Starting on the allotment

Well I've finally made a start on the allotment! Yesterday mum came round and gave me a hand to mark out the paths and the different beds for crop rotation, the fruit area and an area for a shed and compost bins (all marked with blue string).

Although its been rotovated twice the soil it still like concrete and takes a lot of digging, no good for sowing seeds directly into the ground just yet! We did manage to plant a few things though.

A nice long 15ft row of raspberries went in (pinched from mums garden), along with rhubarb, a gooseberry bush and some comfrey. Today we also managed to put in the broad beans I'd been growing in pots and net them over to protect them from pigeons and rabbits. The main trouble, besides the rock hard soil, is the lack of water on site, I've been taking a large drum of water every time I go down but it doesn't go very far!

I've also put in four raised beds, these are quick fix pallet collars that I've stained up, but they look nice and they will help me grow root crops until I get the soil sorted out (then they can be used to grow asparagus next year). My plan to get parsnips and carrots in now is to import some soil (there's some nice soil at the farm) and mix it with a little compost along with fish, blood and bone. At least then I'll have some for Christmas dinner!

Next weekend I'm thinking about fencing the whole plot with rabbit wire as everyone else seems to be doing it and there seems to be a lot of wildlife.

Charcoal Success

The Second burn produced a bucket full of charcoal

The third burn produced a big bag full of charcoal

Well it took us four "burns" in total but we can now produce a decent amount of charcoal from a 45 gallon oil drum. The trick is to leave it longer than you think and when it is burning really hot put the lid on but wedged open a bit, leaving the air holes open for about 15 minutes till the smoke changes colour. Then seal it up and don't open it too soon (we opened ours the next morning and I realised that some was still on fire in the box).

We had a BBQ last night and it burnt really well (with no smoke) so I was quite pleased. Dave's on about selling it, but it is quite labour intensive to make, we'll sell some and see if we can make any money from it.

Trying to make Charcoal

My brother is off his usual work this week and instead splitting some firewood to sell. As he's up the field all day we thought it would be good to try and make some charcoal.

We modified a 45 gallon oil drum so it had air holes in the bottom and made sure that the lid would fit. We then started a fire in the bottom and quickly stacked the wood inside letting the fire build up. Once it was going well we sealed the top and the air holes at the bottom using soil and let the drum cool down.

For our first attempt we made a little tiny bit of charcoal and some warm logs. Reading a few sites on the internet we need to leave the bottom holes open longer and let the fire build up more in the first place. I'm going to get to the farm early tomorrow so we can try again.

Peak District and gardening

Last weekend we went to the peak district for a couple of days and really we enjoyed ourselves with a nice long walk and a stay in Bakewell. We finish the trip off with a visit to Chatsworth House, which is beautiful (although I much preferred the kitchen garden with rows of sea kale being forced than the house).

This last visit was slightly marred as we called into their famous "farm" shop on the way home. The first two products that we saw were rhubarb and asparagus, both available and in season now (although asparagus is difficult to get hold of), the first was from Holland and the second from Mexico. I turned into an old man the second I got home and wrote a letter of complaint!

This weekend has been spent in the garden planting every seed in sight and longing for the allotment to be rotovated (I put my name down to have it rotovated and now I just seem to be waiting and unable to do anything else, the soil in like concrete at the moment and the spade wont go in!). All my little seedlings are looking healthy and I've even enjoyed the fruits of my labours by eating some rhubarb I forced in the (old) shed, its so sweet.

I did venture out of the garden to a car boot sale to buy another set of tools for the allotment and managed to buy a fork, dutch hoe and a draw hoe (£7 total). The draw hoe is beautifully made (although the handle has woodworm - a replacement from Dave's shavehorse is needed I think) and is a proper old fashioned, made in England tool, this wont be going to the allotment its too nice.

Allotment and Rain

I've been earing up for this weekend for ages so its been somewhat of a let down.

