My Unofficial allotment

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Onzuka
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Re: My Unofficial allotment

Post by Onzuka »

The blue bottle should have been left in the ground, Mr. Eutow, there is an unambiguous instruction moulded into the glass, I can read what it says in the photo that shows it in your gloved hand.

Steve
Eutow_Intermedium
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Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:24 pm
Location: South London baybee !

Re: My Unofficial allotment

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

Unfortunately due to my Aspergers that last comment sent me into a stress attack for at least five minutes. Looked at it again and again and then realised finally what you were on about , buy not to be taken.

Poison not to be taken or the bottle out of the ground.

This will go alongside the Hexagonal 7 in green glass Poison bottle of which also said Not to be taken on the side.

Now all I gotta figure out is wether you were having a laugh :lol: or not [-(

.

But it wasn't just about the objects I have been finding nearby, but also the little patch of ground thats keeping me active and sane through the so far Disastrous winter so far. Rain falling on already saturated ground and high winds doing damage. After storm after storm from the Atlantic.
Onzuka
Posts: 491
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2012 12:32 pm
Location: God's own county of Yorkshire

Re: My Unofficial allotment

Post by Onzuka »

Eutow_Intermedium wrote:
Now all I gotta figure out is wether you were having a laugh :lol: or not [-(
Yes, the posting was entirely in good humour.
Eutow_Intermedium
Posts: 1011
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:24 pm
Location: South London baybee !

My guerrilla allotment/ Bottle digging

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

Usual Wednesday passing. I dropped off and spread another bin of Xmas tree shreddings to fill a gap in the path.

Immediately after that I dug a hole on a sloping patch at the back of the Guerrilla allotment and planted Picea Conica glauca, that my Girlfriend used as miniature potted Christmas tree. First slapping some Microrhizal fungi granules on the sides.

Then a Hypericum shrub nearby and next to an Elleagnus plant that I grew from seed some years back. On that slope there is also a couple of small Acer Palmatum trees. One Green and one Purple.

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Also recently I rediscovered a Lime green Cornus or dogwood plant that I planted some years now on the Stairway slope. This corns can only have come from Gowlland Close, where the planted up the new estate with Birch Trees and two different types of Cornus. The Lime green one and Siberica Alba.

Pretty much immediate all these trees and shrubs were systematically uprooted and thrown over the old chain link fence onto the former railway. This was 2004 before that section of trackbed had been converted into a Public park. This stretch being Phase2 today.

It was also that time in 2004 that I found the first of two Cast iron Upper quadrant signal lamp cases. This one probably dating between 1922 and 1948, during british rail days. At some point it had been converted to electric power or possibly battery power. Lamps like this would have originally have used a smelly red coloured long burning oil. I have been told by my Grandpa Rex of who used to work on the railways himself as Signalman.

Ok right , gone off topic here , thats just like me.

The Green cornus has layered branches over the passing years to create new plants. it might be an idea for me to separate with loppers and move some of these smaller plants to other positions on the site.

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After finishing with the Guerrilla allotment I took the bike and trailer to the other side of the Road/Rail bridge and had another look at the top of the low cutting , and using a three pronged hand rake/cultivator. Proceeded to removed soil from under where the Cast iron cistern was that I removed. I found pretty much nothing but saturated soil as it tipped with rain and blew gusts all around.

A small glass bottle was found on top of the spoil heap that I had just vacated from the hole, and to the right I came up an area I had already checked for broken glass. Indeed I had a plastic bag, and I tend to remove any broken glass I find anyway, because there is a school nearby that one of the main entrances tips out onto the Rly pk itself. And in the past Children keep climbing this short and steep cutting and up behind the waterlogged ditch below. My mission is to remove as much broken glass from this area as possible to reduce the risk of children going up and sliding back down and as a result cutting themselves on old glass, of which there was a lot of up there.

The small glass bottle turned out to be a complete clear glass shear top ink bottle of which when washed had nice old internally bubbly look with a light free/blue tint.

Digging to the left and behind a vertically buried railway sleeper of which is pretty much rotten now, revealed a 1/2 pint United Dairies milk bottle, buy now the water pouring down from above into the cavity I was exploring, was making a right damp muddy mess of my right arm of which was by now deep behind the old vertical sleeper.

