A posy of flowers from the cut flower patch
Much as I would have loved to have been wandering the cobbled streets of some Mediterranean town or sipping a cocktail somewhere glamorous, staring out to sea, there are some weekends when a girl has to put such plans on hold and get down to tackling those jobs she’s been putting off for weeks, if not months. The sort of jobs that get neglected in the hustle and bustle of busy lives or are pretty unappealing when the sun is shining, namely compost making, shed tidying and a trip to the tip.
It’s a hectic time of year, as Wellyman is studying for a degree, in his spare time, with the Open University. He’s coming towards the end of his third year, with essays and a project due in over the next couple of weeks, so whilst he was busy scribbling away it seemed the perfect time to get on top of the jobs that I haven’t been able to do because of all the rain.
My borlotti beans nearly ready for picking
After a rain sodden morning on Saturday I was pretty grumpy having had to listen to stories of the glorious sunshine and heat that were elsewhere but by 2 o’ clock the sun was finally shining and the plot beckoned. Loppers at the ready, I tidied up the mess left behind by the hedge butchering incident of the previous weekend. I wrestled with a few wayward bramble shoots and then turned my attention to the tayberry. I had thought it would be a real nightmare to remove this year’s fruiting canes and tie in the new growth, some of which was 10ft long and growing along the ground into my other beds. Fortunately, it didn’t prove to be as bad as I had expected. I had thought I would have to be swathed in protective clothing in case one of the thorny canes sprung back at me but I even managed to tackle it without gloves, which I’d forgotten to bring up with me. Gingerly, and somewhat painfully, I twisted the long, arching, and still very pliable canes into the support that was already there, tying them in place with some twine. Remarkably, I came away with only a few puncture wounds and scratches!
Celeriac remoulade in a couple of weeks, I think.
The next on the list was the compost. I’ve done very little to the compost heap this year. Visits to the plot have often been snatched in between spells of rain so that piles of plant debris have tended to be dumped on top of the heap without any work to make them more compostable. This untouched mountain of material had got so large that, rather than tackling it, I simply opened up another front of composting waste, depositing the old broad beans and peas on a pile next to the actual heap. It was starting to look a little bit of a mess and, if I actually wanted some compost from it, I really needed to give it some attention.
The loppers were a surprising good tool to chop up large pieces of plant material; I cut back my comfrey plants and added the leaves to the heap with some nettles that were growing around my tool storage area. I had a bit of rummage underneath and despite my neglect there was the lovely sight of some dark brown crumbly compost below the layers of the more recent additions. The heap is contained simply in one of the large sacks you get sand delivered in from a builders merchant, with 4 stakes at each corner and a couple of covers to put on top to stop it getting too wet. Of all the different types of compost receptacles I’ve used I have to say it is the simplest and the most effective. Although, I can’t claim any credit for the construction, as it was already on the plot when we took it over. It does show though, that all those different products marketed at us as the best way to make compost are probably unnecessary if you have the right spot for a rubble sack and some stakes.
I’m so chuffed with my Florence fennel which has been my nemesis in recent years.
Sunday morning was shed time. I had a clear out several months ago and had failed, again, to keep any sense of order or tidiness but one of the problems was that I had never actually got round to taking everything that had been bagged up to the tip. A third of the shed, and that’s a significant amount of floor space in my tiny little storage area was taken up by rubbish bags. Once these had been removed the shed wasn’t actually as bad as I had thought.
The final job was to add another line of wire support for my espalier apple. When we bought it in the spring it was two-tiered but when I was pruning it a few weeks ago I had spotted two branches that looked perfect to be trained out horizontally, to create a third tier. We’d picked up some hooks with a bolt on them from the hardware shop and Wellyman did the drilling. It’ll be a while before it has filled the space but already the apple tree has created a lovely screen between two parts of the garden.
Now my ‘to do’ list is looking a lot a shorter maybe I can find the time for a few cocktails, might have to be in the back garden though.
wellywoman 
I’m lost in admiration at what you have achieved in such a short time, I need help with all these jobs! Your Celeriac looks super, was it difficult to to grow?
No not at all. I started it off really early in February and then planted in out in early May. I think I might have been lucky though, by all accounts it doesn’t like to dry out. Now there hasn’t been any danger of that this year!
