How to move a Greenhouse

With the base laid at the plot I have been eager to get the greenhouse moved and in production. Although the weather has been against me last Saturday I spent a merry couple of hours removing all the glass, clips and springs, carefully stacking them, then carrying them all to the car, driving them back to my house, then emptying them out into my garage to clean.

I was quite amazed that I managed to remove, move and empty every pane of glass without breaking one!... well, till I started cleaning them when I managed to break three!!! (Note: when cleaning glass wear good thick gloves... I ended up with plasters on 3 fingers!!!) Also sod's law dictates that if you are going to break any glass you wont break the standard sized ones you can buy of the peg!!! Luckly my brother-in-law works for a glazing company though, so the order for the replacements is in already!

Last night with a break in the weather I managed to get my Dad and Brother-in-law to meet me at my grandma's to help me lift the greenhouse out of her garden.

Heres a pic of it insitu in my grandma's backgarden where it has been for about 20 years....



After grinding of the hooks holding it down it was suprisingly easy between three of us to lift it over the fence and down onto the trailer still built! (the trailer comes in handy... remember the How to move a Shed post! )

With a ratchett strap holding it in place from front to back, and rope tying each corner down it was securely sat ontop of the trailer... luckly there are no lowbridges on the way to the plot, as it must have been a good 10 foot high!!!

On the way to the plot I think I managed to find every pot-hole and speed bum possible, and despite several strange looks from pedestrians I got it to the plot in one peice, and even round the tight turn into the gates!!!



Then just a short carry up the path (2 foot wide paths and 6 foot wide greenhouses dont mix well) and with no one falling to the pond it was put in place... and even fitted onto the `wall` of breeze blocks I had cemented down!!!!!!

Here it is inplace, temporarily held down with bags of cement and gravel!




Note happy helpers eyeing up my strawberry patch!!!!





With payment made to my helpers in Rhubarb, Onions, Garlic, Lettuce, Cabbage and potatos and with the greenhouse in place everyone was happy... esspecially my brother-in-law!



Fingers crossed now for a dry weekend so I can get it secured down, concreated in and re glazed.....

Settling in Nicely!

With all the recent rain the plot has been taking a bit of a pounding! Strong winds, downpours and temps that would be expected of Autumn! The pond has cleared up nicely though, now with a clear view right to the bottom, maybe this is from the additional plants and pond weed which were kindly donated by MC55 (thank you), or it could be the 6-inches of rain we have had in the past week!



I'll try get some pics of the taddies for next time!!!

Flaming June!!!

Rain, rain and more rain!!! This is not an extension of my pond, its the road I go to work on in Leeds!!!!




Soon as it drys up I'll get to the plot to take some pics of progress... thankfully the plots on a slope!!!!

Pond Progression - 2

Come on the frogs...

3rd June - muddy hole



11th June - boarded round, dug down and liner in place



13th June - first stones put in place, and plants added



18th June - Liner trimmed, stones finished and cemented, bog area created....








The water is all settling down now and clearing up, one good thing about all the recent rain is that it reminded me to put in an overflow!!!!!!! With the good few inches of rain the level had rose quite considerably since the liner had been laid into what was basically a square box! Attentively I took a saw to the lower board, holding the liner away with the other hand, and cut a 4 inch deep `U ` in, lined with the liner for any excess to drain away



Here is the top of the overflow which will run away into the soil.

Plenty of noocks and crannys for things to hide in, and the area between the pond and greenhouse has got low flat stones into the water and will be all planted up too to allow for covert froggie access/egress from the pond to plot.



The circle of stones filled with soil is where the overflow runs out to - this will be planted with peranials from my garden at home (I told you I had a access to a large amount of free stone!), and down the side of the greenhouse will all be boarded out all the way round and home to my strawberries next year (again, putting a barrier between undergardner and the glass!!!)



Finally this area is directly oppersite my pond/greenhouse with the bird table and will have a pile of logs added, then left to run wild (or at least a `managed wild`) - more hiding places for (hopefully) little froggies!


