Thin on the ground you-lot.

[Ricard with an H]

Whats happening ?

Is it BBQ's ? Politics ? TV ? So busy on your plot you're too tired to talk about your day ? Nothing-doing to talk about ?

Surely this time of year is busy preparing for the winter or is this the, 'Sit back and relax' time of year.

I can't stop stuff growing here, soil is warm and damp with little wind and my kale is bursting out of the netting. I'm cutting the tops off for neighbours though them and me aren't eating it fast enough and the seedlings are already a foot high with more seedlings at six inches.

It's going to be a Kale in everything.

[Clive.]

It was my colleagues Sunday on at work, a lot of lush growing lawns to mow. I went in to take part in the archaeological walk across the Estate this morning...but stayed on to complete the planting of the over winter onions. We had thrown on some bonfire wood ash a few weeks ago and dug the ground, it had been broad beans previously. It worked down a treat with the medium size 3 tine Wolf cultivator.

Then I stayed a bit longer to collect some more apples to store for the Apple Day display....getting a bit concerned as they don't seem to be keeping as well as last year.

Just as I was going I got a call from the tearoom to partake in a coffee....I seem to be the approved disposal agent for the remains left in the coffee pot at the end of the day..
Home for tea with great plans to go and dig the last row of potatoes in the back garden here...but turned this machine on to do the rounds of the aeroplane world.......but ended up writing this.

We are part way through formal front garden lavender replacement at work, done every 5 years with new plants grown from cuttings...much double digging going on, turf repairs to the bed edges, etc, etc... Two more beds to do...want to get it sorted in the morning....need to be on early.

..and good news on the tower clock front this week....Cumbria Clocks attended and re fitted an errant bush...and all is running and chiming well once more. ...giving me another job to do each week once again....a wind up.

Clive.

[Clive.]

Further......

I see someone is coming to town on Mar 29th... http://www.lincsruraltouring.co.uk/show/old_herbaceous

Clive.

[Monika]

It's good to hear you are all keeping busy, especially you, Clive, after the worry about your job a few years ago!

We have been using the lovely dry weather to straighten out the allotment and making some changes now that we have given up half of it. By the way, we have only had 11m (less than half an inch!) of rain so far in September, so the soil was really good to dig and I shifted seven wheelbarrows full of horse manure today - again, very dry and therefore and not very heavy!

The bed for the overwintering onions, shallots and garlic is ready but I am waiting until we have had a bit of rain before planting the sets/cloves.

The remaining beds, once all dug, will be sown with green manure when we get some rain.

[peter]

Dug two 30' rows of potatoes.

Sore back.

[Ricard with an H]

Dug two 30' rows of potatoes.

Sore back.

Oh-goody, you haven't all deserted me for other interests at a time I'm still vulnerable to huge mistakes even though it's been a good year.

I'm building yet-another raised bed at the low end of the paddock which is getting to look like a small allotment, I don't yet know how much area an allotment takes. That'll be four raised beds up on the terrace sheltered by the sea buckthorns and three raised beds at the low end of the paddock and I'm heading for a glut of kale this year and next.

I would like to know what is eating my kale leaves, mostly on the young plants. It isn't slugs or caterpillars or anything I can see. I'll make a mix of garlic spray, I haven't tried that yet.

The grazing rye I have sown in two beds is very patchy, I sowed more seed though that doesn't seem to have germinated, now the question is do I sow more grazing rye in the new bed or use it to grow more kale. Either way I suppose it's better something is growing rather than allowing weeds to proliferate.

[peter]

Standard size allotment is ten Rod.

Rod is an archaic measure, interchangeable with Pole and Perch.

Thirty square yards or twenty-five square metres.

So each of my two plots is ten by thirty yards.

[Diane]

I've been a bit busy with my birds....have some young frizzle pekins to sort out....and also pairing up the budgies in my bird room...ready for breeding. It's a case of popping into the bird room to watch and see which male budgie bird is getting off with which female, prior to catching them up and moving them to breeding quarters. Only...it's never a five minute job - I end up standing and watching them for absolute ages...fascinating little birds.