On wednesday night we went to Honeyborne to sign up for our new allotment along with 40 other people and paid our yearly fee of £20. We were given, in exchange, a long list of rules (more donts than Do's) and a 15m by 10m patch of land in the village of Honeyborne. This allotment is totally new so I wasnt sure what to expect but my hopes were high for at least some grass and resonable soil.

Today (Friday) was the first day I could get down there and I invited my Mum along so we could look at the site, do a little planning and marking out and hopefully aome planting of the fruit bushes I've got sat in pots. Wrong.

Today it hasn't stopped raining for more than 5 minutes and when we went down to see the allotment we were the only people in a field of mud and water. I say mud but it is mostly clay.

I took my spade so I could see what it was like and I could only get it in to half a spades depth, the clay was that thick and strong. It was raining so hard we had to come back and warm ourselves with some fish and chips and decided that planning was best done on paper. I had used a compass to find out which way north was so now a bit of arm chair gardening is called for!

One thing I do need to get is a shed for my allotment (not another shed!) to store gardening tools in but I dont really want to spend any money down there, I might try freecycle unless anyone has got one they're taking down?

27

Another year of my life has flown by but I have to say I'm pretty happy with where I am.

At the weekend we had a bit of a birthday party and "shed warming" with about 25 friends turning up with much drinking and merriment, all was good. The home brew on the other hand wasn't, it tasted like Doctor Pepper and that was when we could get a bottle open without the foam hitting the ceiling (which it did quite a few times, along with the chairs, table, floor and anyone stood within a miles radius!).

To make matters worse, tonight we sat down for tea (and for the first time in ages we had it in the sitting room instead of round the table in the dinning room, luckily) when we heard a massive bang and glass go everywhere. One bottle had exploded, well I say exploded but I don't think that does it justice as there was no bottle left! I quickly moved the rest outside and opened them, each one producing a line of foam about 10ft long and then fizzing till empty.

Oh well made dinner quite entertaining!

On a happier note my peas have come up!

Busy times in the garden

It really felt like spring had come this weekend and I managed to get loads done.

I cleaned out the greenhouse and washed it down ready for the new season as well as replacing the plastic cover on my mini greenhouse that's on the patio.

I've also managed to plant peas (in the ground and in guttering for when I get my allotment) these are both sugar peas and normal, I also sowed some more broad beans into pot and a complete raised bed of red onion sets. As well as this I divided my rhubarb, planted a plum tree, made a present for my mum for mothers day, nearly finished off making the set of garden shelves, started to clear out the old garden shed, impregnated some more straw to make mushrooms, put my seed potatoes to chit, dug up, cooked and ate the last of my leeks and parsnips. So I'm feeling pretty productive at the moment!

Shave Horse

I've always had a keen interest in green woodwork (this is where wood is worked freshly cut or "green") and in the past I have done courses on it making a stool from ash and elm. so I've was pleased that my brother has started doing it without me even suggesting it. He's been making lots of spoons along with axe and hammer handles for the last few months so for his birthday I decided to make him something that should help him loads - a shave horse.

(Picture of the bench before the clamp is added)

This is a work bench that was used by bodgers (chair makers that lived in the woods), where you sit on the bench and then push your feet onto an arm that clamps the pieces of work at the top of the bench. The idea is simple but it enables you to clamp work really quickly and using a draw knife you can shape any item you want from a comfortable position.

(Turning the parts of the clamp on the lathe)

Like making any present it took longer than I though it would, some pieces being turned on the lathe and the rest being cut by hand but I was quite pleased with how it turned out and Dave's reaction was great when I gave it to him. He even asked if I'd brought it (not sure where you could buy one from if you wanted to!)!

(Picture of the finished shave horse)

I've told him that he's got to make me a new handle for my mattock as one of his first projects, as with a new prosepects of a new allotment coming up in April I might be using it quite a bit and the current handle is part plastic and cracked, much better to have a nice ash handle made by my brother I think.