Overall I'm quite impressed with how its turned out... and I'm looking forward to the plants all settling down, growing and filling out to soften it down a little. A great addition for only a few hours work!


Next major project... greenhouse moving!!!!

Downpours!!!

From having scorching weather on the weekend of the 9th, last weekend... and pretty much every day before and since we have had rain... and not just the wimpy kind of rain you can go out in with a coat on - this was real, soak you right through after 5 minutes rain!!! Flooding for most areas, especially in Leeds where I work when on Friday morning the police decided to close most of the roads into Leeds West as cars were driving through foot deep water, coming out the other side and breaking down!!!

With all this rain though, and `semi` warm weather everything on the Pellon Plot has put on a growth spurt, I was kept away for most of the week due to the weather and when I finally managed to call in several days later I was amazed at just how much things had grown!



Everything is looking green and lush now - including the weeds!!!



These are the main crop potatoes... they were earthed up - but must still now be almost a meter high in places! This picture above was taken on the 18th June 2007 - Compared to last year these are easily triple the size

Here is a picture of my potatoes from the 17th June 2006


hmmm, spot the difference!!!

One thing that is noticeable in my potato bed is that when it was manured last October I still had some leeks at one end, so no manure went on where these were. Now they are all growing the greenery at the end that did have manure looks a lot larger and stronger... will be interesting to see if I get bigger/more spuds from this side too!

My flowers and herbs round the shed all looking lush and fresh, the clematis on the shed looks a bit straggly, I think I should have pinched out the growing tip on this to make it bush out a bit more.



And the lobelia in the window box seems to be chocking everything else that’s in there (inc. the two sunflowers growing in it which I didn’t plant!?!?!?!)



The rain and wind has caused some casualties, my pepper plant was clean blown over snapping the stem, the rhubarb has taken a pounding - though there is new growth now coming from the centre



On a brief trip to the plot I also noticed my tiny tomato plants had been blown over too... tied them into the canes though with a little garden twine and they seem to have recovered quite well, and are now starting to flower -



The same cant be said for this onion though which seems to have taken a dislike to the constant drenching, splitting and demoting itself to compost heap!





I was going to wait till the end of the month to post some general pics, but with the amount of change in the last week heres some anyway....


Flowers round bath

Runner Beans

Undergardeners flower patch

Jap Onions

Lettuces

Blue Berries

Onions

Spring Onions

Parsnips

Apples

Carrot! (singular!) with an additional sowing made at the side of it...

`Sunflower Wall`

Leeks... STILL not quite the thickness of a pencil!!!!!!!!

Back to my roots

Was browsing through the Property pages on Friday and happened to stumble across this house for sale.
It is actually the house that I grew up living next door to (in the top picture the house to the right is where I lived with my Mum, Dad, brothers, sister, dogs, and multiple rabbits till I was about 16)

I was most interested in the pictures of the garden though, as this is where, at about the age of 8 or 9 I would stand in the garden peeking through the fence at Major Miller (Rt. Major, Duke of Wellingtons Regiment) tending his rows of veg. I figure the fence must have been lower back then - either that or I'd climbed on top of something to look over it! Can’t quite remember!

Back then there was no lawn or flower beds (that I recall - or at least not at the bottom of the garden) just a nice rectangle of soil full of different colours and shapes of veg!




Occasionally Major Miller would let me go round to his garden to `help` with some digging or planting. From this apprentice role I was promoted to having in my Mum and Dads garden a 6 foot x 4 foot veg patch down by the shed which I can actually remember my Dad measuring and digging out for me!



I'm sure I grew some carrots and lettuce in this space, and can remember a runner bean wigwam one summer... although this is 20 years ago. I know we also had 2 apple trees, rhubarb and a greenhouse in which we had tomatoes each year and occasionally peppers too - and I defiantly remember the hot smell it had when full of toms in summer or the smell of Jeves Fluid when the glass and staging had been washed down.

I can’t remember what ever happened to my veg patch - I guess I got interested in something else and it just got re-turfed...

