Making my compost

When it comes to top Quality Compost I see a lot of allotmenteers buying in bulk bags of compost which looks to me well, one very expensive and two it kind of defeats the object of organic growing as you can't really be 100% sure of whats gone into it but everyone to their own not that I'm judging remember I'm just a green apprentice LOL.

As an apprentice I've been practicing the old fashioned way that being getting a load of good old fashioned smelly manure mixed with green waste grass cuttings, home vegetable waste, egg shells, tea bags with a few bottles of urine to accelerate the process and thats it, turn it over every now and then job done now let mother nature do the rest.

So to top it up I gathered two wheelie bins full of fresh grass cuttings off the local grass verge, and why not it's free, take care speak soon. 

Two bins of grass cuttings some tea bags and eggshells etc

 

Grass from the verge

Preparing my beds for winter and next spring

In preparing my plot for next spring I've created three new beds and cleared the other beds from weeds, as thoroughly as I could. I had  five beds originally three long and two short ones, one of the shorter beds is already full of strawberry strands.

The other shorter bed I've cleared out the weeds and filled it with manure, the idea is I'm going to allow this bed to rot down over the winter and I can decide later either use it to grow my pumpkins or mushrooms etc. "My ten year old son likes the sound of mushrooms mmm I think he'll probably win."

Bed of horse manure

One of the original long beds is cleared and ready so I'll be planting onions and garlic in it, another one of the original long beds that you can see below I originally used to grow some onions and garlic in a couple of years ago. I'd already cleared it of weeds and spread what they call conditioner all over it. In speaking to one or two other fellow allotmenteers they swear by it so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Council conditioner

The conditioner in the picture above is local council compost delivered for free, but I soon realised in spreading it  you need to sieve this stuff as it does seem to have bits of waste which it not necessary conducive of growing your organic fruit and veg in. But other than that it does look like good stuff so I covered it over and left it down for about four weeks and then I mixed in two bins of manure, again I'm going to allow this bed to rot down over the winter and then I'll decide later what to plant in it.

Mixing manure in with conditioner

I was talking to a fellow allotmenteer about moving my strawberry strands from their bed and putting them into the manure filled bed. He felt it might be a bit rich but if I felt too, it might be a better idea to take the strands out and put a layer of manure and back fill it with a layer of soil and then put the strands back in, as in this way the strands routes would still be in soil and would grow down into the manure and benefit from the nutriments from the manure. "Hmmm I liked the sound of this so I did it."

Finished strawberry bed

Adding manure to strawberry bed

He went on to advise me that I could  leave the three new beds with the ground turned over to break down over the winter. I already knew this but I do like to listen to other allotmenteers as you will always learn something new but do be careful to what and who you listen too!

When I came back to work on my allotment at the beginning of September after my back going on me last year, one of the other plot holders said and kept banging on that I could and should just take out the main stuff referring to the weeds and then just put weed killer down all over it then cover it over with cardboard and spread manure on top of that and it would be ready for spring. I was a bit shocked to be honest so I quizzed him further in order for him to clarify what he was saying. I smiled and laughed to myself as I know weed killer has to go on the growing plant or weeds leaf in order to feed down to the root. Also depending on the weed killer I wouldn't be able to use that bed for some time as anything that I planted in it would probably die. I'm not saying he was deliberately pointing me in the wrong direction but do be careful who and what advice you listen to. When I mentioned this advice given to the plot holder next door who happens to be the site secretory I thought he was gonna have kittens there and then.

I've heard it said when listening and taking advice, look at the person giving the advice along with their achievements for examples and decide if you want to show up in the world like that person giving the advice, "I guess the same goes for your plot LOL.

So it's taken me about four or five weeks to get to this point barring the strimming which I did a few weeks earlier, as I didn't manage to get stuck in until when the kids went back to school at the beginning of September and I must say, I'm feeling quite excited as it's looking like I'm gonna have my best year there yet.

Before

So far

Building Raised Beds Garden Boxes

Building raised beds isn't as big a deal as you might think although there is a bit of work involved as well as the initial expense - layout. But it does make managing your plot a lot easier as well as a few other benefits.

Spuds in raised beds

By creating raised beds you not only make your plot more manageable but raised beds tend to be warmer and helps with the control of the temperature during the colder months, so you can plant earlier in the season as opposed to on the ground growing. It also helps with drainage and serves as a barrier to pests such as slugs, snails and along with all these benefits it makes it easier if you have any back issues like myself. Many experienced allotmenteers use this method for growing carrots and so on.

Timber can be very expensive so I chose to use scaffolding boards along with 2.4 metre fencing posts.

scaffolding boards & fencing posts

You can get scaffolding boards from local small building sites in many cases for free like I did here.

Free scaffolding boards

I cut the fencing posts to 48cm posts and using a good old fashioned yankie screwdriver I then screwed them to the scaffolding boards.

Laid out scaffolding boards & fencing posts

     

Using Yankee screwdriver screwing fencing posts to scaffold board

Once screwed together and complete I positioned the bed frame then using a spade I then dug a hole around all four posts.

Holes dug and frame with posts

I then Positioned the frame with posts in the hole then using a spirit level I checked the positioning of the frame, and as necessary using a spade at an angle I dug in under the scaffolding frame along the length to get the frame to sit straight. I then backfilled it all and then back to my favorite bit the de - weeding, once this is done I'll be ready for spring. A good tip though is do this kind of work if possible around September as the ground is wet, soft easy to dig and work with, oh and have fun because once it's done another benefit will be less weeding hooray LOL.

