My Narnia and black gold
Tuesday
Dad and a helper went to the plot today. They spread three barrowfulls of wood chip in the pathways by the fruitbeds. That's a whole £1.50. I added to the excel planner and after a little research I think I have come up with things to try under the tree. I have based the ideas on the shady bed from the book 'Grow all you can eat in 3 square feet'.
List of Shady things for this spot includes:
- Sorrel
- Raddish
- Pak Choi
- Mizuna
- Lettuce
I'm starting to wonder where I will put Squash, but we can deal with that later. I have come up with a plan for potatoes. I think I am going to cut an old composter into two and use that. I think it is a good size, my only issue with using planters for spuds is it is more enclosed that a bed, and breeze is the best way to avoid blight. Anyway the composter has been unloved behind my shed for sometime. I plan to retrieve the compost and put that on the plot. I kept the empty compost bags from compost I have purchased and these will be great for transporting the 'home grown' stuff.
The other thing I have done today is start to test some old seeds. The dog food comes in rectangular trays. I lined 6 with kitchen roll and made that damp before putting one type of seed in each tray. Two trays fit into sandwich bags and so after remembering to label trays I squeezed them into the bags to make cozy greenhouses which are now on the windowsill. Seed-watch has begun!
I am looking for a germination rate of about 70%. I would rather make use of seeds I have this year than spending (more) money this year. I have tested tomato, broccoli, mixed salad, parsnips, kale, and spring onion.
Thursday
Some Seeds have sprouted, woop!! yay for the plant babies. The Cavolo Nero and the mixed spicy salad are all going well.
Saturday
More seeds have sprouted. Today was going to be an allotment day but the plans kept shifting and I ended up doing a bit of a tidy-up at home. I sorted out my cold frame cupboard thing that was an Aldi special-buy a few years ago. It is positioned next to a stainless steel table which, when it is not being used for pizza or BBQ makes a very good potting bench. After that I planted three pyracantha plants. they will be trained along the back fence and will hopefully contribute to making the garden a bit more wildlife friendly.
Next I decided to enter Narnia, a magical little void through and behind my very narrow shed - which is positioned down the side of our house. Once upon a time, and many moons ago I had the great idea of getting custom made shed and of having two doors so that the void at the back could be general storage and hide the unsightly compost Dalek. It turns out that once the narrow shed has a bit of stuff in it getting to the Narnia-zone becomes a little tricky. This limits access for doing the good compost management stuff like turning it, or topping it up regularly with green and brown. I had made an effort to chop things relatively small and what it lacked in heat - being confined to a cool shady nook - was made up for with time. Lots and lots of time, born mostly of laziness on my part. Enough time that I seem to have grown a small sycamore behind the shed, and also managed to achieve some pretty nice compost.
Making use of an old-skool, classic blue shell sandpit and a blue rug I ferried out all of the buitiful compost that is ready to used, along with the top most layers that are not quite there yet. It is amazing how nature has converted a pile of unloved trimmings and cuttings into such beautiful stuff. It is also pretty cool to see how thin and compacted the layers of grass from lawn mowing have become. They are not fully decomposed yet, and much like the rings within a tree there are defined very thin layers which can be pealed apart counting the number of mows in the season.
Future Sidequest - I am really looking forward to creating a little secret garden of ferns and other shade loving things behind the shed. It would have no purpose other than being a little quirky place to find some peace and quiet, and is no where near the top of my vast to-do list. A more important thing for my real to-do list is to research home composting, including what to do with kitchen waste. Our local council do a weekly collection of food waste, but after our caddy thing was broken, and then disappeared completely I did not request a replacement.
Anyway... back to my beautiful black gold. I have bagged up 3 loads into old compost bags and that will be going to the plot. There will be a few more bags after that, and the less rotted stuff can go into the composter at home or on the plot, with some going into the flowerbed as a mulch.
Sunday
It felt like I made really good progress on Sunday. It is lovely to see the plot coming to life and the slow trickle of people new and old starting to return as spring is on the horizon. I met a lady who got her plot this week. She has inherited a well loved plot including a greenhouse. With the help of the lady that runs the allotment association she has covered two thirds of it with weed suppression fabric. She is excited about having the space, but realistic as to what she is likely to achieve in year one. Hopefully her swift action with the weed fabric will stop the clock on the areas she can't get to for a while, and help preserve the beautiful, blank - and pretty weed-free - canvas she has to work with. Also busy were a father and son team topping up raised beds and installing a pond. A pond is 100% in my plans, but it is a little bit of a side project rather than a priority. I have dedicated a space to a pond on my latest plot plan though.
Anyway... back to what I actually did, and not daydreaming about ponds. I used some string and bits of wood that were lying around to mark out the paths. There was already a well defined central path which is around 50cm wide and during my weeding I found two others. I decided to make use of these existing paths rather than re-designing the layout.
Pros
- The ground in the path areas is already compacted and weed free
- The paths are a good width and are nice and straight
Cons
- The path positions mean that the three main beds are all different sizes. They have become my small, medium and large Goldilocks beds.
Mum and Dad came to visit and I discussed some jobs for Dad (putting wood chip on the paths and firming up the entrance way), before getting on with my tasks. I cleared another three barrows of weeds before stopping for a cuppa and a snack of home-made trail mix. After a little rest I purchased four meters of weed fabric and cut it into 50 centimetre strips to mark out my paths. I stapled these into the mud, stopping when I ran out of staples. Then I trundled off with the wheelbarrow to collect wood chip.
Having been on the plot a little while at this point I found pushing the fully laden wheelbarrow uphill - little more than a slight incline - pretty brutal. I managed to collect and spread two loads before settling up my bill in the allotment shop (£4 for weed fabric, and £1 for the wood chip) and calling it a day. Oh and I almost forgot. I added some of that beautiful home-grown compost to the fruit beds. On unloading the car I was asked if the heavy bags I was carrying were body-parts, which made me think of the garden in Orange is the New Black.
Mood: Optimistic (also Aching)
Spend: £6.50