Twenty years later though I'm now growing on a slightly larger scale, even if my 6x4 patch seemed big when I was little! Wonder if undergardener will retain happy memorys of playing on the Pellon Plot when he gets older...

Birthdays!

One noted thing about having an Allotment is that people never need to ponder for long over what to get you for your Birthday.... this year I got (Gardening related)...

· Edging Sheers - for home
· A new trowel - for home too since all my tools have been taken to the allotment!
· A years subscription to Gardeners World magazine
· An Encyclopaedia on Gardening
· An Automatic Greenhouse Roof Vent Opener
· Pennies – which will probably be spent on gardening things

…and loads of other great things too.

Also got permission of the Committee to have my greenhouse on the Plot!

Pond Progression

Just a couple of pics to show you how the pond construction is getting on...







Just need to keep on getting my stones from the G'friends Dads farm (huge piles of them to pick from) to keep on building the edges up and cover the liner where its been trimmed back - I moved the last batch in the back of the Company car... not a good idea!!! Deffinatly be getting the trailer out next time!

I've plonked two marginal `reed` type plants in, these will be potted on into a large kidney shape basket I've got, so should hopefully soon fill the bottom end, and also two bog plants down that end too. In the middle is a lily, and I'm just on the look out now for some bargian oxygenating plants and floating plants.

Plan is to have 50% + of the water covered, and looking `overgrown`

More to come soon... if it stops chucking it down!!!

Mid June

Just a couple of pics of how things are progressing on the Pellon Plot...


Second Early Potato's.. had a fumble round in the soil and got a couple of really nice new potatos out of this bed this week!


Couple of Gardeners Delight Tom plants... with the hot weather these really seem to have taken well and are now growing strong! All that is except for the middle one - which is dead! Might try (its hard) not to water these this year just to see how they do... they have a thick manure mulch on and get shade for part of the day. Ive been told that if you treat tomatos mean they taste much better????


The fruit bed has finally get some greenery in it! ... although this is mainly from the wall of Sunflowers I have planted (which you can actually make out in the pic now!) I was adding them up the other day and I have a total of 19 sunflowers growing on the allotment this year... all giant single ones!!! ... plus I gave a tray of six away, planted about 6 at home and still have approx 10 in flower pots waiting to be planted!!! mmm, maybe sowing 50 seeds was a little excessive!!!


Main crop potatos seem to have gone wild... these must be twice the size compared to last year!... although I have been watering (soaking) them this month once a week as it has been so hot and dry!


Little leeklings... still not quite `pencil thickness` but starting to grow now. I think I planted these a little too close though as I cant/am afraid to get my hoe in between them... still though, its quite relaxing hand weeding them (sad I know!!!)

Stawberrys turning a nice shade of red!


Sweetcorn with a courgette planted in the middle... its turned yellow and looks like its given up the ghost!


Direct sown flowers are all doing well now, and with a little growth on them its now easy to distinguish between weeds and plants. The Sunflowers here that undergardener sowed are twice the size of the pot grown ones... and I'm sure if I stand and watch them for long enough I'd be able to actually see them growing there shooting up so quick!!! Might beat my 7-8 foot ones from last year at this rate!


Runner beans are all planted out now (2 wigwams) and starting to climb the canes... just need to tie in the shoots to encourage them the right way a little


Brassica bed filling up, with another couple of sowings made at home... so this year I might not have 30 plants all ready at the exact same time!


Jap Onions all swelling nicley... been giving these a really good soaking one a week too.


Veg Bed... not much to see... although I do have carrots, spring onions, lettuce, parsnips, tomatos all in here...



Heres my carrots!!!!! Dont laugh MC55!!!!


Apples...


Pumpkin... still find it hard to belive this little thing can grow to a monster in only a few months!


`Shed Office` with the window box and tubs starting to come into flower


Tommy Tumbler getting its first flowers.

I have a POND!!!!

With Greenhouse construction placed on hold (hopefully short-term) I have been pondering on what to do with the area infront of the base.

I considered several possibilities... maybe just another veg bed... or a cold frame... but after careful consideration I have decided to go for a wildlife pond!

