I apologise for my lack of presence lately – life has been busy. While the home-schooling continues, so do the appointments, letters and such for my husband as he continues to battle prostate cancer. When you add in the usual things that need done, it doesn’t always leave a lot of time to get gardening jobs done, let alone film them or write about them. (I’m also trying to keep up with all your blogs so forgive me if I miss some of your posts).

With all that being said, I’ll do my best to catch you up on what I have managed to get done lately.

On the plot, I’ve had a go at DIY which isn’t my forte so you’ll need to bear with me! I managed to get pallets and bits of wood together and came up with a pallet manure bin and an extension to a much smaller and older bin which I store woodchip in.

I was quite pleased with the manure bin. I wanted to add a gate and decided to do what I’d seen on a YouTube video. Problem was, I had my pallets at a different configuration which meant I had to saw (by hand) a pallet in half – it took ages. On the plus side, I now have a lovely stable type gate on my bin!

Now this might look very ‘cobbled together’ and it is but it works. This was an early stage and I’ve since added a gate to this too! What I discovered/figured out was that my path areas had woodchip on them that was several years old. Yes, there are weeds in the top layer but underneath that is growing gold. So I thought, if I scrape off the top layer and put it somewhere (hence this bin), then I can get to the good stuff.

Now a couple of problems arose there: I have more scrapings than this bin can hold and I have more good stuff than I can put out at the moment. Luckily, I have a solution for both of those problems – but that will be revealed at a later date!

Dearest Son and I did manage to get the shed painted:

Yes, it is the equivalent of putting glitter on a turd but if the thing is still standing, I’ll still use it.

There are a few changes happening in this area which I’ll come back to when it’s finished but painting the shed and removing the two lavender plants I had there were the first things that needed done.

In other news, I’m a genius. I know, it’s not something I usually say but I’m so happy with my solutions for cane storage, it’s the only way I can describe it! Firstly, the large canes: they were in an old box I put together many years ago and that has fallen apart so I had to come up with something else – especially as the area I’d had them in is now being used for my tyre tower:

Believe it or not there is a herb in there but I’m waiting to see if it will come back to life. Nasturtiums will also be going in so they can trail down and make it all look gorgeous. But, back to the canes. I realised I had an old bin and some spare wire shelving and this is what I came up with:

I bent the wire shelf over the top of the bin and used cable ties to hold it in place (I’d drilled holes in previously). Now they can stand upright, without risk of falling over and I can see the height of each one which makes it easier to select what I need. I will point out you need a couple of holes in the bottom to let water out so your canes don’t rot. I’m very happy with this!

The other idea I had was to do with the smaller canes which don’t fit inside the bin as they are too small, so I came up with this:

I used old bits of hosepipe and made loops which are attached to the sides of the manure bin and it’s a perfect way to add more storage for my smaller canes! Told you, I’m a genius.

Elsewhere on the plot, I’ve planted out my bulb onions (I had LOADS as Suttons were selling them off), sown my carrots, parsnips, planted out potatoes and I’ve just started to plant out my peas and broad beans. I’m doing an experiment in the carrot and parsnip bed, comparing seed sowing with seed tape to see which method works best.

I’ll include a link to my YouTube channel at the end as I put up videos of the work I do in the allotment and garden so you can see the areas I’m talking about.

I still have plans and I have a slight squash problem which came about from chitting far too many seeds, but that’s a story for another day!

My channel – head over and subscribe, I’d love to see more of you over there: https://www.youtube.com/@mysliceofgardening