Domestic Goddess

Well at last came the rain - a whole day of it so rather than get completely soaked I decided to do some inside jobs, and here's the result....... a beautifully clean & tidy shed.....

Once the shed was done I moved into the greenhouse & potted on the aubergines...

and some of the chilies......

and the curly kale.....

Roots - the remake

I think I am coming down with a cold as I feel absolutely awful, but I made my self go to the plot today as I think this will be the last fine day we have for a while, as the forecast is for rain for the next few days. I managed to finish the second bed for strawberries, taking out a load more couch grass roots. There were 8 buckets like the one below full of roots from this bed, compared to 3 from the other strawberry bed & it was much harder work!

I put the last of the manure onto the beds, and now they are ready to be planted up.

I now have 5 of my long beds left to dig.

I also had a bit of a rearrange of my shed, which is now better organised and it is easier to get at things, it also means that there is more space to sit and have a cuppa!

And from the other angle - you can see my refreshment preparation area - Vitally important!

January round up part 2 - Major post (internet & computer problems)

This is the Gnome that Buddy my dog found on the plot ages ago - He normally lives in my shed but I thought he might like a little winter sunshine, although Buddy was eyeing him up -I think with the view of making off with him!

All this area had loads of bramble roots in it - I have managed to hack them out with my azada with relative ease - much much better than trying to get them out with a spade. I was dreading starting on the roots, thinking that it would take me ages, but it was amazing how much I achieved in a relative short space of time.

This is a view down the plot - It is looking decidedly better that it was in December.....still quite a long way to go though to get it into a state where I can grow veg in the beds!

A view of the bottom of the plot - I have removed all the bramble roots from the area covered with carpet, and have about the same area again to clear. Once this is done I need to see which fruit bushes are worth moving. I know that there are 2 black currant and 3 gooseberry bushes that are so old they are past their best and are completely in the wrong place so will get rid of them, but there are also some new bushes that I have planted since I had the plot, so I want to see if they can be saved.

As a final flourish before I took the dog for a walk round the site, I gave the shed a bit of a tidy up, brushed off my chair and sorted out all my bits & bobs, so I could check what I actually have stashed in there.

This is the last area I have left to clear of bramble roots, the two piles are the roots I have dug up so far. I also need to cut back the hedge by the fence as it is now about 5 foot deep & taking up too much room. If I cut it back hopefully it will thicken up a bit.

Shed shifting 2

This is how I moved my shed;

I unscrewed the base from the walls, added handles to all 4 corners of the shed, took out all the windows and took off the door, and hey presto...

Shed with handles...

I replaced the door & windows, I just need to adjust the guttering, reattach the shed to the base, put the water butt in the right position and away we go!

Ihave to say Ireally thought this was going to be a mammoth task but it turned out be be fairly straight forward with all the help.

So a big THANKYOU to everyone who helped with the shed move.

Shed shifting

My husband arrived home last night announcing that he had organised some extra muscle in order to move my shed, so today I met Roger at the allotments whilst OH went to collect 'Harris'. A little time later OH arrives with no 'Harris' Apparently he had had a little too much sauce last night rendering him incapable of getting up before 10.30am!

We were just about to give up and rearrange for another day when I spotted allotment man (Chris) and considering it was his bright idea to move the shed in the first place managed to get him to help us.

Now I know what you are thinking - why does it require 4 people to move a shed? my shed, although not large is very sturdily built, and is heavier than others of a similar size. So needed alot of muscle!

Any way once all muscle was organised the actual moving of the shed was quite easy - heavy - but straight forward.

And here it is in it's new position...
And a photo taken from the access track down the plot...

In the foreground is my pile ofwood (which I need to sort out), a compost bin made from palletts and a load of water pipe which I use as a framework for cloches.

Base area for shed

I have managed to put the paving stones in place ready for the big shed move. I levelled them and made sure they were level with each other.

I have now also used planks of wood screwed into the sides of the shed to be used as handles.

All I now need is some strong men to help me move it....Any offers?

Oh my poor plot...

Went to the plot today

The last time I went was in February of this year - 10 months ago! Yes I have been seriously neglectful.... Managed to move all the stuff out of my shed into my greenhouse and also moved the palletts etc that I had erected as compost bins.

I only have some timber to move which was to be raised beds and the shed....

I erected the shed on site so am not sure how I will manage to move it without completely dismantling it, which is something I really do not want to do!

The allotment guy said that I should get a bunch of strong men together and I would get it moved very quickly - This sounds great in theory but in practice I need to move it by the new year and there appears to be very few people knocking around the allotments at the moment.....

I will need to ponder this one further....