A Manic Monday

The weather forecast, which turned out to be fairly accurate, was poor for this week so we decided that we needed to make the most of Monday and carry out a long overdue task. We don't usually go to the plot on a morning but we decided on Monday to make a special effort.

So what was the task that drew us? Nothing really directly gardening focused. We really, really needed to sort out the shed.

We don't keep anything in our allotment shed that is of any value as sheds tend to be broken into. Our shed is full of things like fertilisers, netting, gardening gloves and items such as plastic cartons for transporting harvests. Useful things which would be of little value to someone intent in acquiring items to sell on. It's other purpose is to give us somewhere to shelter during showers or as a place to make a drink. The clutter meant that we could hardly fit inside. It was also in need of a good clean. We needed a dry day for this big clear out as the first task was to take everything out and sweep out the cobwebs.

Martyn headed off to the tip with bags of rubbish whilst I washed the shelves the floors and - don't laugh - cleaned the windows. Well I want would-be thieves to be able to get a good look inside to see that there is nothing worth stealing housed in there.

Everything back in place and we have a suitable hidewaway.

It didn't actually take as long to sort the shed out as we thought it would, so in the afternoon, there was time to do a bit more plot tidying. This time the focus area was under the greengage trees. Over the years this area had gradually become overgrown so Martyn had been tidying it bit by bit.

We now have another area where we can sit in shade - when it is sunny - and enjoy a coffee break.

This isn't just a seating area. Firstly we have made use of our old wheelbarrow. A scrap of weed control fabric was placed in the base as the barrow has a hole in it which will serve as a drainage hole, but we didn't want compost to fall out. The wheelbarrow was filled with home produced compost. I then planted it up with nasturtiums which were transplanted from areas around the plot where they had self sown.

We also had some large bags that we were sent as a freebie with an order a couple of years or so ago. Last year we grew tomatoes in them in the garden greenhouse but they needed a lot of compost to fill them and only supported three tomato plants as does a large grow bag.

We have decided to fill them with more home-made compost and use these as mini raised beds.

In one I planted some lettuce seedlings and sowed salad leaves, mizuna and radishes and in the other I sowed swedes, beetroot and spring onions. In another I will sow pak choy. We think that we may have at least another bag hiding elsewhere in which I may grow some mini carrots next year. Anyone any suggestions for other things that I could grow in them?

It was as well we did have a manic Monday as the weather has been wet for the rest of the week and we haven't been back to the plot. Maybe now that we have a shady sitting area "the sun aint gonna shine anymore".

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett