Hedgehogs, Gardeners Presentation Evening, Homebrew and lots of seeds!

 Finally, a few days off and the weather has been good! Apologies for the recent dearth of posting to the blog, but as any who have an allotment or veg patch will agree, this time of year is about harvesting and then dealing with all the produce to ensure you maximise its usefulness! Rest assured, we've not been idle, far from it, the harvests are coming in aplenty, the bees are producing plenty of honey (that also has to be sorted out, extracted, filtered, settled and jarred)! On top of that we've also had the Trafford Gardeners Presentation Evening to prepare for (the site had to put in a tray of fruit and veg and set it up, which Pat, Sarah and I did yesterday), plus next years seeds to get (in the Wyevale 50p seed sale of course), onion sets to procure, homebrew wine to get started and of course work too!

I'm actually on holiday this week (although had to spend Monday afternoon in a Training Coordinators Meeting wth the other cluster training coordinators from the area, and had a Managers Meeting to attend on Tuesday), so a chance to do a bit of shopping and get some stuff sorted!

 Monday morning before my afternnon meeting we decided that as the Wyevales 50p seed sale had just started that we needed to go and stock up on those seeds that we'd run out, in order that we kept our spending to a minimum and maximised our seed choices! A happy hour or two was spent sat in deckchairs going through the sale buckets........... although I didnt expect to spend quite so much! £59.50 later we left with 119 packets of seeds! Other shoppers were looking at our trolley in amazement, though I cant personally see why! If they had 2 allotments, and anted to maintain a good spread of varieties of each type of crop, then the more types of seed that you have, the more safeguarded you are against any particular crop having a failure!

We recently decided )after sampling some of Dave's homebrew Rhubarb wine (at the plot BBQ) and having been to a talk at the Stockport BBKA about making your own mead), that perhaps it would be a good idea to start making our own homebrew again. We've both done it in the past, but hadnt done it for years, so after being given the inclination we decided that now was the time! So, after Wyevales we popped out to the Homebrew shop in Stockport, a few bits n bobs to procure to enable us to start making homebrew again, although we'd already got demijohns and had recently got hold of 3 x 5gallon brewing containers (from freecycle), we were lacking some of the bungs, corks, air locks and other sundries, so a quick trip down there sorted most of our needs! Along with everything we needed we also decided to start off with a homebrew Elderflower Wine kit, as for a first batch it would be good if we had at least a good chance of making something nice, so that was duly started yesterday!

Its bubbling away nicely now (and before you say anything, the kit wine does say to leave as it is for 3 days before you top it up to a full gallon, so I'll be topping it up as per instructions on Satrday)! We also bought some dried elderflowers, so we can get a batch of homemade (rather than kit) elderflower wine on the go too, then we can compare the 2 and see what we prefer! I'm also going to try and harvest some Elderberries over the next few days, so we can get a bacth of that on the go, and then once we've extracted the uncapped honey from the wax trimmings from the apiaries we should have enough honey for us to make 5 gallons of mead!

This must make us sound like raging alcofrolics, which we definitely arent, but if we make something thats drinkable, then not only will it help us save money, but also will let us use any surplus crops and perhaps give us something that we can share with friends and family!

So, as yesterday (Wednesday) was the date for the Trafford Gardeners Presentation Evening, Pat, Sarah and I  agreed to meet up at the plot at lunchtime to harvest some produce for the show bench and see whether we could hold up our honour amongst the other allotment sites of Trafford! We managed to put together 2 trays, 6 types of veg on each (as per the rules of the comp) in the stated quantities. It sounds easy, but when you're looking for 3, 6 or 8 of any specific type of veg that are as similar as possible and free from any blemishes, its a lot harder than it looks! The tray to the right of the piccy features 3 sweetcorn, 6 spuds, 8 runner beans, 3 onions and 6 toms from our plot (along with 6 french beans from Pat's plot) and the tray on the left features 3 of our turnips, then an assortment of other veg from various plots on Mos View! We kept it simple (as per the instructions / rules), but were amazed when we saw some of the trays from other sites!

As you can see, the standards of produce was amazing, and we knew fairly quickly that we weren't going to win (even tho our entry was exact to the rules and some of the others certainly didnt follow the rules exactly), but never mind, its the taking part that matters! The tray to the left with the 2 cauli and 1 squash was the first prize winner, and the tray to the right with the peppers and butternut squash was 2nd.

