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