Bearing in mind that the undergardener is a four-year old some people may think this is not a good idea, however, I believe that the advantages to him in seeing nature far outweight the disadvantages. He will also be taught about the dangers of water and what not to do around it which is a good lesson to learn whatever his age.

Pond construction started Sunday afternoon, after a trip to the Garden Centre for a 10'x8' liner which cost about £14 quid. With little legs spending lots of time at the Plot with me I decided that I would not so much dig down into a pond... opting instead for building it up. This will allow him to kneel down to look into the pond for (hopefully) frogs etc, rather then leaning over and risking a dip! With the pond perimiter being in a box this also leaves me the option of contructing/sourcing a grid to cover it should it be required by the assosiation.



The pond has on three sides been surrounded by a `wooden box` five foot x four foot approx which in total is about 16 inches high, the deepest area being in the centre, with shelves around the whole perimiter which will be stacked up with stone and soil before the liner is trimmed to shape. I am quite lucky as I have a large and free source of stones to fill this up with... any excess soil I excavated was simply thrown over my potato bed (which luckly this year is right next to it!)



On the side nearest the greenhouse this area will be built up and heavily planted to allow easy access to wildlife... with plenty of areas and nooks to hide in, and an overflow to allow excess water to drain of in winter etc. I hope to plant perannials here which will grow quite high to stop little legs getting round this side!
This is the area chossen for the pond, where it will get plenty of sunlight, with a little shade offered once the greenhouse goes up.




Its now had several heaped shovels of soil thrown into it and has been left to settle down for a few days.

I know it currently looks like a big square box full of water... but once the plants and stones go in and start growing I promise it will look alot better... further updates soon!!!!

Greenhouse - Non Construction!!!

Weather this weekend was red-hot... reaching 26 degrees at times! Not ideal weather for hauling wheelbarrows full of bark chips up and down the paths but I managed to treat myself to a trailer full on Saturday morning and recover all the patchy areas on the Pellon Plot - infact for the total price of £8 I managed to re-do just about everything... with some left over too!!!

Looking very neat now... could even be tempted to enter the Allotment Competition at the beginning of July! I might not get anything for best produce... but I recon I could be in with a chance of neatest plot!






Greenhouse construction has currently been placed on hold... I'd called up at the Plot one evening last week to do a spot of watering, minding my own business when one of the guys from the plots at the top came up to my Plot - to cut a long story short turns out he is a `new` committee member and I (not realising I had to) had not wrote to the committee asking permission to place a greenhouse on the plot. Now I know and get on well with two of the committee members, who both know I'm putting a greenhouse on the Plot, as one of them especially was commenting on how nice my base looked!!!! It would seem that this guy took his role very seriously however, and to be honest quite annoyed (I could use stronger words) me at the way he demanded I wrote to `him` as if to get his personal approval!
Anyway, enough ranting... letter went in next day as such...

The Committee Members
The Pellon Allotment Association
Pellon

7th June 2007


Dear Committee Members,

I am writing to you in regards to gaining your approval to place a greenhouse on Plot 25B.

The greenhouse will be six-foot by six-foot, constructed of a manufactured aluminium frame and glazed with either safety glass or polycarbonate sheets. I intend to place this on a layer of paving slabs, secured to a breezeblock riser. The greenhouse will be placed where access can be gained to all sides without having to cross onto neighbouring plots and should cast minimal shade onto any other allotment but my own.

Should I in the future choose to leave the association I would be more then willing to remove the greenhouse and base to return the area to bare soil if required.

I await your instruction.

Yours sincerely,

I made sure I gave the letter to a different commitee member to the one who had complained... just awaiting there dessision now!!!

GREENHOUSE Construction - Part One!!!

For any avid readers of my Blog (if there are any!) you might remember me mentioning a while back that I had been donated a Greenhouse from my Grandma. Having been of work last week on Friday I finally managed to get over to my Mum and Dads house with the trailer and collect, with the help of the girlfriend, all the slabs they have had proped against the garage for the past 10 months!!! (hey, you cant rush these things!!!!) :)
Despite a few squeels from the girlfreind everytime she saw a spider or a slug we managed to lift them all into the trailer, get them back in one peice, and propped up against the compost heap at the plot!!!

