Day 38 - Walden

Discoveries:
1. Libravox: public domain audio books! Fantastic. Download the mpgs and listen while you dig! I'm listening, appropriately enough, to Thoreau's Walden.
2. I need a bigger flask. More coffeeeeee! My tiny little 1.5 cup might work for a quick cycling pick me up but ain't doin' it for digging recovery.

Winter setting in and I'm finding it hard to adjust with the allotment, no more quick hour or so at the end of the day. So I have to be more disciplined at getting up out of bed early!

After 2 weekends of open studios and an art fair this coming week I've been pretty non-stop at work, so finally got back out the plot this morning after a couple weeks to check the tarps if nothing else. Got into chopping the bramble again! Had a look at the back of the plot again and decided that I need to prioritise making a path through. Otherwise my only way to the back of my plot is to go around the neighbour's. We're supposed to maintain a path between each one so he and I would have to clear up a path eventually anyway. So I'm hacking away at the right hand side for a narrow pass at least. Hard to see really, so I've made a circle around it. I did chop back about another metre today.

Also starting clearing a bit at the back where some trees are being strangled by bramble and some very odd thick and woody type of vine thing, fortunately it seems to be mostly dead. Again, hard to see in the picture but there's quite a few little trees in there. Not sure if I should keep them or not, so if you know what these are let me know if they're going to be an allotment menace in the future? (you can click the picture to see a larger version)


And finally, there's been lots of pics of the plot from the front vantage so I though I'd give you a longways view now that neighbour has chopped all his bramble so you can see it from the other path. So the metal water butt is basically the close side of my plot which then goes back to the bramble behind. Lengthwise, this isn't quite half of my space - the other half continues the solid bramble you can see on the right hand side. Bah. (again, click the piccie for larger view!)

Day 25 - catching up!

Things got a bit busy with my Open Studios and the preparation so didn't get to the allotment last week. Back in on Monday (day 24, technically) and played with my new azada! Whew, hard work! I'm told it's meant to be easier on the back but the overarm swinging isn't something my body is used to. Biceps are achy, a good thing. But back is achier, bad thing. (I have a bad back anyway.) But I'm sure I'll get into the 'swing' of things with time. *grin* Anyway, it cleared out a huge bramble root so I'm very happy! Not as sure about it's efficiency with clearing the couch grass topsoil vs the fork but will keep trying. The bramble root was the last thing in the way of the shed area so now that's cleared out and hopefully somewhat level. Hoping to nick some old paving stones from a skip down the road, but if all else fails there's actually a building merchant at the top of the road the allotment is on so I'll go ask for leftovers or maybe chipped slabs they can't use. Pic is of the cleared space for the shed.


Today I made the mistake of going to the allotment even with painful back. Nevermind. I did get all my bulbs in! So hopefully I'll have a lovely colourful spring bloom! They're spread about randomly, going for a natural look with about 250 bulbs.

Day 15 - Bramble Walls and Fido

A very productive day today! First thing this morning I walked around the whole allotment to snoop at what other people are doing. Looking for hints... strangely there was no one else around on a Saturday morning which surprised me. One plot had a really nice stack for their bramble branches - they had two rows of stakes holding together a 'wall' of piled bramble. So impressed I decided to move my pile, mainly because the way it was it was taking up half the space anyway. And since I've started on the back half of the plot it was only going to grow! Fortunately the nice folk on the Allotments 4 All forum told me I shouldn't be covering the bramble anyway for it to dry out. So first a 'before' pic of my covered pile, and 'after' shot of the finished wall of bramble. :) I might not even worry about burning it because it could grow into a nice screen from the road. (On the right of the pic is my shed.)


I seem to have made a furry friend too. This is Fido (well, no idea what its name really is). I've seen him a few times now, lurking around the plot next to me. He's pretty friendly and likes a pat. He's a big poser too, and ended up in half my photos today! Here he is in front of the back section of bramble, where I spotted the water butt yesterday just behind the branches. And another photo after today's chopping.


Finally just a gratuitous "for Mom" shot of me in the sunshine. Hi Mom!

Day 14

Day 12 - got my free shed! I love freecycle. Andrew Stark helped me collect it with his van. We didn't realise it was a pent roof type one so the front side was actually 6'x6' and wouldn't fit in the van. But door removed, a few planks hammered off, and we were okay. It'll be easy enough to get back together. It's fine condition for what I need, a few bits of wood to reinforce some rotted bits and some new roof felt and it'll be fine. So I'll have to plan a shed building party soon.

Day 14 - First frost. Turns out my plastic tarps aren't waterproof so my shed is getting wet anyway. More of a worry is that it means my huge pile of bramble cuttings probably isn't drying out well. Not sure what to do about that right now or what kind of plastic covering to get really.

Today I went to clear some more bramble and grass so I have an area for the shed and to get access to the metal frame left on the plot. As I hacked away happily listening to my Indigo Girls album I spotted something back in the 'woods'.... 2 somethings.... a big water butt and an old metal barrel! How cool is that???? There are water butts within proximity to all the plots but I never expected nor have I seen one at the middle point of a plot. It is like all the others on the site so I'm not sure how it got there. And I was just saying to friends that I'd like an old metal thing to burn small bits of wood in, so that's perfect. This is like a treasure hunt! I don't even need to plant stuff, I'm having so much fun chopping and digging.

Forgot the camera again, sorry, but I must get a picture soon. It's like a different place now.