Plant swap and subsequent planting

The EHS Plant Swap has been and gone and was pretty successful.  Our hosts were very welcoming and the rain held off. Sadly I didn't get quite what I was looking for (brussel sprouts, courgettes, ...) but I did pick up one or two nice things.  The vegetable patch looked great.

Back at the allotment I spent some time on Monday (apart from weeding) filling in the gaps where my peas had failed to germinate (Lancet ... Onward was fine) and putting some leek seed in.

Plant swap party tomorrow

Wednesday was so wet that I couldn't get a skip delivered, so Thursday there was no skip ... so I could work in the allotment with a clear conscience.  I just did weeding, but there were and still are plenty of weeds.  I needed to clear some space for the results of tomorrow's plant swap.

Today we were back at the building plot attacking the villa again.  The front wall has gone now - they delivered the skip this morning.  Just the huge back wall to go, which will be attacked tomorrow morning.

Tomorow afternoon is the EHS Plant Swap Party.  I'll be taking pumpkins, chili peppers, black-eyed suzy, nasturtia and a couple of sun flowers.  I'll be looking for anything in the way of vegetables, really.  No herbs this year - last year's plant swap mint is not wanting to leave.

Avengers in 3D was fun.  The pea risotto in the fridge was a bit old, but still tasty.  And my foot hurts where I almost whacked it with the axe today.

Lady Di back for another crop

I saved plenty of seeds from last year's prize-winning Lady Di runner beans and kept them in the shed over winter.  This March I started them off in the cold frame and got 100% germination.  There was enough rain to re-saturate south England at the weekend, but I went out to the allotment in any case and, among other things, got the beans planted in their final location.

The carpet on the right (bright pink on the other side) is helping to keep the pumpkin/squash area weed free until I get a chance to plant the seedlings.  For now, they'll have to cope in the cold frame a little longer.

The peas are planted (first row).  I have gone for a 50-50 mix of Onward and Kelvedon Wonder.  If that row works out okay I will put in a second row in around three week's time.  Perhaps I'll try some Lancet.

Chance meeting

On the way up to the allotment this evening (preparing space for some leeks) I bumped into Stephen!  It is a funny thing because only today we announced this year's plant swop party would be in his garden next month, and then he turns up, miles from home, half way between my house and the shed!

I dragged him off to look at the coriander seedlings and the thousands of apple flower buds on the tree.  He was polite enough to poke around for a few minutes.  Very nice.

The leeks are Musselburgh from England.  Actually they are from 2011, but I've kept them in a seed tin in the shed so they should be okay.  They're going in down at the damp end just down-hill of the cold frame.

Villa is on its way out

 During three days of dry warm weather, we were able to make a big dent on the villa.  Because the ceinling was pretty robust, we could stand on that to attach the gable end.

Without gable end

With gable end

Sadly, during the process of taking things apart, my Blackberry must have got a bit bashed.  The screen was alightly cracked, the loud speaker made it sound like everyone was talking through a kazoo, and the camera only made blurry pictures.  The fuzzy image shows the view just before the corner under the gable end furthers from the river was knocked through.  The chunk on the top is some massive kind of ring anchor, which none of our tools can penetrate.  The column is now gone and the ring anchor is hanging in space above half the walls.

And I had to get a new Blackberry today.

A fist full of splinters

Yesterday the skips were delivered at 08:30 and we made plenty of progress taking down the villa.  All the roof structure is off down to the level of the ceiling, apart from the concrete gabled end.

All the nails are out apart from two nails (each 6 inches) in each of the rafters, which we need to get out this morning.  Once the rafters are de-nailed and stored, we will get to work on gable end.

Obviously nails were cheap when they put the villa up 50 years ago.  We have pulled out hundreds in order to keep the waste wood purely as wood.  This keeps the cost down for the skip, but adds quite some effort.

One or two passers-by were a bit misty eyed looking at the villa being taken down.  They remember the happy days of Tilli and her garden ... but things change and move on.

Villa coming down - first photos

Over the weekend we started taking the villa down.  The only real problem was the noise the rusty nails made being dragged out of the wooded beams - and on a Sunday!  We had to stop because of that in the end.

 Under the pitched part of the roof was a good strong ceiling which we could/can stand on to get at the battens and rafters.

With all the tiles off, its easy to see what a reasonable state the wooden part of the roof was in underneath.

 We took the river-side tiles off first.  With that done, it still looks like we hadn't started.

 All the tiles off, battens still in place.

Battens removed and the first of the planking over the porch removed.  Next step is to remove the rest of the planking.