Shed Refurb

Our shed floor has been falling in since we got the allotment 17months ago. It seemed to be dipping alarmingly in the back right corner. We dealt with this by ignoring it and piling lots of crap into that corner; we just didn't use it.

We knew it was a job for good weather (as we had to empty everything out), but last summer we were just too busy to get round to it. So this summer was the earliest possibility.

The other evening at about 6pm, after a full sunny day on the plot, we thought we would 'have a little look' to try and suss out what the actual problem was. The next two days were forecast to be rain free and we were available, so it seemed to make sense to suss out what problems we would be tackling.

It turns out that, as we see when we pull up the ply and broken floorboards, the people who built the shed decided that a single nail would be fine to hold each joist, and these joists are about 7 or 8 inches off the ground at the rear of the shed. Obviously without any support the joists have just sagged, the nails have just bent, the wood has twisted and broken, and the floor caved in.

So . . . we figured we needed to support the areas where the joists meet the wall, and at various points along their length. We decide breeze blocks are the answer, especially as the nearby B&Q has them at 91p each.

After a little work with a mallet and a cold chisel we have suitably sized lumps to fit underneath. While we have the floor up I throw some damp proof plastic sheet under there to try and keep the evaporation up into the shed to the minimum, and we get it re-boarded with some tongue and groove we salvaged from a local theatre company's store, when they were emptying it.

This gave us a good sound surface, but there was still a bit of movement. Without taking up all the floor we couldn't secure it all on blocks, but we decided that if we could board over the whole floor with sheet material it would secure it enough.

We have a storage unit with lots of bits and pieces we have collected over the years, so we went there to see what we had. We found some 'paintings' we had done for an exhibition in 2006. We will never use them again as they were site specific, so although they are technically exhibited pieces of artwork (created for an International Festival no less!) they are also bits of MDF with paint on one side!

We sawed them up at the storage unit into pieces 400mm wide (so we could fir them in our car) and 1700mm long, which is the front to back measurement for the shed.

And: Voila! A shed floor, complete with exciting decoration! It must be the most stylish floor on the site. And much more stable than it was. We then started putting furniture in. We had a drawer/cupboard thing already, which went in the formerly wonky corner. It already had a batten on the side of it, so we used some offcuts to fill in the space next to it as a desk.This would then become the 'kitchen', with our little camping stove, and storage space for the plates etc. We had also found a lovely gate leg table in the street in June, with the intention of it going in the shed, so that got added too. Along with some metal shelves, new hooks for all our tools, and a few rails and shelves for our bits and bobs, the new style shed was complete.

We have spent so much time in it since then! It has been quite humid here for the past few days, so it has been a case of do a bit outside, and then pop into the shed to have a sit at the table and read. Then back out again.

It will really be the biggest benefit in winter though, when it will make the prospect of going to the allotment much more desirable.

Summer! Sun! Growth!

It seems we are having a summer, so I have been at the allotment a lot.

I will get the photos of my phone and get blogging my activities soon.

Maybe even today, as it looks a little overcast out the window.

Bistro Bumpkin

We have recently bought a saucepan, and taken a small cast iron griddle up to the allotment, so we can cook a bit better. And get that harvest, to pan, to stomach time down.

The first proper allotment meal was our first pea, bean, mint and feta salad of the year. This was a staple last summer, but the broad beans and peas seem to be a little later this year.

It involves lightly boiled peas and broad beans. These are cooled a little and the outer white skin removed from the broad beans. I warmed the pittas on the griddle (well more burnt them really).

Collected plenty of mint. We had the amount in the photo each. The plates came from the site skip, they are in perfect condition so I have no idea why they were there.

And plenty of salad leaves (Saladin lettuce in this case). And then mix, add oil and vinegar and eat. Enjoy!

Tagged

I’ve been tagged by Courgettes and Fennel. The rules are:

Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your post linking to their blog.
Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about me:

1. My favourite TV programme is the Mighty Boosh.

2. I trained as an Interior Designer, but have never worked as one.

3. I have an Abyssinian cat called Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

4. I am English but have lived in Scotland for 11 years.

5. My favourite place in the world is Trotternish on the Isle of Skye.

6. I have had my allotment 1 Year and 120 Days.

I am tagging:

Kennyhill Cottage, MuswellHillBilly, VegMonkey and the Mrs, Down on the Allotment, and Little Gems.

