I’m sitting here with a big fat headache, and I think I must look like a right old grump.

I had to do a dash outside into the FREEZING COLD (when *will* this winter end properly?!) haily-slushy-rain to grab the washing. I’d completely forgotten about it until I’d gone to put the hens to bed, and ended up having to sprint back out into cold and wet to retrieve it. I think what I have now is a sort of prolonged ice cream headache.

What a moany moaner.

I just wanted to address a few comments from my Compost post - thanks for the advice regarding the pallets. I wanted to prove that I’m not completely useless and post a pic of the compost heap I refashioned from pallets at the allotment. It’s made from everything that was already up there, left by the last tenant. I managed to dig in the pallet sides so they’re solid, wire them together with some spent wire from where the dead raspberries were (managed to save a few though that are looking promising), and line it with chicken wire I found.

However, the reason I’ve not used the three pallets we have here at the Smallest Smallholding, is because of a size issue. Basically, the decomposing heap we had (it’s not worthy of a compost heap label) was just far too massive to be contained into pallet-size bins. So why not just get more pallets, I hear you cry! Well, the simple is answer is because my back is crap.

I come from a family of crappy backed people, and things like digging, whilst being utterly inane and BORING, actually cause havoc. I have disc damage in my lower back, so certain movements when bearing loads (e.g. turning compost) do not do me any good. We designed the new wooden compost bin so that I could easily access it, turn it etc without having to stoop. Pallets are just too low down.

HOWEVER, I will be rigging up a natty little pallet bin for preparing compost. It means that I can deal with small amounts just as they become ready to be used, and keep the bigger pile moving and turning.

I’m sure by now you’re probably sick of hearing about compost. I’m very into it at the moment, thanks in part of a fellow forum user from my Rural Muse forum sending me three books on allotments and compost. Fascinating stuff. Soil is like this big living, breathing entity. It needs feeding, watering and nuturing, just like most plants or organisms. Before my Smallest Smallholding days, I thought of soil as just dirty dust really. Oh how I have been enlightened!

Anyway, enough about compost and soil.

Some good news on the seed germination front - the peppers are slowly but surely unfurling and making their entrance into the big wide world. Tomatoes are repotted, and as ever I went mad and sowed the whole packet, and now am trying to flog all but about 6 of my 25 plants.

Broadbeans are finally making a breakthrough, so I’m going to belatedly put up the supporting canes. Tendersnax carrots are germinating in the pot outside, but thinning them out is going to be a complete pain in the arse. I don’t think I’ll grow carrots in pots again.

And OOOhhhhh - bargain…went to Homebase to get a fixture for our broken loo, and had a quick jaunt around the garden plants section. I, as ever, made a beeline for the reduced section (always a champion of the underdogs, me) and bagged myself a half priced £4.99 ‘Goldtraube’ blueberry bush! So I’ve just got to find another one so they can pollinate each other. GOOD STUFF. Cheaper to buy from nurseries, but I couldn’t resist.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 7:51 pm and is filed under allotment, seeds, hens, veg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.