Some of the other trays were also excellent!

Whilst we were harvesting the produce for the show Pat noticed this yound hedgehog, sat sunning himself!

He had a small injury to his right ear, and was being bothered by the flies, so after checking he was ok, we decided to move him away from the flies by taking him to Pat and Colin's hedgehog house (they've had it for a few years and its not been used yet), but on showing him the entrance he decided he didnt like it, so took off at a fair click up the path towards our plot! A few minutes later I looked around for him, only to find..........

.................. that he'd decided that our hedgehog house was far more to his liking! A few seconds after we took this piccy, he turned round and went inside! Lovely!

So, after taking the hedgehog pictures and setting up the trays for the Gardeners Evening we went our separate ways to get ready for the night, and met up again at the Gardeners Evening!

There were 7 of us from Moss View who managed to turn up, to the venue, Flixton Ex-Servicemans Association, where the coucil liason, Janet had done a fantastic job decorating the large function room! There were piccies of plots, plotholders and other related pictures all over, must have been over 900 pictures on display, all at least A4 size.... even the piccy of the rabbit I managed to take a few months ago was on display!

After an intro from the Head of Services for Trafford MBC the local Mayor gave a speech, then the awards part began, with all those who had managed to earn a Very Highly Commended Certificate called up to receive a framed picture of their plot and a certificate from the mayor, where they had their picture taken for the local newspaper! There were about 24 VHC's for the plots (out of 1400 plots), of which only 3 went to allotmenteers who were running 2 plots, and these 3 got a big round of applause! Lee was the 3rd of them to be called up (as the plots are in his name), and as my name hadnt been called, I stayed firmly sat down! Lol!

After that was a talk by a locla wildlife expert (about encouraging wildlife onto allotments), then a break for a buffet, followed by a Gardeners Question Time session and the raffle! Amazingly we won a prize in the raffle, of a Spear and Jackson Stainless Steel Ergonomic Spade (10 yr guarantee!) Overall we had a good night, it was great to see Lee receive such a big round of applause (I think he was the youngest person in the room to get a VHC, and certainly the only non retired person to get 2 VHC's, 1 for each plot!

So, today being Lee's last day off we had a few bits n bobs to do before meeting Pat and Colin at the plot for lunch and to do the bee inspections! First off we went to Wilkinsons in Eccles to see if they had any tannin extract (the elderflower wine recipe in CJ Berry suggests using it) and to see if they had any (they didnt, but after talking with a friend, he suggested using a strong cup of cooled earl grey tea - without milk of course - as this contains plenty of tannin!), and also to see whether they had any onion sets yet! We left with a few more homebrew supplies and 2 types of  onions sets, with 50 sets in each packet!

On the way back home we popped into Parkers Garden Center as they were advetising the new fruit trees had arrived, so after a good look around we ended up with another packet of 100 onion sets and a dual plum tree, 2 varieties of plum grafted onto a single root stock! This will be planted into the bed behind it on the picture, the one with the lavender in it, which is what will be growing beneath the plum tree!

With the purchase of the plum tree and all the seeds on Monday, we've actually begun spending for next years balance sheet, the plum was £13 and the seeds £59.50, so next years balance sheet is at £72.50 currently, with the allotment rent and subs (usually about £100 or so) and the seed spuds (£20 or so) plus compost (£20 or so) and a load of manure (£20) still to come, which should make our spend next year significantly less than this year at about £232 for next year compared with the £504 we've spent for this growing year!

This afternoon we completed the bee inspections, with another 4 supers of honey almost ready to be taken for harvest (shuld be ready for next week) then we did a quick harvest, took a few piccies and came home to start melting the wax trmmings from the hives (the cappings from extraction and the bracecomb from the hives that we've been saving) in order that we can use the honey from them to start our mead and the wax to make some candles for the Stockport BBKA honey show in 2 months time!

Ok, so onto a few piccies from around the plot!

I think the Heath Robinson Hothouse has had its day!

The sprouts are coming on nicely!


As are some of the cabbages!

And finally, a piccy of some of the sweetcorn we had for tea, absolutely fantastic taste! We gave our Beekeeper friend Dave a cob last night (the third one we took for the Gardeners Evening Tray) and he rang us tonight just to say 'Wow' at the taste! Lol!

