16th February
After work on a bright, warm and dry day I visited the
allotment. It was with a due sense of purpose and steely determination that I
stepped out of the car armed with boots, saw, gloves, screws, spade,
rechargeable drill and clearance for a later dinner time to enable me to begin
the task of making the raised beds. Through contacts of my Dad, we have some
brand new timber, umpteen feet long for the purpose. As always, as it seems to
me, there was a slight hitch. The wood was only 4 inches wide. I toyed with the
idea of leaving it at that versus doubling up to make an 8 inch wall. In trying
out a single piece, it was obvious that after allowing for the fact that what I
have at present is a sunken bed, I would only have 2 inches clear of ground
level if using only one board, so 2 it was. That meant extra time sawing batons
to make joining beams and screwing them together onto the wood – 3 per double
beam, then joining 2 doubled sections lengthwise then eventually putting on one
end piece, and frankly I just ran out of my extended time to finish the other
end. Time-wise I could have made 2 complete frames in the afternoon if the wood
was 6 inches wide. It also means I need even more wood.
On a brighter side, I stocked up on sweet bell pepper
plug plants. They were £1.99 for a box of 4 plugs so I bought 3 boxes of red
peppers and 1 of yellow. £7.96 spent.
 |
| Exbury Gardens, Hampshire |
17th February
As the council collect our green waste bags tomorrow,
I set about snipping up the sycamore branches that were cut down last week. Why?
Well, it is well known that legally, if your plants infringe a neighbour’s
property they have full liberty to cut them at the point of entry into their
property or air space but that it remains the property of the person from whose
garden it grew so has to be deposited back over the boundary. Add to this
information the concern my neighbour has that a branch or 2 of my tree hovers
about 4-5 feet above his flat roofed shed and that it will, at any time now,
pierce the roof and run amok with his building, and you have the requirement
for him to ask me how I would like my tree trimmed. I kept to the law and said
‘at the boundary line’, and he kept to the law and put 3 branches over my fence
for me to sort out. I can imagine he will soon be asking me for the larger
diameter wood for his wood burner. It may seem from this that I have a fraught
relationship with ‘him next door’ but this is far from the case. We have a good symbiotic relationship of paying each other with gifts of kind that
would make us both a good deal of cash were it to be reduced to such a lowly
level. It’s strange really, with a few of our neighbours how it is a case of
‘one good turn deserves another’ in that there has to be pay back. I’m quite
happy to lend a hand or do a job for free as a friend, because that is what
community/friendship/neighbourliness is all about – why do we have to keep
count? It would become pretty obvious if someone was taking it to extreme and
always taking and never giving. Anyway, this particular gentleman and his wife are good neighbours and
certainly his professional carpentry and building skills have done us well, and
they look out for us, especially when I’m at work and door-to-door sales people
come calling (those blood sucking non-producers I mentioned in last years’
journal).
18th February
No gardening today, but I did notice that 3 garlic
shoots are now coming through the soil in their tray. This means I must crack
on with those raised beds. Elsewhere in the garden, things are looking like
spring is coming. The myriad shoots of bluebells, crocuses, daffodils and
tulips are looking fine and healthy and not suffering from the 2 days of snow
we had a few weeks ago – yes, for once we actually had 2 inches of snow! There
are about half a dozen bright yellow crocuses in bloom, there are buds on the
roses and on the weeping willow and on the sycamore – I noticed them as I
trimmed the thinner branches off yesterday. It brings to mind the fact that I
must get a move on and wash the remaining pots and get final preparations in
order for the start of the sowing season.
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