Although it has been throwing it down the new roof has done it's job and kept the rain out.
I popped up today, checked that out, checked out my seeds, and hid my chitting potatoes a bit more from direct light - my newspaper screening had flopped over, so now they are under the table.
Hope to get the Arran Pilots in next week, the pink charlotte firs a bit after that. But first I'll have to hack away at the beds to expose them.
Today was a good day, the first long amount of time we have spent at Plot 60.
First we cleared a load of the rubbish and then we got down to one of the two main tasks for the day - the shed roof. That all went well, all we have to do now if wait for it to rain and see if it leaks.
Next came the fence, which was as easy as we hoped. The fence posts were mostly stable so we could just screw the panels back on to them. And then came one of those things that you do and it starts off a chain reaction. There was a piece of wood on the floor where we wanted the gate to go, and it was going to make it arkward to take the wheelbarrow in and out of the plot to the skip etc.
So . . . we tried to lift the bit of wood and it wouldn't come up. This was because the end of it was underneath a door that was lying on the floor. So we lifted up the door, to try and get the wood out. And it was still underneath something, quite what we couldn't see at first. Turns out it was a bit of heras fence with grass growing though and over it, which was fun to prise up, then under that? Pieces of glass, several wrought iron gates, and a big puddle with 2 toads and 4 frogs in it. We managed to drag it all out of that way and at least this now meant that we had several gates to choose from.
Later we put the greenhouse to use and laid the potatoes out to chit, and planted some sweet pea, carrot, and salad seeds.
The next big task is one that was a condition of us getting this plot. We were told we could have it but we had to get the fence sorted asap. The fence had blown down in the high winds in January and it has been lying on the ground ever since and, given that most people have to walk Plot 60 on the way in, is making the place look a mess.
The fence is no problem really, all the posts are still in but the fence is quite tall and wibbly so it has just wrenched itself of the posts in the wind. It should be the work of half an hour to screw it back to the posts, but I have a feeling that it will be a regular job after every bout of bad weather. However we are thinking of rearranging where the gate is, at the moment it is a corner one at the top of the plot but we want to move it next to the shed. Fortunately among the free gifts left by the previous plot-holder were two tallish fence posts and a wire mesh and stainless steel panel. It has something growing up it at the moment, but I'm going to disentangle it and turn it in to a gate.
So today is fence day, but also roof day for the shed. We really should re-felt it, but given that it is still wet at the moment, we are just going to go for a short term solution until the weather improves and we can dry out the whole roof a bit. We have some damp proof membrane, which is big enough to cover the whole roof in one piece, so that will be going up and getting nailed in place. Once we get up a ladder and have a look at the roof we can decide whether we will take off the felt before doing that, or just stick it on over the top.
And I thought we had enough DIY to do at home!
We have plot No. 60, and it already has a shed with a greenhouse lean-to attached so we are very happy about that. It even had some tools in it, although it also had wet carpet and collapsing bits of furniture and floor as it seems to have been leaking in for some time. And best of all it has a stove - a rather ingenious homemade one consisting of a metal barrel with a door cut out, and then hinged back on, a flue, a paving stone for a base, and some metal sheets between it and the shed wall as a heat shield. Which will help dry out the damp once we get the place watertight.
On the actual plot there appear to be some beds laid out already, although it is very overgrown, and we think we can see some paths laid out of bricks under all the grass. We have spotted carrots, leeks and garlic that look OK. There were obviously some marrows, but they have died off and we may have some broccoli going on.
Yesterday was mainly about getting the worst of the rubbish to the skip that is on site for the next few weeks. Mainly chairs actually, so far we have found 13, I don't know if this person had a lot of friends, or if he was just hoping that he would make a lot of friends by having that allotment.
It was also a day of showing our faces and saying hello to a lot of people. I have to say there seemed to be a lot of folk that just happened to be walking past and then casually pausing so that they could say hello, but I don't blame them. I would have done the same. Hopefully they will be glad to see the plot getting cleared up which will give us some allotment karma points.
Exciting times: yesterday MrUrban and I took possession of our allotment.
We have never had an allotment before, but were missing having a bit of outdoors space, and then we heard that there were plots free at the allotment nearest us. My family grew potatoes, strawberries, and rhubarb at home in our garden but never had an allotment, and MrUrban's family had an allotment for years, so we did used to know something about growing fruit and veg and are hoping it all comes back to us.
We have been watching Grow Your Own Veg on the BBC whilst we have been waiting to find out if we would get a plot, and bought the accompanying book (only £4.99 from the Book People, I highly recommend them). And have also got The Allotment Book by Andi Clevely which was recommended by Gardeners' Question Time.
We will hope for the best.
