Sunday 18 May 2008

Flowerbed done, and plot numbered

After a bit of work last week moving the manure pile off the flowerbed we have finally got the flowerbed sorted.


Luckily this end of the plot doesn't have as much bindweed so it was a case of digging the area over and pulling out any weeds. From an area 22 foot by 5 foot we only filled our weed bin thing half way. At the other end of the plot the same amount of weeds would come from a 4 foot square!

Most of the plants are perennials and despite it looking a bit well spaced now they are all planted to allow for spread.

The gaps will have annuals like marigolds and nasturtiums. We have also planted some bulbs so we get spring flowers.


But, the most important bit, we now have a number! All the plots have to be numbered so with a piece of rock I brought home from the beach, a small tester pot of outdoor paint and a marker pen Plot '4' is now numbered.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Where there's muck there's... well, muck...

Having decided that a flowerbed full of horse manure wasn't likely to win us any prizes at the summer show (although it might win a Turner prize) it was time to deal with it.

The trouble was, the original manure has been dropped on a black plastic sheet and had very little drainage, so as I dug through the pile it got rather smelly, and being stood on wet plastic, rather slippy. Surprisingly I didn't fall over...

Once it was raked out I decided to leave it to dry in the sun for the rest of the day as that will make it easier to move it to its final position tomorrow. This will allow us to tackle the flowerbed properly, ie: dig it over, weed and plant up.

Monday 12 May 2008

Weeding... little and often

Wandered down to the plot today to find Jim putting one of the concrete shed base slabs in as an edging bit between the path and the area where the shed will be... that means I need to find 3 more slabs on the abandoned plot. I was also planning on using gravel board... Oh well, it looks good and I didn't have to do any work -yay! Having thought about it, I will bring some flags from home to make the shed base and then use the slabs as the edging.

No real plan for today other than to do some weeding. First the easy bit, hoeing the big areas to slice through the annuals. Then the difficult bit; perennials -boo!

We had weeded pretty thoroughly, but with stuff like bindweed 'pretty thoroughly' is not enough as it can grow from a piece of root as small as 1 inch (and possibly smaller). We knew the potato trenches might be harbouring some, but the plan was to weed as they come up, weed as you earth up the spuds and weed as you dig them up. So I worked my way along the earth ridges gently pulling out any bindweed from the loose soil and throwing it on the bare earth to dry in the sun (which kills it). Most came out out easily but some pieces were a little deeper and snapped so the tranquility of the allotment was frequently shattered by low utterances of "bugger", "shit" and "bastard bloody stuff".

Each time I pass I pull out another bit, and any big bits get a spray of glyphosphate which should kill the roots. I know glyphosphate isn't organic (by UK standards, although can be classed as organic by European ones so that will do me) but needs must. Bindweed is amazing stuff, you turn your back for 5 minutes and it grows another foot!

Sunday 11 May 2008

A different kind of runner bean frame

Today I had to build a runner bean frame on our shared plot. Traditionally these are an 'A' frame but last years got a bit weighed down with beans and eventually started to lean rather dramatically.

This year I opted for a rather different design, the beans grow up the short side and then along the slope. Hopefully this will allow for easier picking as the beans will hang down.

Time will tell, and if it works well enough then I will make a more robust version for next year.

Friday 9 May 2008

Rolling rolling rolling....

No, not Rawhide, but the base area for the shed. I spent the morning getting it level and then my plot neighbour Jim informed me there was a roller somewhere on the site that anyone could use.

20 minutes later and I had found it and trundled it back to our plot. That got the base nice and level and certainly made sure it was well compacted.

The next step was to lay the concrete bas, this came in the form of old concrete fence panel bits, we have used 4 and need to dig up 2 more from the abandoned plot. This was made much easier with Jims help.

Now to wait for the shed to arrive.

On our shared plot I also dug over, weeded and raked a bed for Sparkly to plant some extra carrots in. We also planted 3 rows of 'Minipop' sweetcorn.

Thursday 8 May 2008

Tomatoes and garlic

A quick trip down to the plot last night and we planted some of our spare tomato plants through a small hole in the weed suppressant membrane.

They survived the night and with a few days of sunny weather forecast we will see how they fare.

On our shared plot the garlics and onions are doing fine, so all that was done there was a bit of tidying. The edges were strimmed and where necessary defined with a spade to give them a straight(ish) edge.

Monday 5 May 2008

Busy Bank Holiday weekend

Those of you who have been following the progress of Plot 4 will know that the original plan was to leave half of the plot covered to prevent weeds and concentrate on the first part for this season.

However, we have progressed very well and decided to tackle on the second half of the plot. Weeding it would be a long task, and now we are in May, things are starting to be planted, so the decision was made to cover that half of the plot in weed suppressant fabric and then plant through that.

The first task was to remove all the old black plastic, builders membrane (viscuene) and old carpet. That was rather messy, as the plastic doesn't really let water through, the carpet was rather sodden and the viscuene... nightmare stuff as it breaks down and breaks into little pieces.

The plot looked like this.
After a few hours on Saturday and a few hours today, we now have it looking much tidier with the weed suppressant membrane, this is woven, so lets water through.

This area will be planted with squash, pumpkins, courgettes and brassicas. We now have the flowerbed to sort out as it is currently home to a slowly decreasing pile of manure and the middle area which is home to our bits and pieces, things like scaffold poles, our burning bin and recently a one ton builders bag.

We had a pile of weeds that was too wet to burn, so we got a builders bag (the one ton things that sand etc is delivered in) and chucked everything in that, the idea being is it will be devoid of light and everything rots eventually... so it should make for some good compost.