Ok, Im off for the next few days, still on holiday, so I should hopefully get to the plto and do a good harvest and get some more piccies, plus get some more past sauces made and frozen, some courgette soup made and frozen, some herbs dried for storage, some more wine started and hopefully some more pics and an updated balance sheet done before I return to work on monday (for a rest! Lol!)

Hope your harvests are coming in well and your balance sheets are more than healthy!

Thanks for reading!

Greenmen, Building a Hedgehog House & Pruning the Trees!

 So, we're on holiday for the weekend as its Lee's 40th birthday tomorrow, and he's already had one prezzie, a sting on his head from one of the bees! Lol! Today we spent the day on the plot doing a few jobs (including securing the frog guards for the compost bin to the front of plot 1), but tomorrow we're at the plot for a BBQ, although we may get a few more jobs done aswell beforehand!

 The Greenmen plaques I got through ebay arrived on Friday, so first job today was to put them up, 3 at the front of the arbour and 1 to the side where it joins onto the shed! They are really nice, cast in frost proof material and done in a 3d relief style, just finish the arbour off really well!

 This one is Spring, apt anough as its to the East, the usual direction (in the northern hemisphere) of youth, spring and waxing life)..............

 .. the next one is Summer, at the next point of the circle, facing south on the corner of the arbour, towards where the sun is at midday!

 Next is Autumn, in the center of the arbour.........

 ........ and finally is Winter, to the far side of the arbour! I think we both agree they look really good, not only hiding the joints between the bars that make up the arbour, but also giving the structure a pagan feel that is in keeping with our own beliefs and in keeping with our organic ways of working the plot!

Once we'd done this, we decided to finally get round to building the hedgehog house in the corner near to Apiary 2 (on Plot 1)

 We started by using 2 of the old solid floors from the beehives (that the original hives came with when we bought them 2nd hand 2 years ago), 1 for the floor and 1 for the roof. Then we built the side walls from bricks we brought from home (see, hoarding things you dont use is GOOD! Lol!), 2 courses high above the 18" square floor, with a side entrance that runs to the front (this entrance tunnel provides safety from predators and also stops the wind from blowing straight into the main hibernation area!

 We used an offcut of piping to provide a ventilation hole, which would poke out through the side back wall once the house is burried in bark chippings!

 The center was then filled with nesting materials, straw and leaf mulch, to keep the hibernating hedgehog warm and comfortable! We used empty plastic sacks to provide waterproofing......

 ............. then ensuring the accessway is clear.............

 ........... we fitted the second hive floor as a roof..............

 .............. before burying the whole thing under a pile of bark chippings, which should provide good insulation! On fetching the bark chippings I found the offcut of log, so thought it would make a good feature to top the hoghouse off (and give me somewhere to put a sign on in the future!)

 Hopefully one or two of the hedgehogs from the allotment will decide its a des res and move in soon, but only time will tell!

 After that we decided it was time to tackle the overgrown fruit trees at the side of plot 1. We've been trying to prune them back to a more manageable size since we took the plot over 18 months ago, but despite our best efforts we've not had a great deal of fruit from them, so we decided the time for drastic measures has now arrived......

 .......... armed with secateurs, loppers and a saw.............

 .............. this is what Lee did to the fruit trees! Hopefully this should allow them to grow in a better way, although part of the problem is the overshadowing from the trees beyond the plot boundary, so after tackling another small job on one of the newer planted apple trees.....

 .......... namely building a support system to try and pull one of the branches back a bit so it doesnt grow forwards over the bed...........

 ...... we then set about chopping back some of the overhanging branches to allow a lot more light into the side of plot 1!

 Some of the trees that were overhanging are very tall, and cast a lot of shade, so the only way we could reach one of the worst offending branches was to hook the extended ladders over a branch, and rest them ontop of the 4' high compost bins at the side of plot 1! This is not really a recommended way of working, but other than call out a tree surgeon (which we cant as its not our land that the trees are growing in), there was no other way to tackle it!

 Success! It was quite a big branch, but removing it has let in a lot more light, so hopefully our fruit trees will have a better chance of growing in a better shape now!

 Ooops! The hothouse yet again needed emergancy repair work!

