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, January 24, 2010

Bed Matters...

Another extremely satisfying day today - in fact so much so that I am completely whacked out, & I suspect that I will ache like mad tomorrow.

I set off to the Hill with the aim of fixing the penultimate fruit bed & setting out and fixing the final one.

I was delighted when I arrived to find a couple of demijohns left for me at the side of the shed - I have John Badger (from the bottom) to thank for these, which I did when he came by later.

He said I should help myself to some Autumn fruiting raspberry canes that he is thinning out from his plot to go with the summer fruiting canes that I had from Jason (behind retired Maureen) last week - how brilliant is that?

Returning-allotmenteer-Christine came by & we chatted about blogs & this & that, & she asked if I'd pop over at some point & go though one or two queries that she has with her blog set up - I'm up for that, not least so I can see her shady garden with snowdrops which will be at their best very shortly.

I carried on with the beds, although I only got the point of setting out the final one before I got bored & moved on to a different job - picking KALE (curly) for tea. JB had given me food for thought - apparently, my raised beds have been the subject of some discussion, with Reg-next-plot wondering aloud what I'm going to fill them with.

Standing back & having a look at the fruit beds, they did seem to have a certain wooden-frame-pegged-on-flat-earth quality, so I borrowed Lionel (by the gate)'s wheelbarrow, turned to the manure skip & set about filling 'em up.

Learn a little every day, I say, & today I learned that
  • I cannot propel a full wheelbarrow with any degree of competence - it is like wrestling a bear
  • Manure from the bottom of the heap is hot & crumbly & far better than using manure straight from the bags it arrives in as I have done before
  • I cannot shovel manure into a wheelbarrow with any degree of competence
  • Manure is jolly slippery if trodden underfoot
A zillion trips back & forth later, & the fruit beds look fabulous with their thick layer of muck - although all that playing in the manure skip meant that today was another day for stripping at the back door to get straight into the bath...

3 comments:

  1. Oh boy I am getting ~so~ very tired just reading about all your hard work (oh to be so young again ....) but it is all looking quite fabbo and you will definitely be reaping the benefit later in the year. Don't expect sympathy when you have too much of everything {giggle}

    Manure is jolly slippery if trodden underfoot

    Presactly - which is why I had to clear up earlier in the week when I'd tipped manure in and around one of my raised beds and Flummery ticked me off for doing outdoor housework!

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  2. You mucky pup! Good work there though - it's really looking the business!

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  3. Yeah, but you're a demon with a brush hook, Bilbo, and you would have done rather less bear-wrestling with the wheelbarrow, I'm sure! And I promise to send you currant jelly if I get a glut!

    "You mucky pup..." That's the exact phrase that my dear old dad would have used, Flum - but then he was Lancashire born & bred too.

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