6th May 2019 - Clearing the Greenhouse (includes pic from WNGD)

I have a greenhouse in the garden at the house but for a little while it's been used as a bit of a dumping ground.  I decided I wanted to move it to 86 and Mr L said that if I clear it he will move it to the allotment for me and so this weekend I set about clearing it.  

It's amazing how much stuff was in there; I found some tomato halos and some big pots that I'd previously planted tomatoes into.  I had huge amounts of cardboard that I'd saved and has now been moved to 86 ready for my new beds.   I also found the capillary matting that I had on the staging, which is still in really good condition and with the plastic sheeting underneath, which means that you don't have to have trays to put your plants into.  In the interest of reduce, re-use, recycle I won't be throwing it away as it's in good condition and so I'll take it up to the plot and see if I can utilise it on my staging to reduce the amount of plastic trays I need.

This weekend was World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD).  For those who don't know WNGD is 'celebrated' on the first Saturday in May and was set up with no particular political agenda although it is a celebration of the human body.  We live in a world where everything is airbrushed and 'normal' is some model who looks like she's never seen a pie, never mind eaten one!  I feel like it's important to have body confidence, whatever your body looks like.  I set up my camera in the polytunnel (on top of a tub, on top of a bag of gravel, on top of a bag of compost) and prayed that my allotment neighbour didn't turn up or he'd get the shock of his life!  I was super brave and shared the unedited pic on one of my Facebook pages; most of the comments were really lovely and positive with only a couple of nasty/miserable comments.  I also got 1 person sending me a private message, the message itself wasn't rude or unacceptable but I did make it clear that it wasn't OK for someone to message me on the back of me participating in WNGD.

On 85 I had already planted out one set of peas (Tom Thumb dwarf peas) a couple of weeks ago.  It has been quite cold so they haven't really come on very quickly, which is a shame because the pigeons have been at them and they're looking a bit sad.  Today I planted out some Mange Tout (on the wigwam closest to the camera).  I had loads of them and so I added an obelisk in between the wigwams and planted an extra 4 plants against that.  I still have about 12 more plants so if the pigeons get to these I'll still have some to replace them.  I've also got a whole tray of meteor peas to go out next weekend, I'm hoping that by staggering putting them out I'll have a succession of peas throughout the summer.  I have got room for at least one more obelisk (and maybe two) in this bed.  I have also planted some Ambassador peas in the polytunnel when everything was being eaten by the mice and I didn't think I'd have enough - now I'll have too many!!

I have now ordered boards for the beds in 86 so I'm confident that I'll have the built and productive very soon.  I can't wait to get them going, I have potatoes left over from planting in 85 and, as I've mentioned above, I'll have additional peas available.  I don't know that I'll plant any brassicas because I don't have protection for them from the butterflies, but I do have the fruit trees that I need to find homes for.  I have a small bed that I have considered using just for the blueberries.  I will be able to easily fill it with ericaceous compost and construct some netting to keep the birds off them.  I am planning on using my blue piping as supports, because the bed is small it should raise the netting up high enough to keep the birds at bay.

Until next time...
Happy Gardening x