The depression continues to depress, and I have had most of August off work sick. I haven’t spent as much time at the allotment as intended or planned as I have also started counselling and it is taking a lot of mental energy from me, and also I am trying to do other things like gardening at home, painting, crochet, watching movies etc. And we had a few days away on jollyhollybobs.
So! The August to do list was thus
· Dig the pond
· Paint half of the
wood (13 planks)
· Add shredded
paper and turn the compost
· Take off the old
polytunnel cover and cut it up to throw away
I haven’t dug the pond, but I have thought about it.
I painted half the timber with 3 coats of paint. The rest
will get done in September.
Haven’t added paper, haven’t turned compost, but have
thought about it.
Haven’t done anything to the polytunnel except cut flower
heads off the docks inside.
We did do a lot of blackberry picking, on my plot, mommas
plot, and other peoples plots as well as the rough bit on the track. We also
picked plums.
I did a lot of seed collecting of calendula, foxglove, cornflower, parsnip, and cosmos.
And I’ve made a start on painting!
I have bought another photo storage box to use for seeds, so
I spent a few hours sorting all my seeds out again and doing it better than I had
before.
The mason bees have been filling in holes in the new bee hotel that I thought they didn’t like. Made with offcuts of fence post and gravel board.
I have been putting out water troughs for wildlife and bees
because the weather has been very hot and dry, and I am yet to dig the pond.
The teasel bird feeders are growing great, I am going to
collect seed from some of them but leave most for the goldfinches. We also get
greenfinch and bullfinch at the allotment.
The worst part of the plot is keeping on top of the dock and
couch grass growth between the beds. It is a weekly job to keep it all strimmed
down. Sometimes I think about cardboard and bark chip but then I also think
about how much work it is to keep it topped up. Bark also harbours sluggos, and
grass offers better habitat for hoppity bugs and ants, which feeds the birds. So
grass wins.
I have written the master list of autumn winter jobs to get
done. It’s lots, but some are relatively small things like – move the bird feeder.
September to do list:
·
Finish painting the wood
·
Start prepping beds for winter. Weed, mulch, cover over. I want to
get most of the beds done this month, so that’s about 11 or 12 areas. Not much,
then!
·
Dig the pond
·
Fix the carrot bed
·
Dig and turn compost. I am planning to use the stuff at the bottom
to fill my beds when I’ve made them deeper with the painted timber, so I need
to turn it this month.
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| the brassica bed, apparently. |
