Man Needs Shed

At last our allotment is coming to life. Fruit trees are in bloom and shoots are peeping through the ground. We have even found an abundance of wild garlic on the site. Apart from its potential use in salads, garnishes and cooking, the children love to nibble on the leaves.

My energies have been mainly spent on erecting a shed/shelter (one end is completely open) out of recycled pallets; well, I say shed but actually it’s more like a personal tribute to Heath Robinson, there’s not a straight line, level or square angle on it anywhere.

Pallet wood is not nice stuff to work with; it’s very hard and brittle, loves giving you splinters and is filled with nails that cannot be removed. Having said this, it was all free; so I spent a quite a few lunch hours at work dismantling these nasty spiky items, loading up the car and piling the planks up on site.

Then I set about creating a carefully designed plan, with the help of a fully qualified architect, created a level base out of high grade concrete and fully treated all the timber before measuring twice and cutting everything to exact lengths (this part is all a big, fat lie).

To be truthful, I basically hammered several  posts into steeply-sloping, uneven ground and then stumbled around trying to nail various planks of uneven sizes onto them; very much doing everything by eye and making plans up as I went along. I’m definitely not a qualified builder but I’m quite good at improvisation and the family and I will be pleased enough with the end result, especially if we get caught in a sudden shower.

Rustic Fruit Cage Completion

Ta Da!

The weather finally relented enough for us to get down to the allotment space that we are sharing with our friends. The main aim I had in mind was to complete the netting surrounding my rustic fruit cage, which I had constructed from coppiced hazel and also to see if the slugs had eaten all of my squash plants yet.

Muck Spreading

When we arrived, the first thing we noticed was how high the grass had grown; it was easy to lose the children, which was nice! Actually, in truth they were quite helpful weeding, sowing carrot seeds, planting strawberry runners and chopping down the grass.

Getting Planted

Stretching the netting over the cage was no mean feat and definitely a two person job. This was largely due to the wind, raspberries and the fact that it kept snagging on the rough hazel. Eventually we had it covered, as they say, with only a tiny scrap left over.

Taking Shape

Now, finally the project is completed, our raspberries, tayberries, blueberries and strawberries can now be left to ripen without being gobbled up by our feathered friends. We are looking forward to harvesting the soft fruits now that the hard work has been done.

Door Frame

The door works and even some of the hazel staves used to prop up the fruit buses are starting to grow. I even briefly entertained the thought that it might be possible to grow a fruit cage out of hazel; although, I suspect that this might be a bit too much of a quixotic idea, even for me...

Door Added

If you would enjoy the challenge of building a similar construction or simply read about our allotment activities, follow the sequence of links below…

Netting... Done!

1.       http://theurbaneforager.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/attack-on-manure-mountain.html

2.       http://theurbaneforager.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/another-lot-of-allotment.html

3.       http://theurbaneforager.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/rustic-fruit-cage-contruction.html

4.       http://theurbaneforager.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/rustic-fruit-cage-continued.html
5.     http://theurbaneforager.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/allotmenteering.html

There were times when I thought it would never be finished.

Rainwater Irrigation System

When it was raining every day during spring and we were simultaneously being told that drought conditions meant countrywide hosepipe bans would be required, my mind turned to the undeniable logic of rain collection and water-buts.

We have a workshop/shed at the top of our garden and I set about fitting gutters to the eves to collect the rain water. Fitting the gutters was actually far easier that I imagined it would be and was almost fun, despite the weather.

Finding water buts in stock was less easy, it seemed everyone had reached the same conclusion but eventually I found and purchased a large capacity one that would fit behind the shed. I channelled the water into the but and it was duly filled to the brim, within a week.

The next part of my project was running a hosepipe down from the reservoir, to irrigate our raised-bed vegetable plot; this is gravity assisted because the garden is on a slope.

I then learned about semi-porous hoses that can be used for watering gardens. I bought one of these, embedded it around the raised bed and then added it to the end of my device.

The end result was very satisfactory indeed; when the tap on the but is turned on, the water gradually beads out of the buried hose, thus watering the parched veg. Interestingly, my activities seem to have had an effect on the children and they have been creating ingenious contraptions of their own for watering hard to reach plants.

Now all I need to do is patent the Porous Irrigation Soaker System and think of a good marketing acronym. Well, perhaps not, but hopefully, this means that if we go away on holiday, I can just turn the tap on a small amount and my peas, spinach and garlic will all still be alive on our return…