Kitchen Garden Forum

Well at least the dug area has given the worms some crevices to come up for air!

What a good start, Clive...I love to look at a well dug section of land, with any annual weeds well buried...you will get there.

I believe I may have got a visit from the homeless guy that pops in now & again to the allotment. My neighbour came down on Xmas day to find my door wide open & tied back to the post. I have accumulated quite a bit in the shed so I assume he was sleeping in the tunnel, but that would have been well more cosy than out in the rain. There was some crisps missing out of the big bag, but it was tied up again at the top & I expect he made himself a hot cuppa but couldn't tell for sure as everything was back in it's place. I suspect the neighbour disturbed him & he hid away as the few times he has visited previously everything was locked up tightly. Makes me happy if it was him taking shelter but I won't ever know probably!

Of course it could have been a young couple who live in crowded environments who wanted a quiet spot for their canoodling !
But if it was a genuinely homeless guy and he didn,t cause any damage or steal anything you can only feel sorry for him. Looking at the relentless rain we,ve had in recent weeks, finding anywhere dry to sleep in public spaces must be well night impossible. Many times as I,ve gone to bed and looked out of the widow at the rain lashing down the windows, I,ve counted my blessings.

If no damage was done, your facilities have done someone a favour. I volunteer at the local charity for the homeless because I know how lucky I have been.

If he comes every year I would tend to leave him some sandwiches and leave him a note asking if he fancied sleeping there regularly for a feed stops one worrying about break ins

The post van must have been weighed down this morning.... Catalogues arrived from DT Brown, DeJager, Mr Fothergill, The Greenhouse People, and KG magazine...

C.

We had DT Brown and Woolmans catalogues today, the same owners, me thinks.

Hooooraaaah, made a start on my digging, a bit slow going but, managed to get a section 30 feet x12 feet dug, so a start at least....

I'm progressing slowly up the garden westwards towards the house digging a 5' strip across at a time. Spent some time hand weeding each side of the raspberry and loganberry outer rows so could then work up to along side them but will have to return to clean up the inner and middle rows. Now though I've reached the section where I got to this time last year and then was abandoned so the going now gets tougher. Its become home to orange hawkweed with, the new around here, bristly ox tongue and buttercup all mingled into a lost strawberry bed. Also two nursery lines of grafted prunus and apples to dig and re site and the gooseberries to find and sort... Trying to push on a little each day...whilst stocks last..

C.

Hi Robo! What a brilliant idea!

We don't have many homeless but more will come as the authorities do sweeps around Bournemouth & move them out of the door ways as not good for the tourist attraction there. We have 5 I know of in Christchurch, 4 men & a woman. They are well supported as all friendly & communicative & not begging but chatting, (end result is the same so they get a few £'s but not for booze or drugs as all present well & articulate). The charity shops give them clothes & blankets & the general population keep them supplied with warm drinks & food & they give back. The guy in front of the old shoe shop (soon to be another charity shop so he might have a problem), has his own fan club of older people who come down regularly for a chat. It is not unusual for 2 or 3 older ladies having a right old chat & laugh with him when you pass by. He never begs & is kind of giving back helping the lonely who are helping him.

I stirred our three large compost bins today: one is almost ready for spreading (just a few bits of egg shell and thicker stems still showing), one is 'stewing' nicely and absolutely full of worms and the third is the 'live' one into which I sprinkled some Garotta and mixed some torn corrugated cardboard to soak up any excess damp. Oh, I do love messing about with compost.
I also dug out plenty of creeping buttercup from beneath the rose hedge, hoping to get them out before all the bulbs start showing.
And on the bird feeder were six bullfinches, four male and two female. Good thing we don't have any fruit trees!

Well you may have given up your allotment Monika but your gardening still seems to be keeping you pretty busy ! Christmas is a good cardboard time for compost heaps with all the cardboard packaging that the online providers seem to supply !

I received my cordon apple tree just before Christmas. It is happily sitting in a pot, hope it grows! Now I only have a small area of garden instead of my allotment, I am having to be creative. It is a cooker, and I can't wait to see it make its first apple. Not sure how long I'll have to wait though!

There is every chance you will get one or two next year, Retropants, that's the beauty of them being on dwarf root-stock.