Levelled

Between the showers and brief appearances of sun today (it is August after all!) we dug over the new shed base. As with most of the 'allotment', a significant amount of back breaking effort had to be put in to removing brambles and their roots. Last weekend's bonfire had helped but there were still plenty of roots in the clay.

This, combined with trying to get some semblance of a level site for the timber shed, made it quite a task. That said we've now got the site prepared ready for the erection of the shed tomorrow, using four of our ample collection of old pallets as the base. The plan is also to extend the front of the shed with a 'veranda' using more pallets and old decking that we've collected, but that's a job for another time as it's way down the list. Mind you, when we had our afternoon coffee break sitting in front of the shed site we were able to see the hills of East Wales and the Tyndale Monument to the North (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndale_Monument) whilst listening to the sounds of sheep bleating in the field next door, so this could be a great place to escape to with a cuppa in future and may have to be propelled up the 'To do' list.

Meanwhile the veg plot is continuing to provide a plentiful supply of potatoes, beetroot, courgettes and beans to accompany the pot grown salad leaves and tomatoes.

Glazed

The greenhouse is now full of glass. Okay, so one panel is plywood to replace a long broken piece of glass and a couple of other panes are cracked. But other than these all the glass is in place so we've started relocating plants into it. A couple of chilli plants that were in the kitchen-diner are rehoused, with their fruit turning red as a result, along with most of our tomato plants. Thanks to the sunny dry summer we've managed to grow a decent amount of tomatoes outside against a south facing wall with the first fruit just ripening - and now with the greenhouse this should speed up.

Over the past few winters the lack of a greenhouse has resulted in us losing a few tender plants, mostly fuschias, but also a few pelargoniums and even a tree fern. Hopefully the greenhouse will help to prevent this in future.

We've also cleared a huge patch of brambles and blackthorn so that we can erect the new shed. With a few weeks of clear evenings we may be able to get this sorted soon, and then relocate the log store before autumn arrives. It'll also mean we can then finally say goodbye to the old woodshed that lurks beneath the horse-chestnut tree.