Help the bees

Have a look at this petition:

"The British Beekeeping Association has requested £8m for the government to fund 5 years research into Colony Collapse Disorder. The government has stated that no funds exist within the existing farming research budget.

Kept honey bees provide a significant percentage of pollination to food crops, fruit orchards and of course provide honey.

This fundamental research needs to be performed in order to protect the country bees before it arrives. As in almost all cases, being prepared for something reduces its impact for a fraction of the cost compared to being unprepared.

Currently only £1.35m per annum is available to the National Bee Unit (part of Defra), this funds all its statutory activities as well as research. If there is no money in the farm research budget, then money should be made available from contingency funds."

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BeeResearch

http://www.britishbee.org.uk/bbka_research_campaign.php

flapjacks 2

They are still cooling, but I stole one to have with some vanilla ice cream and they are fab!

I ended up putting sunflower and pumpkin seeds in, as well as the raspberries. And it took nearer to 30mins in the oven, I think because of the added moisture of the fruit.


I'm looking forward to them being ready, I'm going to take some to the allotment next time I go to keep me going.

flapjacks

I'm getting my hand in with the syrup flapjacks today. Although I don't have any raspberries of my own yet I bought some local ones and am going to make raspberry flapjacks.

Well, I need to get my eye in before our raspberries come along, I wouldn't want to waste any of ours, so I need to do thorough tests!

I'll post some pics when they come out of the oven.

I'm doing 200g oats, 200g syrup, 100g butter, 100g sugar, and a small tub of raspberries.

Put the sugar, syrup, and butter in a pan and melt over a low heat. Remove from the heat and add the oats and mix thoroughly.

Then add the raspberries (or strawberries, or raisins, or chocolate chips, or pumpkin and sunflower seeds) and mix through.

Press into a shallow greased tin and put into a pre-heated oven (180°C or Gas Mark 4) for 20 mins. When they come out cut them into squares but don't take them out of the tin until they have cooled and hardened.

yesterday and today (and tomorrow)

Weeding, weeding and more weeding mainly.

You can now actually see between the rows of strawberries, and the rows of onions.



And the Jerusalem artichokes aren't having to fight with the docks.

The squash have got some room round them too now. And they are starting to form fruit, I'm very excited by the yellow ones and the round ones.

And I got the sweetcorn in, a block of 3 by 3 up next to the Kale, garlic, carrots, and turnips.


We got a load of flower seedlings into pots too. Tomorrow I need to get the salad out from the leanhouse, it is too hot for it in there and it will bolt if I'm not careful.

plans for the future

I've been on the allotment committee for a few months now and I'm getting involved in some plans for improvements around the site. We want to get more people involved in our site, and improve the visitor experience, the place is a bit of an eyesore at the moment, which I'm sure doesn't endear us to the neighbours!

We have already given 4 plots to make up 2 large community allotment plots with various groups using them, they have had the land for a while and the lead group have just raised money for landscaping and a cabin with a toilet, so should be able to start planting it out soon. Various other community groups, some local residents, and some local schools would also like to get involved more so hopefully we can get ourselves in a position to do that.

I'm on the funding team for our committee, and we have identified the things we want to fund, and some of the places we are going to apply to. Hopefully we can put together a good explanation of what we want to do and then get it funded.

One of the first things will be a healthy eating project with the community groups: the new beds that are going into one of the community plots will hopefully be meal themed, one for pizza, one for a kind of soup, one for a salad, so the people using it can really see a link between what they are growing and what they end up eating.

Along side that we want to do demonstrations of cooking in the plots, and also collect up recipes from all the different plot holders and make a collection out of it that we will aim to get printed. I'd love for us to be able to do that one, it will give a real good sense of community inside the allotment, and also give us something we can share with our neighbours so they can see what we are all about.

Here's hoping.

It is also a time for change and plans in allotments in general in Glasgow. There is a consultation going on about allotments: their use, provision, upkeep, funding, thier benefits, security, etc If you are in Glasgow then you can make a comment, the strategy documents are available as a pdf, and it can be responded to online. Links here: Allotment Strategy. Closing date 20th June for responses.

more growing, less typing

I've been neglecting this blog, so my apologies.

However, you will be pleased to know that I haven't been doing quite so badly on the allotment. It is still a running battle between us and the weeds, but we are winning in enough areas to have some decent crops going on.

So, a catch up post. In May things just kept on growing. I was away on Skye for a while, but everything survived my absence. The summer squash and courgettes went into the beds, the salad started filling out the bath and the peas and beans grew like crazy.


