A fruit cage at last!

 Ever since we've had the allotment I've struggled with finding a secure way of netting the fruit. Last year I thought I'd netted the blueberries well but arrived on the plot one day to find one of the plants completely stripped of its fruit. Throwing a net over might deter the birds for a while but they will soon find a way in if they really want that juicy fruit.

We've been working on the fruit bed for a couple of years and now it's finished and planted up my dream has been  to have a proper fruit cage. It would have to be a home made one as we try not to spend too much money on the allotment.

The last few weeks as I've seen the fruit slowly ripening I knew we'd better get something in place before we lost the fruit again. As usual Richard came to my rescue with his DIY and recycling skills.

The fruit cage was put together in a morning using the old net brassica frames which had been used on the raised beds on Helen's old allotment. These had originally been made using recycled wood, so they were put back into use again. Held together with string and a few screws it may not stay put for very long, but as long as it's in place until the fruit can be picked that's fine.

The blueberry bushes are on the other side of the bed to the rest of the fruit so had to be netted separately, but there were some smaller net frames which could be used. It's always good to be able to reuse and recycle.

We can now watch our fruit ripening and hopefully we won't have to share it with the birds. I'm also looking forward to some jam making sessions.

Sorting out the pond

We seem to be having a lot of projects at the allotment this year. Or perhaps that's how I view these things that we do. Some of them might be just projects but some of them are real challenges too.  So our latest project challenge is the allotment pond, and it really is a challenge.

When we first took on Plot 8 we were pleased that it had a pond, although we might not have noticed that it had a pond if the allotment officer hadn't told us. The whole of the pond area was taken over by irises and  weeds as well as all the rubbish which you get with a new allotment.

There's a pond here amongst the weeds

We were delighted when the frog spawn appeared, but sad when the pond dried up and we realised that there was a hole in the liner. So we knew that we would need to sort the pond out as soon as we had sorted the allotment out. It's a job which has been put off a few times because of more important allotment work and also because we knew it was going to be a big job and we needed to work out how to do it. But finally this year we got started.

Richard and Helen digging out the weeds

 We decided (well my husband did ) to get rid of the old pond but put the new pond in a different place. We just wanted a wildlife pond and it didn't need to be big, so as we are into recycling and reusing things we recycled and reused an old galvanised tin bath which we had found on the allotment and which was quite sound--no holes. The area where we have placed it is a fairly wet boggy area so we can also plant up a bog garden. We are also needing some space to put a small greenhouse or polytunnel and the area where the old pond was would be ideal.

The new pond

The first job was to dig out some of those weeds and plants which had taken over. That is a big job and we still haven't cleared them all.  But the old pond is almost cleared away to just a hole in the ground and the new pond is in place.  As I said earlier this is a big  challenge so we are still working on it. There is much still to be done but it's good to see the progress we've made so far. I've been collecting plants together for the pond and bog and I can't wait to get them planted up.

A new cold frame out of old materials

Our collection of wood and other materials continues to be recycled to make things for our allotment and my husband is enjoying the challenge of building things  for as little cost as possible. After all, allotments are about not spending much money.

Last year he built a temporary cold frame out of  bricks and an old shower screen. It was lovely, but sadly had to be dismantled, we needed the bricks for other projects. We have a cheap plastic Aldi cold frame on plot 10b but it will not be big enough for hardening off all our seedlings. So my latest request has been to build a cold frame for plot 8.

Faced with a pile of wood and the instruction to spend as little as possible, this is what he came up with. It's made using wood from the sheds he demolished when we took the plots on.  The frames on the top opening doors are made from pallet wood.  The hinges came from the doors which he made the shed out of.  The polycarbonate was left over when he built the polytunnel.

That's a cheap cold frame.

Taking down the shed

For the last 10 weeks since we took on our new allotment this massive metal clad shed has dominated the site.  Our plans were to demolish it and put raised beds in its place.The demolition started last week.

We had to empty it first of the stuff which the previous tenant had left in. And there was quite an assortment of stuff, some of it was useful, like rolls of polythene sheeting (I'm thinking of how many cloches we can make), bags of nails, plant pots, tools, buckets (always useful around an allotment).  Of the less useful stuff there was an old aquarium, a hamster cage, a pair of stirrups and a bridle and  lots more.  A few trips to the local recycling centre were needed.

So for the last two weeks bit by bit, section by section my husband has been taking the shed down. As he worked at this he was able to see how much of the shed he would be able to recycle around the plot. The metal panels can be used to clad the fences to keep out weeds from neighbouring plots.What we have left, well there is a waiting list of neighbouring allotmenteers who want to take it off our hands.  The wood from the floor will be used to make raised beds. Some of the wooden framework is going to be made into a polytunnel/greenhouse. The many bricks underneath the floor supporting the shed will be used around the plot.

Finally the shed was no more.  We are now left with the plot looking like a scrapyard/building site and an amazing amount of work still to do. But we are encouraged by our allotment neighbours who keep telling us how well we are doing, it helps to keep us going.

Slow progress at the new allotment

We are making progress at our new allotment although it feels very slow. I think that is because we are just impatient to get some growing space. We do realise that it is going to take a long time to get it all sorted. And it's only 3 weeks since we started. So bearing that in mind we are actually doing quite well.

My husband, who is the engineer of the team, has built the compost bins using wood which has been left on the allotment car park for everyone to use.

My daughter, son-in-law and I have cleared weeds from several beds  as well as around the outside of the plot, as we were told by the allotments officer they were our responsibility too. We have also cleared out and cleaned two of the sheds which we are going to keep, the other two sheds will eventually be demolished.

One of the difficulties we have encountered as well as the weeds is the heavy wet sticky soil, the stones, and the drainage problem which became apparent last week after the torrential rains.  My husband is now building two raised beds at the front of the plot and putting in drains using many of the stones we have found.

 There is also an awful lot of rubbish lying around the plot, wood, paving slabs, bricks etc. Some of it is useful stuff which we will  keep and can use in many ways around the plot. My husband found scaffolding boards in the big cabin, he is using them to make the raised beds and the stones are being used to make the drains. We have found tools--a big lump hammer and two huge scythes ( useful for chopping all those weeds down with). I'm trying to make a storage area next to one of the sheds for all this reusable stuff. It's quite a treasure trove of recyclable materials.

Despite all these problems we love going to work on the allotment and every time we go we make a little bit more progress. Our main priorities for growing at the moment are to create a permanent growing space for the fruit which we will bring from our old allotment in the autumn and another space for the winter veg--purple sprouting broccoli, kale, swede, spring cabbage and leeks etc.

These are the next areas to be cleared. It's a bit daunting.