Monday and Tuesday have continued the strange weather. Absolutely wonderful sunshine in the day and very cold at night. The really hard frosts take quite a while to melt away and the air temperature in the shade hardly gets above a couple of degrees. In fact, the frost lingers all day in shady spots.
It’s quite hard to know what to wear as in the sun you get overheated but step to into the shade and you shiver. The way things plummet as the sun goes low is unbelievable.
More Wood Chippings on the Site
Anyway, Monday I was greeted by a huge pile of wood chippings, higher than me. Now wood chippings are as popular as a stripper at a bachelor party so I thought I’d best grab a few barrow loads to top up the paths. As it turned out, as wise move because on Tuesday the pile was just a couple of feet high.
They’re a great material for paths on an allotment. Non-slip and weed suppressing but they rot down. So, if someone gives up their plot, the new person can just dig in the chippings and re-style as they wish.
Raised Bed Finished
I finally got the last raised bed finished on plot 5. The bent plank had straightened enough to fix into position and bits of wood were nailed into position to hold everything in place. I did manage to confuse my finger and the nail but have now had a definitive guide to hammering nails sent to me by a forum member.
“Always keep the face of hammer head clean and at same angle as the nail you are aiming at. Always remember your aiming at the silver ones never the pink ones, quickest way to find out if you’re colour blind! Ouch!!”
Today I dug the interior of the raised be over, left it lumpy to allow the frost to break the clay soil up a bit and tomorrow I’ll fill with the municipal compost which is piled to the side.
I dug over another patch on the plot as well but it’s a little tough in places as the shady bits are frozen on the surface. With digging it’s fairly easy when the soil is right. Not too dry and definitely not too wet. So, now it’s dry enough to dig over but frozen in places. You just can’t win in gardening!
Took a few more pictures as well – you can see them here in Allotment Photographs
I noticed your using longer stakes on the corners and in the middle is this to attach nets to keep off the birds?
That’s right Jon, I’ll fit crossbars and support nets on 8′ bamboo poles lengthways. We’ve a rotten pigeon problem and nets are the only answer.