In June this first bit of June we have got our scarlet kale in, potted up our peppers and chillis to bigger pots, saw the Jerusalem artichokes shoot up, and loads of fruit and flowers appear.

The tomatoes have started to flower, the vintage wine and red robins are furthest along: the biggest and smallest fruit.


And the sweet peas have been planted to grow up the old metal frame we put in our flower 'meadow'.

Bath O' Salad and summer squash

More salad in the bath this evening. Rocket this time to add to the lettuce and endive.

The greenhouse is looking quite lush, plenty of tomatoes, peppers, chillies, and squash.


We are going to put the squash out (into what was the strawberry bed last year) in a couple of weeks time. We will build another of the tunnel cloches for them to keep them safe from the late frosts.

peas and cloches

This evening we got the pea plants, which we had started off in the greenhouse, into their bed. 3 Ambassadors (and one seed in the ground to make it 4), 4 Starlight (with pale pods and dark leaves for easy picking), and 4 Kelvedon Wonder (an early). We also got 7 broad beans in, with another 5 or so in the ground to make it up to 2 rows.


We made a cloche for them with a wood frame we had (an abandoned cold frame attempt from last year) and some correx from the previous leanhouse™ covering.


Hopefully that will help them get acclimatised. They were in biodegradable pots, so there shouldn't be much root disturbance, and we have put the copper pipe frame around the bed in an attempt to foil the slugs again. It worked really well with the cabbages last year, so hopefully it will keep our little seedlings safe.

Mmmmm peas!

ship shape in the evenings

The light evenings since the clocks changed have made a big difference to our workrate.

The first job came from a windfall. The community group that has a plot on our site is doing a load of work at the moment, they have had some luck with funding and resource allocation, so will be making a big push to sort out the space we have given them, with our help. This means a certain amount of clearing of their plot, one of which has a lot of gravel in it. Our Secretary made sure that they weren't considering just throwing it away and we are now working at moving it around to where it is needed.

First lot he moved to a big boggy area on the main path, and then a second batch we wheeelbarrowed away to our Leanhouse™ to make a floor for it. It is particularly boggy there (one of the reasons for siting it there - the soil was too damp to use as a bed) but now it has a ground sheet down and gravel on top, to keep the weeds at bay, make it look a little neater, and improve drainage. There is still plenty of gravel though, so we will have to get some other uses for it going. Probably communal paths.


This also coincided nicely with us retiring some metal shelves from use at home, so we reconfigured those as Leanhouse™ staging, putting the shelves on the wrong way up to form shallow trays. They are the perfect size for grow bags and seed trays. They cost us a few pounds about 10 years ago, so we are definitely getting our money's worth!


They are almost full now a couple of days later, we have mixed salad, peas, beans, broccoli, kale, chard, lettuce, all sorts of stuff just sowed or as young seedlings, in there.

Also in are the potatoes, we have gone for Arran Pilots and Desiree this year. We used compost from our functional bath, the Bath o' Salad, to go in the trenches, and then refilled the bath with new stuff ready for lettuce seedlings, which are now in.

And then last night we did a bit of spring cleaning rather than planting. We had put the last of our home produced compost in an old broken bath which was sitting there and looking unattractive and taking up room, so I dragged out a black compost bin and transferred it all to that. The cracked bath is now in the skip. Once that was gone we rediscovered a metal arch underneath it, so that has now been installed in the middle of the 'flower' bed ready for sweet peas to climb up.

And the old strawberry plants have been transplanted from their overgrown bed to a nicely cleared new one. That leaves up clear to do some serious grass removal in that bed in preparation for the squash going in.

All in all it is coming together, I reckon a couple more evenings and we may have it in a fairly neutral state, with all the beds ready to go.

Back Down To It

I've been a bit lax of late, in blogging here and in going to the allotment. But I'm back to it now.

We have actually been doing quite a bit, but it has been in our flat. We have a small heated propagator and several unheated ones that we have been starting everything off in, and it is turning into quite a production line now.

And several things have made it to the allotment already. Corn, courgettes, tomatoes (several kinds), aubergines, peppers, chillies.



We have also set off plenty of things in the greenhouse at the plot: lettuce of various kinds, including a salad leaf mix, scarlett chard, peas, broad beans, and various herbs and flowers.


