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A photo from the local Horticultural Society's Spring Show
Good weather all day – Vic came over the allotment with me and sorted out the guttering on the potting shed, so that it feeds into a water butt. We went to B&Q to buy some brackets and union pieces. Would have been simple, had the stock not been jumbled together in one location. In the end we took all the stock out of the location and put it into a spare trolley, sorting it as we went to find the bits we wanted, then dumping the rest back on the shelf. The process took a good 20 minutes, and the Express Self-Serve checkout failed to live up to its name when the pieces were too light to register on the scanned items scales.
Back at the allotment he dug a hole 18 inches deep and we filled it with stones, to act as a soakaway should the water butt overflow (it has a clever little valve system to redirect the water so you can pipe it away where you choose). Whilst he was digging, he called me across:
“You’ll never guess what I’ve found!” We tend to think of egg-shells as being fragile – but since I’ve been working the allotment, I’ve discovered just how tough that stuff is. Instructions for a good compost heap recommend that you crush egg shells before composting. At first I had literally just squeezed them in my hand and dumped them in the composter. When I started using some of the compost, I discovered that the egg shells remained more or less as they had been when I crushed them and put them in there. Even so, it was a surprise to find a nearly intact egg shell at the bottom of the hole. It must have been there a few years without breaking down. These days I leave them out to dry then grind them to a fine dust with a pestle and mortar.
Whilst Vic was doing the guttering, I was digging over one of the beds ready for summer planting. The Horticultural Society secretary came over and asked if she could photograph me as I worked, as she has to put in a report on the allotments to the Council and wanted to show that allotment-holders aren’t all retired men. Far from it! Apparently it’s really trendy to have an allotment these days – the ‘must have’ yuppie accessory. Don’t know about that, but I do know I like eating the fresh veg I’ve grown.
Back at the allotment he dug a hole 18 inches deep and we filled it with stones, to act as a soakaway should the water butt overflow (it has a clever little valve system to redirect the water so you can pipe it away where you choose). Whilst he was digging, he called me across:
“You’ll never guess what I’ve found!” We tend to think of egg-shells as being fragile – but since I’ve been working the allotment, I’ve discovered just how tough that stuff is. Instructions for a good compost heap recommend that you crush egg shells before composting. At first I had literally just squeezed them in my hand and dumped them in the composter. When I started using some of the compost, I discovered that the egg shells remained more or less as they had been when I crushed them and put them in there. Even so, it was a surprise to find a nearly intact egg shell at the bottom of the hole. It must have been there a few years without breaking down. These days I leave them out to dry then grind them to a fine dust with a pestle and mortar.
Whilst Vic was doing the guttering, I was digging over one of the beds ready for summer planting. The Horticultural Society secretary came over and asked if she could photograph me as I worked, as she has to put in a report on the allotments to the Council and wanted to show that allotment-holders aren’t all retired men. Far from it! Apparently it’s really trendy to have an allotment these days – the ‘must have’ yuppie accessory. Don’t know about that, but I do know I like eating the fresh veg I’ve grown.
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