paving slabs

25. NOVEMBER

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The weather is kind to me so the maintenance on the allotment continues. It was a bit colder today, I think we had ground frost too, I could see the nasturtium leaves wilted. I don’t mind if the rest of the day is sunny and crisp.

I had a plan of work but it is never set in stone, I just do whatever needs sorting out first. I started today with my little raspberry patch, they are the latest and all of them are the autumn variety. I’ll shorten the canes next time I go there.

And as a bonus I had a few raspberries, they were very nice, not at all affected by the frost.

All this took a surprising amount of time and effort, the weeds were quite well established. The next task was to tidy up the very first part of my second plot, I have a line of blackberries and loganberries that divides it. In the smaller part is a line of rhubarb and in the much bigger part are some fruit trees and a number of herbs – rosemary, thyme, mint (contained in a pot) and a damson bush. Again, the weeds managed to spread but not as badly as in the previous plot. I also have two stone paths there, one on each side of the blackberry line.

 

Both needed rebuilding and I have decided that on the rhubarb side I’ll plant some strawberry runners between the stones and let them spread. On the other side the path will have ground cover plants growing between the stones, I already have some cyclamen bulbs in the ground and they flower well each year.

 All the plants are ready and I will finish the planting next time I go there, I hope this weather will last so I can finish the job.

24.FEBRUARY

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We’ve had a kind of patio in the back garden for years now, calling it a patio is overstating it though. I would just call it a paved area. The stones were all uneven – it was a cladding from a bank. I know, that doesn’t make too much sense but it is true. It was fine up to a point – very difficult to put a table and chairs there, unsafe to have glasses and plates etc. All that is in the past.

All we need now is warm sunny days – oh, and a suitable table and a few chairs. All this is the result of the hard work of our friend Si Troka. We managed to choose the worst possible weather for doing this work but there was nothing stopping him.

ONE MAN’S UNWANTED PAVING SLABS….

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…..my ideal material for sprucing up the plot.

Yesterday I cleared the area between my new greenhouse and the latest net cage. It is not very wide – I had sunflowers growing close to the net cage as that way they had some protection. Close to the greenhouse is a large crown of rhubarb and a small raised bed. It was the perfect area for weeds to thrive!

It was clear of weeds but I knew I had to do something there to stop the weeds to come back. Slabs I thought. Again Simon came to the rescue. He already gave me a few of them to make a little path in front of the greenhouse, now he gave me the rest of them. The blue bricks I dug out from the ground at the end of this very same plot – the guy who had it before me started to build a wall?? It looked like it, all in all I unearthed 15 blue bricks! The rest can be seen here

To finish it all off Simon also gave me some sweet William plans – he was planting them out and, fortunately for me, had more than he could use. Thanks to him it looks very nice, the bees will love it next year when it all flowers.