So finally, after a long wait Greenhouse Constuction can get underway....

This was the bed I had ear-marked for the greenhouse, with the canes showing roughly where I planned to put it.



After a spot of measuring, and trying to work out how and where it would sit I decided it would be easiest to remove the wooden boards round the bed and flatten the whole area. The boards I lifted were put to good use though on the bed above being fixed on top of the existing ones to make it deeper and stop the soil spilling out everywhere!



With the boards lifted and the area flattened I decided to build the base up towards the veg bed above and towards the end of the plot at the back - figuring this would be two less glass sides that the Undergardener could get to!



With 5 bags of sand bought from B&Q slab laying and levelling for an 8x6 greenhouse started in earnest... and in the end I was really pleased with the results!







Here is version one, perfectly planned, levelled, and ready to recieve a 6x8 Greenhouse!

Spot the differance!!!

Yep, after carefully laying all the slabs for a 6x8 Greenhouse I actually decided to go and messure the Greenhouse I am moving..... 6x6!!!! (Dont laugh, its a bloke thing!!!)



So... 80% of the slabs re-lifted and layed... the one jutting out in the left hand side will be where I will stand a water barrel, and the two coming out of the middle is where the door will be.



I used 16 breeze blocks (85p each) which have been cemented onto the slabs, laid flat to give me a bit of give and take on sitting the frame onto them. I will them bolt the frame down to these once I have it sitting square. I've been contenplating painting the blocks black, as they might then soak up the heat from the day and release it at night?



So far looking quite good, infront of the base I will dig this area over and probably reboard it... or maybe (as undergardener had already started) a POND!!!!! No plans yet for when I'll be moving the greenhouse - but I'll post pics once I do!

Early June

Things are now moving at pace on the Pellon Plot, with the warm(ish) weather and rain everything seems to have taken of and is growing away nicley!

Main Crop potato's seem to have gone mad over the last few weeks... my last post you could only just see them popping there heads through the soil!

The begginings of apples... I know I should pull these of as it is a new tree and needs to concentrate on getting its roots down - but I just can't bring myself to do it!

Tumbling Tom in the hanging basket, with a could of Marigolds to keep it company...

My Red Hot Pokers by the bench looking stunning and covered in bee's, I also have some of these next to the shed too mixed in with herbs... really cheer the place up!

Second Early Potato's - I think next year I will not try these - just earlies and main crop! I'm running out of space fast, so I figure by planting earlies I will have dug and cleared these by the time I need the space for something else...

Onions and garlic... muct remeber to plant these closer next time to save on space again! All looking suprisingly good though, and should be ready to pull a few soon

Brassica Bed, with sprouts, cabbage (3 variaties!!!), cauliflower, sweedes, turnips... runner beans at the end, still a little space for a spot of succesional sowing in a month or so

Strawberries are covered this year... with some starting to turn red... (mmm)

Couple of flowers infront of the bath

1st plantings of Runner Beans... with a couple more plants at home waiting to go out later

Leeks... still tiny!

The Fruit Bed... which seems to have been a stunning failure! I got the plants from Aldi though in the spring and they werent looking in the best condition before they went in! Might need to treat myself to some new canes this Autumn. For this year though I have planted a row of about 10 Giant Single Sunflowers in the bed... fingers crossed if they all grow this should look quite stunning... watch this space! Still need to get some more woodchips for the paths!


Pumpkin Plant looking a little sickly after the cold snap at the Bank Holiday... I have planted the one I had at home next to it though so should still get a crop this summer! I've also planted a row of sunflowers (yes... more!) and Dahlias next to the path for a spot of summer colour!

General overview of the plot, Early Summer...

The Pellon Allotments

Proof if proof was needed that Allotments are back in vouge... here are some pics from 2005 when I took my Allotment on....compared with photos taken from the same spot this weekend... all together a much nicer, neater place to be!