8. Wino's

Whilst browsing various gardening forums, I came across a brilliant idea for boardering the beds - used wine bottles. You just turn them upside down and half bury them in a nice straight line on the edges of the beds. We had a few at home as it had been a while since the recycling had been taken to the collection site, and I asked everyone I know to donate any that they use.

I collected loads and took them up the allotment on Saturday. Jo was also with me, delivering some broken up wood that we could use to fuel the next fire. Jo dug a narrow trench and I put the bottles in and packed the soil around them. I used all the bottles and only managed to fill half a row! Later that evening we met up again, and with the help of Matt and Dickon added another three bottles to the collection!

Finally some more good news. Head of procurement, Matt has come good and managed to get us a wheelbarrow from the builders at work, that would have otherwise ended up in a skip. The tire's a bit flat, but that should be fixable. I think the worst part of it, was not going round begging, but walking home with a wheelbarrow whilst wearing a smart shirt and suit trousers! A few comments were made!

7. Water Water Everywhere, But Not A Drop To Drink

It's been a while since my last post. I keep meaning to update it at home where I can add photo's but never seem to get round to it.

Plenty of work has been done. We replaced the top half of the water pump and it worked...for a week of so. The bolts that hold it in place at the base have very little thread left, and quickly worked loose. Currently, the water pump is lying in the greenhouse, feeling sorry for itself until someone comes up with an idea to fix it!

Luckily on the same day as fitting the water pump, we also put some guttering on the side of the outhouse and set up a water butt. So for now, nothing is going to die of thirst. Obviously, the rain is also helping with that situation!

Finally after three years or so of doing various voluntary work, I had my own volunteers. Our friends Jo and Dickon helped out a couple of saturdays ago. They were hooked before they even stepped into our allotment, having a bit of a nose around first and picking out a vacant allotment that they would like to work on. I thought we would never get them to leave, and we would have squatters at the site!

Once they got in our allotment though, there was no stopping them. Dickon managed to dig in an afternoon, the same amount that I had done in about two months! Jo busied herself weeding and made sure Matt had enough cuttings to keep the fire going.

Yes, we had our second fire, it seemed a good idea as there was five of us at the allotment all afternoon. The pile of cuttings did go down, but there is still enough for about 10 more fires! The fire was also a good way to get Matt to the allotment. I have struggled to get him interested in the allotment for a couple of weeks, (mainly due to my nagging everyone about digging!) but mention of a fire and he is straight there! It's a man thing, I believe.

The digging began on Mark's section of the allotment, but progress was hampered a little due to the smoke from the fire blowing into his eyes. For the time being the fire pit is on Mark's side of the allotment!