Then yesterday morning was spent at an aviary bird sale and the afternoon was a craft sale (I've just discovered knitting )

And then...I was sorting out various spare cuttings to offer to folk on Freecycle.

And now it's Monday all over again!

[Ricard with an H]

Each of my pieces of converted ground is about 12 X 6 metres though thats including grassy bits between the beds and chopped/crushed pathways.

I never get a full days gardening because I need to swop jobs to stop things hurting, todays jobs are completing another raised bed and changing the battery in our van. It took four hours work just to get at the battery, sort-of-like keyhole surgery. Three new batteries arriving today, one in the front and two inside.

Skin missing from my head and the back of my hands, back-ache and hips ache.

[oldherbaceous]

I've just been exceptionally busy with work, i don't seem to have had a spare moment for weeks....

[Westi]

Busy, busy, busy here but managed time down at lottie of course! Took down most of the runners but have 4 still that are producing as we're sown later but about 50% are forming seeds while still small so will probably be last picking this week. It took forever to get them down but was pretty chuffed at their sturdiness of the structure.

Cleared the land for the overwintering onions when they come & was going to make a start on the shed but the biggest meanest spider I have met for a while put paid to that so that can be Mr Westi's job! (Damn thing ran out of it's crevice & just looked at me like it was daring me to come closer).

Anyway not that thin & on the ground!
Westi

[Ricard with an H]

Everyone is very busy because the weather is such that who wants to sit in front of a computer, I was only absent for a couple of weeks because of (Can't remember) and you sent a search-party out so I figured it was time to find-out what it is thats keeping you all so busy.

Come a hooligan storm for a week and we'll get pages-and-pages of stuff as we all sit and shelter.

Same here, I'm desperate to get things done that I had planned before the weather changes and I still have painting to outside walls and windows to catch up on.

As your climbing beans are past their best mine are just coming 'on-song'. I have yet to do the second picking though that will most probably be within the next three days. They are over-the-top right now so I'll nip the tops of during the next few days rather than let them go-over and down again.

What I do about spiders and the massive flies we get coming in-doors is an occasional blitz with an insecticide-spray then shut the doors and leave for a few hours. I don't want flies, they sit on cow-poo, sheep-poo, dog-poo then come in my house. The spiders don't bother be other than the damn webs they weave over the doorways, when I been away for three days the place looks like it's uninhabited for years.

Dusting, vacuuming spiders and flies cleaning up after the dog and it's a wonder I have energy for growing things.

[FelixLeiter]

I would like to know what is eating my kale leaves, mostly on the young plants. It isn't slugs or caterpillars or anything I can see.

Rabbits, or perhaps pigeons. Maybe deer. But if you've netting over them, that rather discounts all of these.

That's quite an engineering project you've got going on with your deep beds, Richard. I'm assuming you're levelling them up along all their axes. I'd be interested to see how you build up the end at the bottom of the incline, if so. It's hard to tell from here, but your soil looks to be of a decent depth naturally and the site appears well drained. Have you attempted many crops in un-made ground where you are?

[Ricard with an H]

Hi Felix.

If you don't level it looks horrible and when you do level the different beds at right-angles are at a different hight, I'll post more photos when they are closer to completion. Stainless steel bolts 100mm long, pre-drilled then screwed in place holds the corners very firmly.

The deep end of the bed in this case has been filled with stones, the earth will eventually consolidate between the stones. In another case I cut strips of timber to fill the slope but it was difficult and I think stones will do the job.

The ground in this particular place is at the bottom of a sloping field and whilst it doesn't flood the ground only a few yards away does flood where it meets a terrace.

This ground has very little top-soil, the top-soil was robbed and sent to another site by the developer of this old farm. I had a JCB in to spread what little was left, it's also very stony.

What I'm doing is filling the bottom half of the bed with well-rotted cow-poo, covering it with what soil I have then mixing in 25 bags of NH composted greenery. I used this stuff before, it's good. Probably better than some cheap peat-free composts. Cost me £2.20 a bag for 25 bags delivered on a pallet.

[Motherwoman]

I am having to sit in front of a computer for work and it's very frustrating!!
I just know that when work eases off and I can finally finish my digging it's going to rain....

MW