But before I carry on with the weeding of the beds I've had an idea which I think will pay dividends down the road, I'm going to sort the paths out while I'm here. So what I've started doing is scraping the top off on the paths using it to fill up the beds and then using a fork turning over the paths and pulling out the big weeds. Then I covered it all with manure mixed with hay. It's a bit of work yes but by doing this now it will limit the weeds coming back through the beds while feeding the ground and helping with drainage at the same time.

Manured paths

Scraped path now in bed

Allotment Community Spirit

For one reason or another community spirit seems to have all but disappeared unfortunately so when I started going over to the allotment a few years ago via the community allotment, I thought I was going to find it there in the form of the allotment community spirit, "flipping eck how wrong was I!" LOL.

It's not all bad so please don't get me wrong there are some very nice people over there, in fact there's quite a few but it's so clicky and dare I say it bitchy! Wow what a shock, but fortunately for me I've got my allotment apprentice den LOL, there's tea and coffee in there and that's me I keep right out of it. I stay on my plot with my nose to the dirt and I've got a few genuine little mates who are extremely kind being non judgemental, it reinforces my faith in humanity while others although they don't surprise me it is disappointing, but that's life nothing new I suppose a.

On Monday this very kind lady gave me a load of strawberry runners, so I've now got a potential bed full of strawberries to help get me going again, lovely my boy will be over the moon bless him as he is rather partial to a strawberry or two.

A Bed of strawberry runners mmm

I'm back on my allotment plot

I've had a few accidents over the years and eventually they all catch up with you after all, none of us are getting any younger, don't worry as I won't be boring you with the details but what I will say though is from the summer holidays July 2014 I've aged slightly. "well, just a little bit."

Up and until March of 2014 I was getting quite excited about my plot as I had sweetcorn, tomato plants and all sorts growing and doing well in my potting shed, a bed full of potatoes, some onions, garlic and so on. Unfortunate for my allotment priorities a must and I was distracted by my college work, as a result I lost the sweetcorn and a lot of other stuff which died off.

Apprentice den view

Spuds

Onions

Cold frame

  

As I mentioned earlier I've had a few accidents over the years but one accident in particular meant that I couldn't go back to my usual line of work driving plant machinery on building sites I.E. Telescopic fork lift trucks, 360 excavators - diggers and so on as the work involves a lot of driving over rough terrain and jarring while operating the machinery which would've just killed my back although I did try.

As a consequence I've not been able to tend to my allotment plot hence the lack of updates and posts here but I did go over and cut the grass and the weeds back though. I asked one or two people over there for a little hand, people I thought I could ask. I even asked my younger brother unfortunately the answer was no from all directions never mind no hard feelings though.

Despite letting the allotment site secretary and other prominent people know of my predicament I received a hand delivered letter giving me seven days to remove any personal belongings from my plot, the letter stated that a as I hadn't adhered to the councils conditions and regulations of my tenancy and I had received a letter warning me of the council's intentions of evicting me from my plot if I didn't tend to it. I'm sure you can imagine my thoughts, the stress and the annoyance especially as I hadn't received any letter as stated and I'd let who I believed to be the appropriate people know of my situation, the fact that I was on the strongest form of medication for my injuries, receiving physio and also taking pilates lessons of which by the way I highly recommend should you have any back issues.

I then phoned the council officer on the letter and explained to him my circumstances and told him that I'd even managed to arrange an associate to agree to help me out, he went on to tell me that the council wasn't aware of my situation as the site secretary hadn't told the council or the allotment officer of my circumstances and off the back of what I'd told him he would give me until the end of October this was midway July, you can imagine my relief so I went over a week later and I must say it was a tad overgrown LOL. So out came the strimmer and at the end of August I got stuck in.

Plot overgrown just a litte

But what really pissed me off though was although I'd attended and cut the grass and weeds back, was the fact that when I went back there were rumors being spread that I was giving up my plot by a certain individual of whom I introduced over to the allotment in the first place via the community plot that I had been running, and like a backstabbing vulture they went on to take a load of scaffolding boards, lengths of decking, wooden posts etc off of my plot. So as you can immagine pretty pissed off! But to add salt to the wounds having been elected onto the allotment committee board they'd publicly expressed in meetings a clear interest that they would like to take over my plot that's despite having been given their own plot, oh and guess what, this individual was one of those who I asked for a little help LOL. Wow would you Adam and Eve it. All I can do though at the moment when someone acts in this way is to laugh, take a DEEP BREATH and get on with it and be the better person as having two great young lads I need to set the example in how to respond to people like this and not react without thought.

So moving forward as you can see it's taken me three weeks on my own as my mate couldn't help at the moment because of prior engagements which is fine as by doing it by myself I'm getting a lot of satisfaction and we're looking pretty good for next season, cutting the grass back, clearing the weeds and cleansing my mind of the weeds of life with a smile.

                         

For the life of me I can't work out what's so special about my plot, why do they want my'n, what's so special , what could they be after?  I know they say the grass is greener on the other side, "ah that must be it!" LOL.

Thanks for stopping by I'll keep you upto speed of any developments should you find yourself in a similar situation although I do hope not. Anyway I hope you enjoyed and didn't mind my little rant I look forward to writing and posting on a more positive note so take care for now and keep your nose to the dirt and be lucky.