It's been cold again, with the heavy frosts meaning that top inch or two of soil at the Hill is still frozen solid. I wasn't planning on digging much, though - my aim was to (finally!) finish the fruit beds.I was knocking in the stakes of the final bed when Rhubarb Brian came along. "This is looking really good," he said.
"Thank you," I beamed, "I'm not sure what I'll do with myself next winter when this lot is all finished! Mind you, I've nearly run out of screws to finish fixing this bed, then there's the weed supressent & bark chippings for the paths before I can say it's done."
"Don't you go buying nails or screws when I'm around!" he said, "what do you need? I've got a shedful - I'll go & get some for you, " & off he trotted round the corner home to fetch some.Whilst he was gone, I dug up some PARSNIPS (hollow crown) - I need 7lb for this year's batch of wine - & also some for Brian when he got back with the screws as a thank you. They are the ones from the seed tape that I put in at the end of May, & they are straight as a die - fantastic!
I went back to the fruit bed & just about managed to finish the fixing the levelled boards to the stakes before the cordless screwdriver ran out of power.
I filled the bed with manure from the skip - wrestling with Reg-next-plot's wheelbarrow - then brushed up the manure that I'd dropped all over the path, & emptied the new batch of manure from the bags into the skip, folding & packing the bags away.And the crazy-paving basin at home? Well that's to do with the wine - more of which in due course...
I'm not sure what I'll do with myself next winter
ReplyDeleteHmm, make a quilt? Seriously, the beds are looking fantastic, wish you lived nearer, we could do with a hard-wroking Hobbit like you at Bag End.
Brian sounds like Himself, who has jars of nails and screws in the shed. He admits he inherited some from his grandad who would pick them up in the street or dismantle dumped rubbish to get the nails and screws. Yorkshire men!
ReplyDeletethe folk on your allotment sounds as lovely as the folk on mine. Rhubarb Brian could be my plot friend Dave who not only let me raid the corrugated plastic from the fruit cage he was dismantling but also helped me get some of them off. He's saved me a fortune and I can finally fix a new shed onto my roof. The total arm ache I have today was worth it!
ReplyDeleteYou don't seem to be doing too badly on the hard work front, Bilbo! Your days make me feel tired just reading about them!
ReplyDeleteI know someone who is exactly the same about saving pieces of string, Flum - and struggles not to cut the buttons off clothes before chucking them out...!
There's a phrase about one man's rubbish is another one's useful shed roof (in this case), isn't there, Nic, but I can't quite think of the right wording! There is definitely an advantage to allotment gardening!