Also yesterday I did a bit of DIY pot making. We received a parcel the other day that had tubes of paper scrunched up in it. It was perforated so that they could just tear off as much as was needed. As with most things these days we looked at it and asked 'do you think we could so something with that at the allotment?'. It turns out: biodegradable pots for beans/peas/sweet peas. They don't like root disturbance (their growth slows down for quite a while after being moved too roughly) so it is ideal to have a pot that they don't have to be taken out of when you move them on to their final location.

I separated the paper into a tube about 20cm long, twisted the base together and then turned the whole thing inside out so the twisted base was inside. I put a couple of beans in each, and also did some with 5 sweet pea seeds in each which can just get planted out whole when it gets warm enough.

We will see how they hold up, I'm hoping they don't disintegrate before I want them to!

zoned out

I have been reading a bit about hardiness zones today. I hadn't really come across them before as they are a US thing, created originally by the USDA, but I had seen reference to them recently on quite a few American garden/allotment bloggers on Blotanical, often in people's 'about me' section of their blogs.

So I decided to look it up. This article at Wikipedia is quite informative, it seems zones can help you work out what plants you can grow, and I found out I am in Zone 8, which puts me on a par with Washinton or Seattle. This of course only relates to minimum temperatures though, and doesn't relate to days of sunshine, length of days, dates of last frost etc so in rather variable and northern Great Britain it may not be so great a guide. It seems that although in hardiness Zone 8 we are in Heat Zone 1 or 2 which means only a handful of days a year over 30°C.

And according to very helpful feature at Garden Action, which alters the timing advice in their articles to use your own location settings, my last frost date is early May and my first frost date is mid October, so there ain't that much outdoor growing time for tender plants!

The RHS Hardiness guide is also useful in the UK, this puts plants into categories of how hardy they are; in their plant selector you can select how hardy you want a plant to be and what kind of situation it will be in and they will suggest things.

Most of this is stuff I knew about but it was good to take a few minutes to go over it again and take it all in. I'm certainly glad we have the greenhouse and leanhouse™ as it extends our season so much. For instance although it is cold, frosty, going dark at about 6pm and occasionally snowy here we had our first salad of the year the other day. It is just about warm enough in the the greenhouse that the rainbow chard has started to grow a decent size of leaf to eat!

figgy blogging

I had bought 2 little fig plants on Friday (as a birthday present to myself) from Lidl, who are having a bit of a garden extravaganza including plants and tools.

They have been sat in the car boot since then, so yesterday I took them to the allotment to plant up into pots. They were quite sturdy plants, I was quite impressed, especially at 2.99 each!

As it was so cold and snowy I gave them little fleece tents to live in for the meantime; our unheated greenhouse does get quite cold. The instructions on the packet said that they would tolerate down to -5°C so it should be OK, but I figured they would appreciate the jackets.

snow

Yesterday was a beautifully snowy day. I walked through the park whilst there were a few flakes whispering down but when I got to the allotment it started in earnest. I tried to light the stove but there were so many snow flakes coming down the chimney it kept putting it out.

I tried to do a little movie to capture it on my phone, but it doesn't really do it justice.

Today of course it is all gone, just a bit of slush here and there to confirm we didn't dream it.

tomato farm

I now have a veritable forest of tomatoes and other heat loving things on my kitchen windowsill.

5 types of tomatoes, 1 type of chilli, 1 type of pepper, 1 kind of aubergine. Plus some pansies, busy lizzies, lobelia.


Next will be squashes, gerbera, pinks, and marigolds.

I'm aiming for a bed fiull of flowers and a greenhouse full of tomatoes.

the 3 compost shuffle trick

The compost is now where it needs to be for this year.

Keep your eyes on the compost ladies and gentlemen as I shuffle the BINS

The old stuff (originally in what I guess is BIN 0 before we moved the whole lot across the plot) from BIN 1 has been sieved and put on beds (what hasn't yet been sieved is in an a BATH)



This leaves BIN 1 free for the contents of BIN 2.


Which leaves BIN 2 free to become BIN 1 and start getting filled up again.

With these peas Ambassador you are really spoiling us!

We have peas! Ambassador, and Kelvedon Wonder are coming up. Nothing from the Starlight ones yet.


It is lovely to see those bright green shoots popping up.

I also checked out the temperatures we have been getting. I have a weatherstation in the greenhouse and put the little remote sensor in the propagator (also in the greenhouse) with the peas.

It has got up to 27.8ºC and down to -2.6ºC in the greenhouse and up to 20.3ºC and down to -1.6ºC in the propagator itself, so although it isn't keeping them particular warm it is ironing out the extremes a little, which is good.