allotment I have been tackling pernicious perennial weeds. You know
the culprits: bindweed, couch grass, dandelion and dock. Going has been
painfully slow as the slightest bit of weed left behind is usually enough
to generate a whole new plant so you have to be careful. The patch I am
weeding is my strawberry bed so the first task was to move the strawberries
from one half of the bed. I rehoused them in my presently empty potato
patch. The plan is to clear one half of the strawberry bed then remove
the remaining strawberries and transplant them in the now clear weeded
part. I then weed the second half and
replant the strawberries I had temporarily removed to the potato patch.
Smart plan, eh? Except I shan't
re-plant all the strawberry plants; I shall discard the older ones. And,
as I say, it's very slow going. And what to do with the removed weeds?
They don't break down readily in your amateur run-of-the-mill compost
heap as it doeasn't get hot enough, unless you're really good at it. At
the moment I've put them in a large Levington's bag to see if they rot
but I have a plan B. I have a plastic half-barrel which I shall part-fill
with water and then try drowning them. Will it work? Who knows but it's
got to be worth a go with the impending removal of the waste bins.
I don't kid myself that I will have got it all but when it pokes its head
up above the ground again in Spring I aim to zap it with Glyphosate, sold
as Round-up and Tumble Weed. It's supposed to take the poison down to
the root and kill the weed. It doesn't contaminate the soil in any way
but BEWARE: it kills anything it touches. Bit like me with house plants
really.
Sunday, 19th October
Quiz Night last night. Well, for some anyway, especially
the Worthing Horticultural Society. Personally I can't stand quizzes so
I didn't go but my wife did and thoroughly enjoyed a good evening, she
said. I understand the Association was very well represented and in fact
it was a team of West Tarring allotmenteering members which won. Well
done, lads! And lasses.
So what
have I been up to? Well, it's tidying up time really, isn't it? So I've
been mainly weeding and compost turning on the allotment though I did
pick my first squash - our eldest and his girlfriend came round and took
it home with them! I've also been up a ladder onto the extension roof
to gain access to the birdbox on the back of our house. I thought I'd
better give it a bit of a clean while nobody was in residence. It was
a relief to find no decomposing dead chicks in there although it had obviously
been used as there was nesting material inside. I never saw any chicks
fledge from there. I often saw the parent birds go in and out but no young
ones.
Another tidying job I've just started is trimming the hedges. This is
likely to take some time as we have mixed hedges on two sides of our garden
and shrubs down the third side and they also need cutting back. The 4th
side is OK - it's the house and shed.
The last tidying up job I've been on with is one I hate: clearing up the
cat poo. We don't have a cat but all the neighbouring cats seem to regard
our garden as some sort of feline lavatory. Any surface will do: concrete
drive, grass and lawn, gravel paths, soil in borders and vegetable plot
- anywhere! I think I'm going to have to get one of those cat scarer things
- a rotweiler, I think it's called.
Monday, 13th October
Today I have been cleaning my greenhouse. I don't mind the glass being a bit dirty in high summer when it might even prevent plants getting scorched but light levels are beginning to fall now so the glass needs to be really clean to allow maximum light penetration. I used a bucket of soapy water and a long-handled broom so that I could reach every pane, including those right at the apex. Now for those of you who've never tackled the job before let me give you the benefit(?) of my experience. Here are a few tips:
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Don't push too hard on the glass with the brush. Glass doesn't bend very well. If the pane doesn't break you could push it out whole and before you think "That was lucky, it didn't break" it will fall to the ground and smash to pieces.
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Be careful where you're sticking the back end of the brush when working inside the greenhouse. The handle end does an even better job of testing the glass strength than the broom head.
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If you have any plastic fittings (e.g. window catch) which have been made brittle by the sun over the years, you will hit them and smash them to bits.
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When washing the top, water will run down your arm and, when you move, the previously washed top panels will drip now algae-ridden water on your head. This is not a problem as it washes off OK but when you dry your hair/hands it sometimes leaves a slight green stain on the towel. You may think it is imperceptible but it will be the first thing your spouse notices when they go in the bathroom. And it doesn't come out easily.