I could feel and hear the tines of the hand cultivator/rake rubbing on glass, but it was a struggle to reach the object and in the worsening weather conditions. There was a broken bottle above the one I was trying to dig out, and it was preventing the what seemed like a complete one from coming out. Now I have to confess this is now longer on the slope where children are frequenting, I am now in unknown territory.

Eventualy the broken bottle came out of it's horizontal position and turned out to be a milk bottle of which went strait into the broken waste glass bag. yet more stretching and hard pressed soil removal resulted in me finally being able to grab hold of the bottom end of a bottle with a now completely saturated leather glove. After much struggling and wobbling from side to side, and with a squelch the bottle finally emerged as a complete wide mouth milk bottle. It was filthy and had yet more sloppy soil internally.

Washing the bottle in the flooded ditch below revealed embossed writing that read Curtis Bros Coulsdon.

I gave this 1pt wide mouth a better scrubbing at The house at Nash's Garden, the place where I do my Voluntary gardening job for the old widow, and found the bottle to be in almost pristine condition.

Later when returning to the flat I sat in front of the computer and looked up Curtis Bros and failed to find any information online about a Coulsdon depot. However it seems the main Dairy was at Streatham ( S London ). More information found said that in 1910, Curtis Bro's and Dumbrell or dumbrill combined, before finally merging with three other dairies in 1917 to Create UD ( united dairies )

This bottle merely has Curtis Bro's ( coulsdon ) on it. Does this mean that the bottle I found is pre 1917

:o
Eutow_Intermedium
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Re: My Unofficial allotment

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

Update 17 Feb

I had recently put a Staffordshire Billhook to at least 14 Ex Christmas tree ( spruce ) trunks , turning these into stakes. I had these piled up at one edge of my Communal.

Today I took these down to the Railway park in the trailer, behind my Ridgeback Momentum 2011. I laid them out on the tarmac path, and done the best I could to organise them in size/length order. I then using a 2lb rubber ended mallet, drove them into the ground at the extreme end boundary of the Guerrilla allotment in a line about a foot apart from each other. The longest ones at the bottom of the slope and the shortest at the higher other end of the bed, nearest to the Asphalt path. Some of the larger stakes were a bit of pig to drive down , so I ended up using a hunk of concrete that I found nearby to finish the job.

All I need now is to cut some long and pliable hurdles so that I can weave them into the stakes to make a fence to create barrier to signify the guerrilla allotment limits, before the land on the Up side descends into Tress, shrubbery and rubble/rubbish. A job that will need doing at a later date.

I looked at the two Acer Palmatum at the bottom of the slope on the Guerrilla allotment, to find them showing signs of still being alive, which is good.

I had a second staggered batch of Broad beans to go in alongside the ones that I had already planted last year. But after I planted the first batch. The weather over here in the UK/GB steadily got worse and worse and worse before descending into fully fledged Drearism. The second batch have just been thrown out in the last several days.

I grew some Wallflowers from seed last year , hoping to plant them during October and November. But this never happened and they have missed their slot by months and months and have sat in the Conservatory at Nash's Garden since, doing their best to bloom and at times I have been picking the flowers off. I have no idea if I can plant them or not, the ground is too cold. The idea is to planting Wallflowers in Oct/November, is because the soil still retains some of the previous summers warmth.

Also so far , no seeds for crops this year have been sown as I thought it not worth it in the horrendous climate condition we have been getting .

.

I returned to the top of the low cutting beyond the bridge. On a previous occasion I failed to get any further to the left to remove broken glass or other glass due to established thick tree roots. So going left is not possible now, and as far as I know I have removed and bagged up all that I can .

Returning to a previous area I had already been digging the last session and unfortunately having only one plastic bag. I dug up glass , more glass and plus some more. That bag quickly filled up and was left by one of the Parks waste bins for the Park Wardens to remove. Still more glass came out, and most of this was painted glass that would have made up shop window signs.

Towards the end I managed to put one of the broken sections of glass together, green with white writing that eventually read the words.

" for THAT NATURAL just combed LOOK ". A small insight into the area's history and way of life. Could one of the four shops/ former shops above have been a Hairdressers in the past ?

Dug up quite few brick clusters and repositioned them around, but also removed up to six complete bricks of which I moved to the borders of the Guerrilla allotment. I think this area is pretty much done now and will just need landscaping a bit before finishing up.

