| Plot 17 – The Earthly Comforts Garden Recovering Plot 17 |
| The Bits and The Bots of The Plot Diary 15th September – 04th October |
| I knew when l first took 17 on board that there would be more complex tasks than others and, if not pure hardship, most assuredly more challenging tasking chores. The areas l identified as being more consuming on time were Polly, Daisy and the Rascals. Whilst composting may appear hard to some, it’s a genuine love of mine, so it doesn’t take long [in my eyes] to sort out. The lesser jobs of the plot were the Cottage Garden area, Runner, Strippers and the Hedge. Admittedly the latter took me five hours tops to trim and prune back, but that is because l didn’t use a battery strimmer but only hand secateurs, which is time-consuming anyway. Of course, l spent longer again de-leafing those cut branches by hand. The hedge was wildly overgrown and, once trimmed back, awarded the plot an additional 40 feet in length and 3 feet depth useable space. I can’t knock that. It is currently 15 feet in height and will need someone atop a ladder cutting that down to a more manageable 12 feet. A housing estate is beyond our hedge, so we need to have a suitable height between ‘us and them. I know Suze wanted to tackle 2 of the 3 Strippers, and whilst l have sorted the strip next to Daisy, l have left the others for her to sort out next week when she is back from grandparenting duties. Runner took no time at all, it was a more manageable length of the earth to sort out due to it being sheltered from the worst of the sun by the hedge, so it was a simple case of hoeing to a depth of 4″ and then to keep raking the fallen leaves off it. It wasn’t cracked or filled with hardened soil clods, which was a blessing. The Cottage Garden is 75% done. All that’s left is tidying the shed and hoe around the edges a bit to take the weeding out. But l think the serious hoeing of two weeks ago hoed me back a bit myself. Especially with the pain l have experienced in the last week, back and hip-wise. The Rascals took a few days to finalise, but that is for the final episode of this particular mini-clearing series and will be published this coming Monday. |
| The Runner – Chicken Coop and run Above Runner 12th September |
| Runner Started and Completed 23rd September |
| The Hedge Diary 22nd September |
| The hedge trimmed and cut back by hand from start to finish. |
| The Strippers Diary 23rd September – 07th October |
| Cottage Garden Diary 30th September – 07th October |
| There is a lot to the Cottage Garden area as it stands in the basic format. It comprises the shed and surrounding area, the standing base [concrete slabs], the rainwater harvesting operation and two raised beds, although one is without sides. The gladioli were removed from the unsided raised bed, and the plot they were on was hoed and depebbled like everything else on plot 17. It was then raked even and matted, and pegged. This area is still to be worked on heavily. It isn’t hard work, but as the shed looks like the small coal shuttle shed of Willow used to look, l need to work some magic here to make it less cluttered. I need to relay the concrete slabs as there is to be a garden tool caddy on here that will take the wheelbarrows, some metal bins, and the tall tools. So the area needs to be flat and level. Guttering is to be affixed to the roof, and new water butts are to be attached. The current water tubs need to be resited around the shed or perhaps better still to be sited around the plot and manually filled with over surplus waters from the main harvest area. The shed’s roof has never been used as a harvesting station before due to the presence of online water onsite. Suze and l prefer not to use tap water, but the plants appreciate more natural watering. So over the coming winter, we plan to up the water capacity storage around the shed. In addition to the small tubs you see, there will be ‘scatter bins – 80-litre capacity bins’ in surplus for rainwater collection. The Polytunnel will also act as a storage area backup regarding shelving and the such like, and this, too, will ease the pressures on the small shed. But this does need some serious work performed here. I believe this will become a more dedicated herb garden, and there will also be large pottery plants with ornamental flowering. This is still very much a project in process. |
| I will see you again with another episode of Recovering Plot 17 tomorrow. Thanks for reading. |
Earthly Comforts 
Lot of work done. It’s looking so tidy now. Well done
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes it’s certainly getting there, thanks Sadje 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are most welcome
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very nice, indeed, Rory! It’s amazing how much you’ve accomplished so quickly. 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Betty – it’s mostly done now, l managed to get a few hours down there today for the first time in a while which felt good 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great! I realized it had been bothering you. Nothing like digging in the dirt to put a fellow to rights, hey? 😊 Seriously, good medicine for an Earth sign, Rory.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oy vay very much so 🙂
We earthen signs need a handful of dirt like a child needs a handful of candy to stay happy 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s so true, Rory! 😊 And don’t you just love the fragrance of fresh turned earth? Also, the pungency of leaf mold as you walk through the woods, especially after a rain?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes Betty, these are smells l have come to love and appreciate the older l get 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s one of the good things about aging, learning to appreciate the truly important things in life. 😊 Funny thing is, it gets simpler as you go along.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes l agree with that also, we tend to over complicate it when younger as we strive in excellence and then as we get older we simply think why fix what wasn’t broken ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So much hard work, your putting my garden to shame. This winters project is to try to repair the damage caused by the moles to the lawn. It’s like a minefield.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I read somewhere Gary that if you put a plastic bottle onto a short stick and stick a few in the moles mounds they noise caused by the vibration annoys and scares them a lot and drives them away?
Might be worth a shot.
LikeLike