Welcome to our plot!

I'm Hazel, and in Nov 2006 my friend Jane and I took on a half plot at Hill Allotments, Sutton Coldfield - we want the satisfaction of growing and eating our own fruit and veg, and to improve our diet (and fitness!).

This is the story of what happened next...........

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Construction again!

With all my seedlings looking so fine at home crammed onto their various perches, it’ll soon be time to start planting them out – & not a moment to soon as far at the bulging mini greenhouse & windowsills are concerned.

I’ve been hardening off the BROAD BEANS (h barry plot 19) & PARSNIPS (hsl Guernsey) – I’ve given up on the parsnip seed that I saved from last year (they had about 5 weeks in which to do something, & didn’t) – & yet it is the PEAS (hsl gladstone & hsl newick) that are ready for planting out first.

This made making pea supports quite pressing, so I’ve been giving the layout of beds c1 & c2 some thought. The 4’ long bamboo stick ‘tent’ structures were ok last year, but they did get increasing rickety as the season progressed & the autumn winds increased, so if I can do something a little more sturdy, that would be a lot better.

Much pondering later, I set off to the Hill yesterday with my carpenter’s hat on to turn my plans into reality, & here’s what I came up with. The wooden uprights & cross piece are made of the same 2” by 1” battens that I’ve been using as stakes for the raised beds, & these are screwed into the sides of the beds & braced, then the strings pass through holes drilled in the cross piece & are held taut by green fleece pegs. They look pretty tidy if I say so myself – how sturdy they prove to be, we shall see in due course.

I put the second one up today, with encouragement from Julie (2nd best plot) & Pottager Chrissie. That’s if you count shouting across ‘give us a tune’ encouragement – although I do concede that the pea frames have a passing harp-like resemblance...

I think that this week must be ‘good deed’ week – Reg-next-plot’s barrowed his excess strawberry bed soil to beef up my potato beds, novice-neighbour-Jody asked if I’d like their old bench seat which they are replacing, Jason (behind retired Maureen) let me raid his string when I’d run out & Julie dropped in some details from her planting-by-the-moon book. These I examined closely whilst having a sandwich at the club house, & can only say that it requires further study.

And before I came home I planted out another few POTATOES (international kidney, & four that I bought back from holiday in Tenerife) to remind myself that I’m a gardener.

5 comments:

  1. the harps - i mean pea supports - look great...:O) I left doing my autumn peas too long before doing the supports ...bit of a mess....never mind...

    great to be busy again eh :O)

    D

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  2. Well done Hazel! I haven't got much planted out at the moment - onions and shallots are just about it. Lots coming on in the greenhouse but we need to finish the hen-run and STOP trampling all over the veg beds while doing so!

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  3. You do have some lovely folk at the plot, what a generous lot.

    What a great day you had - supports looking brill, and I thought we were busy yesterday - it must be catching!

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  4. Now last year, Dinzie, I did that - planted the peas with the aim of putting the supports in later, then never did, and a right ol' mess they got into, too!

    Plenty of time yet, Flum - better to delay planting than to try hopping round the beds whilst you are in Construction Mode.

    There's more wood than plants on the plot at the mo, Bilbo! And yes, they are a good bunch - and I'll be telling you a little bit more about the Hill next post...

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  5. We have admired your major erection Hazel,we presumed it was for the beans, however, it looks very smart

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