The last Swansong find was a Silver plate Tea Spoon with very little silver left on it :lol: But it was in good condition. Somebody many years go must have just stirred their sugar into their tea , before then promptly dropping the utensil over, onto the then working railway.
Eutow_Intermedium
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Re: My Unofficial allotment

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

The Primroses in the so called bar at the front of the Guerrilla allotment are up and blooming nicely. Clumps are looking bigger than this time this year. Even some of the plants that I had put in that looked as if they hd passed last year, have popped up if on a smller and weaker scale.

The Dark purple Lokaryd Crocus's I put in a couple of years go came up first, follow by the White Lokryd crocus's a week later. These went in last year I think.

The Jetfire and Tete a tete daffy that I planted on the slope opposite the Guerrilla allotment last year, that I thought would surely expire due to the dry period around July, when the trees were in leaf above, have survived obviously due to the horrific wet Late autumn and winter we hd over here. They look a bit on the leggy side but are flowering. they will have more blooms next year I hope when they become even more established.

I planted small Hypericum shrub plant on the Guerrilla allotment , next to the Eleagnus that I grew from seed some years back.

The Girlfriend and I took a big 5in thick tree trunk onto the tram and dropped it off at the front of the Primrose bar, to make a better looking and more substantial log border. This is only the one though. Still have more of these to go down there.

I planted a couple of pots of Lokaryd ( white ) crocus's on the opposite slope among the Daffodils. These will flower this year but hopefully be better the next.

Used about 15 Ex Xmas spruce logs with the the thin ends steak pointed, and drove them into the ground to make the beginnings of a Boudary limit, hurdle fence. I just need to find and cut some flexible tree branches to weave in between the spruce posts now.

=^-^=
Eutow_Intermedium
Posts: 1011
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:24 pm
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Re: My Unofficial allotment

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

Ooh Thankx to Oldcat, I almost forgot this topic.

BUMP !

Will have to update.

.

=^~^=
Eutow_Intermedium
Posts: 1011
Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:24 pm
Location: South London baybee !

My Unofficial allotment

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

Update Dec 2014

Progress on my Un-official allotment this year has been a little slack to say the least.

What have I done recently * scratches head *

I cleared a small rectangle piece of land past the Spruce steak and hurdle fence at the Extreme end of my patch with a rake , so there is a small section of ground right next to the Green security fence , room for some small scale expansion. My idea is to =^_~= dig a trench along the length in front of the fence , remove Rubble, Rubbish and possible Artifacts. :D :lol:

I will then extend the Native hedgerow further along to take that section of the fence too. I recently found a Pallet , I don't know how long it will last. I was thinking of moving the Open air compost heap from one end of the Guerrilla patch to the other . Drive some Ex Christmas tree trunks into the ground , strategically place some bricks and install that pallet on end to create the back of a compost bin.

Unfortunately there is a bit of accumulated rubbish in that area around the bottom of an Elder and Elm tree duo. This was thrown in a pile there from more than several years of digging rubble out of the cultivated beds. Somehow I have to get rid of this stuff ! ! !

The GF and I carried two logs of Swamp cypress from a vacant garden since they moved out to the Railway Park allotment. I hope to use these to replace smaller and weedier branches that I have used to created logged borders. Somebody had a go at Pulling at the piece of metal on the damage pert of the fence behind the Railway Park allotment , that was NOT repaired. It looked horrible , so I decide to finish the job and heave it and fracture and rip it off completely. If I ever come across some Aerosol paint of the same colour, I will spry offer the damaged and exposed broken weld points.

Yesterday somebody already dumped the first Christmas Tree , right at the Dalmally entrance to the park , so I dragged it to the Allotment patch and left it there. A rubber tyre was found by the GF and we carried that there too. Might be able to use that too if it can be put somewhere and filled with soil. A couple more would be useful.

About a week or so after much delay I finaly raked the Autumn or Fall leaves from the grass in front of the Guerrilla patch, these slightly decomposed leaves went onto the current Open air compost pile.

I noticed that since 2009/10 the Compost pile has produced and thats the reason why I want to move the Fresh material elsewhere, so I can use some of that compost or even create a new bed in that location.

The Sweet Chestnut that I planted as a seed in 2011 that came from the market at Villiers in Paris , is a twin trunk and looking quite happy, but I want to move it slightly and maybe surround it with some bricks and a protective collar at some point. This is My cousin and mines tree. I'm hoping it will survive to Tree adulthood .

I have still yet to pick up the bricks to move them. :|

.

More updates to come eventualy.

Eut_Int*
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