Wednesday 21 January 2009

Almost finished with the digging

A good session down at the allotment a couple of days ago and I'm pleased to say that the digging over of the entire plot, which I began last month, is almost finished. I should have taken some "before" and "after" pictures so you could have seen the state it was in before I started digging, but suffice to say that it was waist-high grass and who the hell knows what else. I think there were a few gone-to-seed leeks in there.

On Tuesday, Bob cleared out a load of pieces of glass, wood and various other detritus from the very back of the plot. We never got that far down in 2007 when we were first growing stuff here, and it looks like previous owners used it as a dumping ground. No adverse effects on us from toxic chemicals yet but there's still time. :-(

One piece of good news is that we discovered three pallets nestling behind a bush at the back of the plot next to us, which is totally overgrown and disused. We're gonna use those three. plus another one Bob has at home, to make a square compost bin. I have a 4-pallet compost bin in the back garden here and it really is the best thing you can have. Large capacity, plenty of aeration and you can just swing one of the sides open to get all the compost out when it's decomposed. We do have a standard issue black plastic council compost bin on the plot but it filled up almost instantly when I started digging the plot out.

Also, this weekend I'm planting some broad beans in pots. Bob put 130 seeds in the allotment last January but only about 5 came up - we suspect mice - so we're gonna start the plants off at home this time and transfer them to the plot when they've sprouted, gained some height and been hardened off a bit. Always good to have a reliable supply of broad beans especially in the current harsh economic climate.

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