New Year's Day was a Sunday and although mild, compared to the weather of late, I didn't visit the allotment . I did however manage to fill 3 small plant pots with compost at home and on January 1st sown some Showmaster onion seeds.
It was Tuesday before I returned to the allotment and I continued to tidy up the fruit cage concentrating on the left hand side. Weeding and removing the Fushia berry bushes in to the polytunnel. Emptying the vegetable peelings in to a black compost bin I left after 90 minutes work - darkness ending the afternoon.
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| Left-Hand Front of The Fruit Cage After Weeding |
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| The same area as above but with manure added. |
On Wednesday I returned to the allotment just before midday. Manure was added to the area cleared yesterday in the fruit cage. The fruit cane prunings along with the remaining Jerusalem Artichoke stumps I removed today were burnt as previous attempts to compost these items have proven to take a very long time.
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| Fruit canes and jerusalem artichoke stumps burning on the front bed by the gate. |
Whilst the waste was burning I collected up the Jerusalem Artichokes that had been exposed during the removal of the stumps for the fire, These will be stored in the shed for today as I haven't the time today to clean them of excess soil before bringing them home.
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| Freshly harvested Jerusalem Artichokes |
I also had time to trail an experiment I had in my head. My beds all have a 10 cm wooden edge topped with a 25cm high plastic coated wire fence. Over the years I have plucked many a pair of jeans on this wire fence due to sharp bits on the top edge. For quite sometime now I have been thinking of a solution and wondered whether it would be possible to top this fence with a hose pipe split down the middle. As luck would have it one of my neighbours was throwing out some old hosepipe and so I gave my idea a go on the bed in front of the polytunnel. I think I shall be continuing this process all round before spring arrives.
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