Good work WW! Christina
I’m impressed, those are the kind of jobs it is so very easy to keep putting off. I get to collect my free Anglesey Council compost bin tomorrow, which is just as well as we have already filled two, too much grass and too many things to remove and shred!! You mentioned the fancy compost bins you see advertised – I got all intrigued by a “host compost bin”, which apparently will turn out great compost in under a month, and cleverly designed so that you didn’t have to fill the whole thing in one go to get the heat working. I was quite excited until I saw the price – £165!!!!
Unfortunately, I fell for one of those tumbler ones. Pretty rubbish in my opinion. Not sure what to do with it now. Maybe I’ll just put leaf mould in it this autumn.
Well done Wellywoman! Your post is very inspiring; I have just taken over a new allotment and I’m at the weed battling stage. Also some neglected blackcurrants and gooseberries to be tackled. I’m thinking green manure will be the first thing I plant.
Hi Claire, Thank you! It feels a bit daunting initially, especially when you’re faced with so many weeds. At least you can use the autumn and winter to prepare the plot. If your weeds are really bad it might be better to remove as many of the really big perennial weeds, cover the areas with some thick cardboard and mulch on top with compost. This should kill off the weeds and come spring you’ll have a really lovely soil underneath. In areas where the weeds aren’t too bad green manure is great. I’ve found putting in paths of weed membrane and they bark chippings has really helped me. I’m not compacted wet soil and the path areas are one less place to have to weed. They give the plot some structure so even when I’ve been away for 2 weeks and the beds are quite weedy the whole plot actually still looks quite tidy. Good luck with it all.
Soooo impressed with your fennel. I’ve had no luck growing it, ever. Now we’ve moved into town and I’m going to be doing a lot more container based veg growing it’ll be interesting to see how I get on. I just discovered your blog whilst wandering around online (procrastinating and meant to be writing something) and love it. Hello!
Hi Rachael, Welcome! This year has been my first year with any success. I’ve only got 5 bulbs though so I won’t exactly be self-sufficient. I think that all the rain is helping, as they don’t like to dry out. I’ve grown lots in container before I got my plot and still have pots of various bits and pieces in the back garden. It’s surprising how much you can grow this way.
We harvested the first florence fennel bulb a couple of weeks ago, delicious – though a little goes a long way! Our celeriac look more leaf than root this year, though I haven’t looked very closely for a while *crosses fingers*; your is looking great.
It’s so good that compost gets on and does its own thing quite well, ours is terribly neglected for long stints of time!
I’m so chuffed with the celeriac I almost want to stroke them when I see them 🙂
A very full day of garden work! And wow your Fennel!
I’m so pleased with the fennel. There are only 5 plants so not exactly self-sufficiency but I’m eagerly awaiting the tasting.
Goodness me you have been busy. So much so that I feel slightly guilty at how little I’ve done lately apart from harvesting and taking photos. As for my ‘to do’ list no comment!
Enjoy your cocktails they’re well deserved, and surely the garden is the ideal place to drink them. Cheers! xx
Don’t feel guilty Flighty. I’ve got a busy few months coming up so wanted to get on top of things before autumn draws in *shudders*.
It would be nice in the garden but I refer you back to previous posts related to barking dogs, trampolines, strimmers …. 😉 WW
Wow, you’ve been busy, you put me to shame. I’ve just bought a tayberry, I must admit that it looks quite spikey so you did well to get away with only a few scratches. We don’t have a garage so our shed is permanently messy. There’s definitely too much stuff for the size of shed we have.
We don’t have a garage either. So the shed has to do many functions – log store, recycling hub, shed. It had got to the point where I could only just get in the door again. 😉 It’s vicious my tayberry, wish I’d bought the thorn free version! Give yours plenty of space even if you train the canes to twist around it’s surprising how long the canes can get.
Your fennel is looking great, I remember you mentioned that you struggled to grow it last year. Thats a great success. My celeriac was completely eaten by slugs which was a real disappointment when you start them off so early and nuture them to just see a few stumps left in the ground. Will try again next year!
Thanks Annie, although I’ve spotted a photo of your own fennel and it looks pretty good too. Sorry to hear about the celeriac. Mine were quite big plants when I planted them out so I think that’s one of the reasons why they left them alone.