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If a friend is helping you with a hose pipe at the tap end to rinse down, resist the temptation to look if the water is coming. That is when your idiot friend will turn the tap on.
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If you do break a pane of glass the spare piece you have had for years will be broken, probably in the corner or it will be the wrong size.
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When you come to clean up the broken glass wrap it in several layers of newspaper to dispose of it safely. If you have to break some large pieces to fit, this is when you discover the glass is in fact very tough! When you do break it in two little bits will fly off everywhere and will be as sharp as needles, as you will discover when you try to pick them up.
-
The glazier will have some more horticultural glass by the end of next week.
Now don't let me put you off this important job. In 25+ years of greenhousing this is the first incident I've had.
Sunday, 12th October
Yesterday I heard the press were sending a photographer to West Tarring allotments between 10.00am and 12.00 to take some photos for an article about the impending increase in the allotment rents and the reaction of allotmenteers, (see News page and Ramblings page) so I shot round Tesco's in double quick time and then hared it down to the allotments by 10.15am, only to find out he'd been and gone already. And to think I could have been in the papers. What a disappointment! Though to be honest, I was going down there anyway to renew my membership - and could I find my card? Of course not. In fact if I hadn't wasted half an hour looking for it I might have got there in time for the photo shoot. In the end I gave up and took down a very old card which had my membership number on it and Ian was good enough to write me out a new card. £3 wisely invested.
It
was nice to get on with a few jobs as it was such lovely weather and it
was so quiet and 
peaceful
down there. We really have been lucky with the weather this week, haven't
we? Gorgeous sunshine and realtively mild. And the squash seem to be changing
colour at last so I might actually be able to pick one this week. So what
other jobs have I been tackling? Mainly routine stuff like hoeing and
weeding, moving some strawberries, picking raspberries, pulling carrots
and consigning my remaining courgette plants to the compost heap. I have
been turning the heap as well.
Last night, for something different, I went to our church's Harvest Supper and Quiz. I hate quizzes so I was elected Quiz Master which was fine as I had all the answers and didn't have to sit there looking and feeling stupid. They all enjoyed it! Takes all sorts, I suppose. (Mind you, I enjoyed the 2 helpings of lasagne and apple pie!)
This morning I have been busy in my own garden clearing the greenhouse so I can put things like the orange tree in there for the winter. This consisted mainly of picking the remaining tomatoes and chucking out the plants - no evidence of blight so I put them on the compost heap. Those outside which have still not ripened may have to be brought in to finish off before the nights get much colder. Anybody got an easy recipe for tomato chutney?
Tuesday, 7th October
Did you miss me? I bet you never even noticed I'd gone.
In fact I went AWOL for a little while, a break in Italy with Mrs N. I
thought if
I left the booking until the last minute I might get a discount as they
tried to make up the party. I was wrong. In fact we were pretty lucky
to get on the trip at all as we got the last 2 places - and I had to pay
a fuel surcharge which had been introduced since we first saw the holiday
advertised some time ago. That'll teach me. Still, we had a nice time
and were quite lucky with the weather although there was a touch of snow
high up in the mountains. But what foul weather when we came back on Sunday!
First a force 7 or 8 in the Channel - not that it bothered us as we were
tucking into our dinner onboard - and then driving rain from Dover to
here. I haven't been able to set foot on the allotment since we got back
but my poor old courgettes in the back garden look as if somebody's flattened
them with a spade. If it's been that wet and windy while we've been away
I hate to think what's happened to my runner bean structure on the plot.
On the other hand it was nice to see several of the slow tomatoes had
ripened in my absence. Perhaps that's what they need, more of my absence.
I do hear the weather is set to improve after today so no excuses for
shirking tomorrow. In the meantime I leave you with a couple of gardening
(well, sort of) pictures I took over in Italy. Ciao!
Cute,
aren't they?