Which I managed to do without too much difficulty, at least its only got to last us till the end of this growing season, next year we've the new coldframes to grow the peppers / chillis and aubergines in!

At this point it started to rain a bit, so after watering in the greenhouses and harvesting about 10lb of toms, we decided to call it a day! Not sure if I'll get an update done tomorrow, as we're BBQing and its Lee's 40th birthday, but I'll get some piccies and hopefully be able to share them with you on Monday, after my first day at my new branch!

Hope your crops are still doing well, and that your weed infestation is much less than ours! Thanks for reading!

Wildlife locally on the allotments!

As we are in a fairly rural location here (on the very edge of Manchester and Cheshire, with the Cheshire border only 1/2 mile from our house, and with a 5 mile journey from Partington - down country lanes - to any form of metropolitan civilization), we are fortunate to have a lot of wildlife locally, so as I drove onto the allotment site today (after work to meet up with Lee for some weeding, hoeing and watering) and was met with the sight of this fine fellow, I thought perhaps it was time to do a blog entry showing some of the wildlife I've managed to capture with my trusty camera on the plot!

Quite often as you round the corner at the bottom of the site on the road that runs round the site you will catch sight of the local rabbits, usually youngsters, but as you drive up towards them, then they usually run off and leave the site! This one today allowed me to get close enough to take this piccy with my 300mm telephoto zoom lens before it decided to run around the corner, as I followed I got closer, and when it stopped in a bed (in a plot at the top), I managed to get the following picture!

They are beautiful creatures, but they can cause havoc with our crops, so generally we do try and discourage them (although they do taste nice in the pot - if you can get one)! They do face a lot of problems locally, there is a pair of buzzards living within 1/2 mile of the allotments, plus a fox that regularly visits the plot (we've not seen him, but his runs are visible, and a couple of other plotholders have seen him, a young male) and these do seem to be doing well with keeping the rabbit numbers under control!

This little fellow is one of a family of squirrels that live in the woods surrounding the allotment site, they can be a bit of a problem, eating sweetcorn, burying acorns (that sprout in the middle of our beds!) and pinching strawberries (Lee watched one last week sit and eat one on Pat and Colins Plot), but generally they dont cause too many big problems for us! Mind you, HFW does say they go well on a BBQ! Lol!

Other mammals we have also seen Hedgehogs (there were 5 hibernating in one plots compost heap one year, as you can see in this piccy), fieldmice and I'm sure the other day I saw a Shrew!

We also have a colony of Pipistrel Bats living nearby (in a cave off the side of the Manchester Ship Canal that runs just to the north of Partington), which we often see in an evening, flying round the houses!

The local birdlife is also proliffic, a pair of Blackbirds nested in the alcove of our shed earlier this year.

They hatched 5 chicks........

....... who all fledged succesfully! The nest is still in the shed alcove, though is no longer being used!

Other birds we are aware of living on the plot, wood pidgeons, magpies, robins, blue tits and great tits, sparrows, jays, peregrines, buzzards, blackbirds, ravens, crows, barn owls, and a heron who lives locally too! There are also seasonal visitors such as the swifts, goldcrests and others besides! I need to spend some more time with my telephoto lens on the plot to catch some piccies of some of these feathered visitors, but that will come with time!

We also have both frogs and toads on the site, both of which use our pond for spawning, and are regularly seen around the plot!

All you have to do is turn over something and out jumps a toad!

Or look into the undergrowth, and there lurks a frog!

Last year we also saw a small lizard at the site cabin, no idea what species, but if I see it again I'll be sure to get a picture!

There's also lots of insect life around, especially if you take the time to have a look, this orb spider was busy making its web when we noticed it!

Hover fly, there's lots of polintating insects on the plots, as well as our honey bees!

Plenty of butterflies too, I believe this one is a Monarch, which is quite far north for the breed, though one or two types (cabbage whites in particular) we could do without!

There's plenty of other fauna on the plots too, though one type we could definitely bear to see less of is the common garden slugs and snails!

Locally we've also got plenty of fields, the Dunham Massey NT Hall and plenty of nature in all its guises, sometime in the future I may get round to taking some piccies locally and do a future blog on it!

Anyhows, I hope you like the piccies and get more of a feel for the beauty of the natural world we have around us hereabouts!