In the nick of time…

Finished my response to the consultation on a draft Scottish Climate Change Bill. Most things look sensible; usual caveats about issues of business competitiveness creating softer targets.

Elegant water drainage methods

Edward Tufte does it again! In Elegant water drainage methods, he states that the physics of drainage revolve around the hard fact that the erosive power of water is proportional to the fifth power of the water’s velocity. A couple of nice photos too.

SG and CEC and flood protection …

The wood works, works

Another sunny day, and I took the daughter into town in the buggy. After doing the messages, she was looking sleepy so I decided to walk down to The wood works. Two minutes after setting off, she’s asleep.

Wood works is great: North of the Water of Leith and nearer ferry road than bonnington road.

Ambitions for the year

Last year was pretty crap on the plot. This year will be better. Better organised, for sure, and hopefully better produce. Today I received my seeds from Garden Organic: climbing French beans (Neckar Queen), broad beans (Super aquadulce), calabrese (green sprouting), leeks (bandit), turnips (purple top milan) and coriander leaf. And a sieve, which my daughter models with aplomb:

Cost: £17.32

manure and rent

Monday … took possession of 10 bags of manure from Gorgie City Farm. Lovely rotted-down stuff and plenty of worms in there. It’s enough to fill my empty compost bin and should go across a few of the beds.

I had wanted to spread it on Tuesday, but the weather was crap: heavy rain and wind. It’s probably worse today. I need to dig it in pretty soon and get on with other stuff.

And last night I got home to find an invoice for the year’s rent of the plot. Very happy to see this after all the hassles last year. This year, I promise to spend more time down the plot … no, really!

Costs:
Manure: £30. 10 bags at £3/bag (min order for delivery; £2/bag if self-collected)
Rent for the plot: £48/year

Next up:

• break down very old compost bins
• prune off any broken and diseased bits off the blackcurrants
• weed under and around blackcurrants
• put manure under the blackcurrants

• weed around rhubarb
• add manure to the rhubarb

• decide which beds are going to have which plants in, and manure where neccesary.

Her first skinned knee

I’m going back to working 3 days a week from next week, and I’m intending to spend more time down the allotment. So I took the daughter down own the plot on Sunday, just to familiarise her with the place. It’s always instructive to actually see how she deals with it; no amount of theorising is as instructive as letting her get on with it in a controlled way.

The ground’s quite bumpy, even the main spine of the plot, and it’s raised higher than the beds. Every so often, she’d fall over and I’d see her head in a hollow and her legs sticking up. Not crying but obviously relieved when I picked her up, and she showed me her dirty hands and asked me to wipe both of them. When changing her nappy, I noticed three bruises down her left knee and a wee dod of blood. I feel so wretched; she’s fine.

Resolution: Gotta do some serious earth moving to level the paths and raise the beds.

Looks like I’ve got 6 beds for rotation this year. Four are ready. One has winter onions in, so it’s not going to be available until July. One still has to be dug over. Of these beds, three are big and 3 are small.

two frogs and a newt

• saw two species of frog and a newt
• some pods actually arriving on the beans
• definitive proof that standard shears are way better than hand-shears — I’ve done more grass cutting on the path
• noticed that someones been chucking rose cuttings into my plot
• perhaps that’s why the jerusalem artichoke got knocked over
• made inroads to the old compost bins and hacked back the omfrey. Will need to make some fence if I remove the whole of that structure
• lots of stuff could be burnt … and I saw how to make a firepit at 60 South Clerk Street
• a bit of weeding .. isn’t there always?

More reading required!

Looks like my review of Graham Bell’s book is quite high in the google ranking. I enjoyed reading it, and I enjoyed writing the review and now there’s some feedback from the blog stats and google.

One of Nielsen’s usability articles reckons that one should write articles with content rather than hastily-written blog posts. Isn’t that obvious? Whatever… it’s certainly bolstering the fact that I could do more reviews and stuff.

Last day of raspberries

Monday evening, after N got back from work, I headed down the allotment for 2 hours. Finished picking the raspberries and bagged another half pound — that means that I’ve picked about 1.5 pounds over the season. Sad to see that there were so many wasted: fallen off, half-eaten, mouldy or shriveled. I reckon I could have picked twice as much again. There’s always next year …

Replacing the fence …

The fence by the rhubarb is a horrible affair: made from pallets and chipboard, it’s painted an uninspiring brown. It is right by a busy pathway and since I’ve been warned a couple of times, I feel the need to make a good effort on the side that’s most visible.

Currently got a 10′ x 3′ area under mulch. Chopped down all the fireweed, grass and brambles and then put leafmould on the top.

Requirements:

• non-toxic
• preferably not thorny
• offers some screening but not too dense … I want to add a bit of mystery but not block the already-diminished light.
• not too thirsty
• not going to fire seed into my neighbours’ plots
• nice to help out pollinators
• shade-tolerant
• perennial

Could be a decorative grass; could be something productive.