I’ve got a bit of a “magpie thing” for blue glass, that’s used in the old medicine bottles….
So when I saw these electric cobalt blue victorian garden bell cloches - I just had to snag them!
I’ve never seen blue versions before, but I have seen clear glass versions. I’m going to use them to protect my pumpkin seedlings from frost. It will be interesting to see how blue light affects the plant growth.
In an Andysworld yearly tradition, Happy Halloween, and Welcome To The Great Pumpkin Massacre of 2015. I’ve been growing my large Atlantic pumpkin this year, which weighed just short of 10kg, I’m afraid I lost to my work colleague, who’s pumpkin weighed in at 17kg! So freshly picked from the allotment this morning, and slaughtered and carved this evening!
Fresh pumpkin on the allotment
Fresh pumpkin on the allotment
It has been rubbish weather this year for growing pumpkins, and very few fruits, set correctly, this was the only one, early in the year.
Slaughtered, and carved!
Slaughtered, and carved in the dark!
Here are some before and after pictures of my chili plants in the porch, where temperatures in the sun, get up to 58 degrees C!
June 14th
July 9th - Almost 4 weeks later
A few years ago, based on the recommendations from my Bro’ at Groundscaper, I purchased a Mantis Tiller, it’s brilliant, but I have just one complaint which I think is a design fault, the plastic throttle body, which is built into the carburetor body, keeps snapping off, as this is a weak spot.
The petrol 4-stroke Mantis Tiller uses a Honda GX25 engine, which is common to many petrol operated garden tools. The problem is that Honda do not supply the plastic throttle body as separate part, and you need to purchase a new GX25 carburetor body, price from Mantis UK - £95!
The support man from Mantis, did state, they could be purchased on eBay for £10!
This is the replacement part I purchased from Hong Kong - here, if you look closely at eBay, there are some available with a metal frame here
Originally, I was just going to transfer the plastic frame from the new part to the old part, but it did not fit, so a complete carburetor body swap was required, but before fixing back onto the engine, I made the following mod, to strengthen the plastic throttle attachment (Thanks Mike B. for the suggestion!)
some pictures
Allotment on 20 June 2012 before the Rain!
A fellow allotment holder “David” gave me some 20mm plastic water pipe, and with bits of wood from the wood shed, a few nails and screws and a staple gun, I started to make a Cloche, to protect my Cauliflower from the pigeons and white cabbage butterflies.
I think it’s great when you can build something for free, rather than purchase something ready made. The design is based roughly on the Geoff Hamilton design, and many allotment holders up and down the country have made similar versions.
I think if you are an allotment holder, I think it’s some sort of right of passage, building your own Geoff Hamilton Cloche!
Here, Toby Buckland, makes a garden cloche, based on the design
here is a sequence of pictures of how I made mine….
My joints are aching, I spent a long day on the allotment preparing trenches for my asparagus beds yesterday. I’ve planted four beds of asparagus with the following asparagus varities - Backlim, Gijnlim and Purple Passion.
In the past few weeks, I’ve also added another two rows of strawberries, to add to the existing two rows of Elsanta, I’ve added Amelia and Marshmarvel. Amelia is a late cropping variety from June to September, Marshmarvel is an early cropping variety from May to September, peaks in June, with possible second crop later in the season. Elsanta is a mid cropping variety from June to July. So better ask my Mum, how to make “Jam’n’ Jerusalem”! because I could have a few starberries next year!
I’ve also added a few rows of sweetcorn, planted jerusalem artichokes and horseradish, completed moving the goji berry and raspberry bushes, I think the redcurrent, blackcurrant and whitecurrent, gooseberry bushes have not taken - possibly too dry.
My water butts have arrived, I’ve finished preparing the rest of the allotment to add other vegetables this week. The allotment has been bone dry, hence the need for water butts onsite to store water, we did have a wet day last week, which has helped me with not watering every day, since the rain.
rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb, it’s still damn raining, and the allotment is disappearing under more water, I’ve planted my comfrey, rhubarb and horse raddish. But the ground is far too wet, to plant my potatoes, onions, garlic and shallots, they will just rot in the ground.
My strawberry plants and asparagus corns have arrived, I’m not sure when I’ll get these planted now as the allotment is too wet, and looking at the weather forecasts, rain until Saturday!
here are some more photographs of the allotment developing…
the weather has been terrible, and we’ve been plagued with heavy showers, I was waiting for the ground to settle, now I’ll be waiting for it to dry out…or maybe a rice paddy or water cress?
looks like planting will have to wait, the allotments, are rather wet……
I have planted something, I’ve moved some Comfrey “Bocking 14″, up to the allotment plot, but must move my rhubarb and raspberry canes up shortly, if the ground is not to wet.
My Allotment is at http://gravelpitallotments.org.uk/
I’ve been preparing the ground on the allotment, which measures 20m x 5m. Breaking the soil, weeding and removing stones and tree roots.
(it burns off those Easter Eggs!)
Ready for me to plant, potatoes, white and red onions, shallots, garlic, carrots, beetroot, horse radish, asparagus, raspberries, strawberries, goji berries, rhubarb - just a few things to get me started.
Here are some photographs, of my progress so far…
Andy's Allotment on 21 March 2012
In the super, summer week in March, the allotment looked like this! But I was a little busy, to prepare the ground.
Andy's Allotment on 4 April 2012
April showers, we did not have heavy snow as forecast, just missed out, bit it left the allotments very wet!
Andy's Allotment on 5 April 2012
Start of preparing the gound…
Andy's Allotment Start of 7 April 2012
Ploughed the day before…
Andy's Allotment End of 7 April 2012
finally tilled….I’m waiting for the ground to dry out before creating my trenches for potatoes and asparagus.
A funny picture, this is Plot 2, it shows how wet the allotments have been..
Plot 2 next to my allotment! see how wet it is!
My Allotment is at http://gravelpitallotments.org.uk/
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