Manic Sunday

Sunday morning was a little hectic.

Steph and I put together a new bathroom cabinet which was a bit of a nightmare really.

Hundreds of screws and drill holes later we had finished the base unit but it had to be attached to the wall because it only had two legs for the front of the unit to stand on.

Another hour on and we finally finished that job and got cracking with some others.

I put a few pictures up in the bathroom and one of those swivel mirrors.

Then I fixed the TV cable in Max's bedroom and put up curtain poles and threaded his new curtains.

Tidied up and loaded the car with his old carpet and the old draws from the bathroom for the allotment.

After all the domestic chores were finished, I was given permission to pop over the plot for a couple of hours.

The old carpet won’t be used for a while so I dumped it in my gravelled raised bed which is empty at the moment as I'm not brining any plants on.

Then I redug over the bean area again removing even more bell bind roots. I emptied out a bag of manure and spread that over. Think I'm going to pant more onions in this little area. You can't have too many I guess.

After that I dug over the raised bed where the cucumbers and courgettes were and planted a packet of Sutton Broad beans. It said on the packet to wait for November. I personally can’t see a problem doing it now so in they went while I had the time and daylight on my side.

Railway Steve gave me a load of those ten litre plastic water bottles you get in Water dispensers. I sawed the end off these and placed them over some of my winter lettuces. I would need three times as many to cover all my plants but some are better than none.

I used these to cover half my peppers this year and there was a marked difference in the yields and plant growth between those left to the elements and those covered in these mini greenhouses. I’ve also seen Ralph had used those plastic mini tunnels to protect his peppers and chilli's with fantastic results so I will make some of those over the winter months in my garage.

hen I had finished doing that I moved onto the brassica's removing the yellowing leaves which should help reduce the possibility of disease or infection. Some of my sprouting broccoli has begun to produce small amounts of buds and the Calabrese continues to provide side shoots which in my opinion are better than the main head they cropped a few months back. I'm not sure how many more side shoots the Calibrese will provide or when to dig them out. There doesn’t seem to be much advise on this when I Google it. I'm wary of leaving them in for too much longer in-case they start to get infected with some brassica disease that may carry over to future crops so they may get composted shortly. I'm sure it won't harm to wait for another couple of meals worth and you cant seem to buy them at all so I'll keep an eye on them and if any of the Calibrese start to look iffy then I will shred the lot and compost them.

Last of all the jobs I had been putting off all day and for many weeks for that matter. The shed was in a right two and eight and something had to be done about it. So I pulled everything that was strewn across the floor and brushed down the floor which was covered in dried mud and dust. Then I got the drawers I'd brought over from the house and set about finding places for everything again. It only took about half an hour to get everything ship shape again. Doubt it will last though as I have a habit of throwing everything back into the shed before I leave for the day and the kids.........well don't even go there.

Roast chicken was on the menu so I picked some Brussels, dug some Parsnips, took the last of my cabbages and a larger swede before making my merry way home for some well earned grub.