Friday 16 March 2012

GOT THERE !

Friday 15th March 2012

Peering sleepily out of the bedroom window at 05.15, I was immediately aware that the foggy, damp weather had left us and I could almost see our allotment site several miles away. This was THE day to get the work I'd been trying to do since Monday as rain not forecast til evening. I quickly dressed in my oldest clothes, quietly so as not to wake my understanding wife (but I still did) and had explaining to do as what the heck I was playing at. Once excuses accepted, got on the deserted road and arrived at the allotment site at 05.35, still too dark to undo the shed combination lock because I just could not read the numbers. After a cup of tea from the trusty flask, daylight broke enough to get going on the task of preservative painting of two shiplap wooden sheds, one very large and one not quite so large. I had undertaken the job myself as the preservative was VERY expensive (used this type so as to safeguard shed guarantees) and if I spilt it or used too much, couldn't blame anyone else.
Athough the birds in the adjacent woods started singing periodically in unison, which can mean imminent rain, it stayed dry and with a slight breeze was ideal drying conditions. 
Being early, it meant I didn't have to analyse why someone's parsnips had small holes in or go back to the car park to replace somebody's lost gate key and to be honest is the best time of the day in my opinion. I really got on with the job and was virtually completed by 11.00. The sheds look great and the rain forecast for the weekend is not going to give them any further darkening from bad weather like the plant sales and big toilet building at the entrance which are almost black.
Brunch needed and a stiff shoulder brought the morning's work to an end but I was happy with the results.

Thursday 15 March 2012

UNPREDICTABLE WEEK'S WEATHER

Thursday 15th March 2012

A frustrating week for me trying to get our big community sheds
painted in the preservative recommended by our shed supplier
in order to safeguard our guarantee. It's a very expensive treatment
and I have had a rainfree week to get it done before the water
tanks arrive on site which will be sited right next to the sheds.
However! No two days alike in amount of low cloud and fog in which
obviously the treatment cannot be applied due to the moisture in the
air. We are fairly high here at Lanhydrock and the fog has lingered all
day twice , the sun has broken through on two days also but
the water tanks duly arrived midweek and needed to be put in position
which took a fair while due to their size, then a tour around Cornwall to find a supplier who could actually sell us all the guttering fittings we needed, three towns visited before we got them all.
 I'll get there eventually, just
aware that next week is out, not being in the county and rain which
we need to conserve is forecast for the weekend.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Monday 12 March 2012

Sunny Monday Morning

Well Spring has really sprung........not only are there daffodils in bloom on the plot that rare breed, the allotment holder, is on the move again.   It's good to see the plots staring to take shape again, 1st earlies going in, runner bean  trenches being dug and the rhubarb is promising a good crop again this year.   Billy was up the plot yesterday cutting the grass with our new petrol mower and certainly  the plots look better for a haircut!
 
From somewhere frogspawn has appeared in the pond.......mind you they will have to be 'ninja mutant' frogs to cope with 72 plots!   But we live in hope.   I was up the plot just after 9am this morning and the mist gave everything an ethereal feel 








And you couldn’t see from one end of the site to the other........but when the mist burnt off it was a fantastic day.  
Mike has been busy putting up the new sign and was giving the shed it's protective coating today.
Just a few of us up there and maybe that’s just as well because I’m in the process of constructing plant supports and the air was blue as plan A and B had failed and plan C was not going well either!   Never mind will try again tomorrow morning.  Keep getting seed companies sending me catalogues with wonderful seeds and plants to grow and it’s like being a child in a sweetshop but did find a small sprouting broccoli – mine always seem to grow too tall and I end up staking them.  Unwins are doing plant plugs of Broccoli Bordeaux which only reaches 24” and don’t need cold weather to begin flowering, anyone tried them before?  
This being the third year I’ve been on the plot I’m now starting to know my plot, where things grow well and what it likes and doesn’t like.   It definitely doesn’t like beetroot!   No matter what variety I use or where it’s planted it never does any good.   But like all optimistic allotment gardeners I’ll try again and who knows this year may be the year of the beetroot!