Phew and *phew*

Shovelling horse poo really stinks. I'm talking the non-rotted stuff which is freshly bagged at point of dump, and then you are the first lucky person to split that bag open, which is exactly what happened in the back of my car....

Anyway, back to the plot... I'm making real progress, as I've now cleared the rubbish and started to prepare sections for soil conditioning. As you can see below, the bottom 2/5ths of the plot are now either ready for soil, or turned over. The section below has now been dug and broken up and is ready for some manure to be spread over it, and then left until spring.

Apparently by then the worms will have dragged most of it under and broken it all up, the dirty little beggars.

While I turned the soil over, I was keeping a vigilant eye out for bindweed roots. That stuff is all over this site and so with every single spade full I turned over, I broke up the sods of earth and extracted all of the fleshy roots I could find. In the small section alone there was 2 full wheelbarrows full of that bindweed root.

As you can see below, the section my spade is leaning against is rock hard clay, so I've broken it down leaving a ridge. Between this ridge and all the way around the blue barrels(up to the raised beds) I'll fill with woodchip to supress weeds. I measured it with a wheelbarrow to ensure that it could fit through, and there was the perfect amount of room.

 

 

 

So off to the giant poo bags. These badboys are heavy. There were approximately 20 or so, so I dropped one bag on top of the broken soil with roughly a 1.5 metres between each one, covering the whole surface.

Once the whole area had been covered, I split the bags open one by one covering the whole area and then raked it evenly over the whole top. the great thing about using un-rotted compost is that it will break down by spring, but it will also keep any bindweed / dandelion root I missed in check in the meantime as it's quite poisonous at the moment.... once it rots down it'll add loads of vitality and nutrients. Win-win!

 

I then grabbed 2 barrow loads of woodchips and filled all around the blue barrels. No weeds here, and over the course of time this will rot down into the soil, improving the humus..... apparently. (Makes sense to me!)

You will notice that the blue bins and raised beds have stuff in them(weeds, gravel, once laden strawberry plants). I'll do the hard work sorting the soil first, before I tackle these. These will have special soil in them (compost / Molar clay etc) so can be done at any time - but I want to get the hard digging work done during the nice weather and get that much spread out as much as I can before the rain comes later this year. It's not going to be fun standing hip deep in horse shit and mud, when I could be standing on dry soil and not going home stinking....

I'm also using them as quick bins for large stones/weeds etc. I'll clear them periodically as I improve the site.... they'll then be ready for planting in spring.

I'm really chuffed. When you look at what this place was like just 8 weeks ago, I'm making genuine progress. I have until soring to get things sorted, but I'm getting the hard work done now.

Phew - it is labour intensive but I feel great after a solid couple of hours digging.

*Phew* - that stuff really stinks.... but I'm having so much fun doing this!

A heap of shite

I cannot be the first, nor will I be the last to use this tired old joke, but today I'm off to somewhere I found on freecycle to pick up a load of manure. I'm not ashamed to use that pun, oh no. You cant take it away from me, it's my first time and I'm exploiting it to it's fullest extent!


Anyway, it comes in sealed bags apparently! How very posh for poo.


So naturally, rather than taking the works van, I'm taking my car and am going to fill it with as much as possible, which I'll dump on my plot later.


What could possibly go wrong? In fact I'm that confident there won't be any air pollution in the car, that I'm taking my good lady friend with me as I wont have time to drop her off first....


I'm such a catch!


*guffawtle*


(nb: If you are unsure about the above word, it's somewhere between a guffaw and a chortle. Think George from Rainbow - that's a Guffawtle. Zippy is more of a guffaw. A guffawtle is not quite as committed as a full on guffaw, but it's somewhat less controlled than a chortle.)


So anyway, this evening is basically comprised of a load of shit, followed by unloading a load of shit. I'm making somewhat steady progress on the plot, all rubbish having now been cleared and I've now dug over approx. 1/4 of the plot. It was, to be honest, pretty backbreaking work especially in the 28c heat of the weekend - but do you know what, it felt good. I like the feeling of doing hard work. Without a shadow of a doubt, I'll undoubtedly be looking back on this post in future years laughing at how naiive I was - but for now, even digging is enjoyable to me. It's all new, and shiny(or shitty) and exciting.


I've pretty much decided on the positions of certain things on the plot - and I will furnish this blog with some long overdue pictures this evening....


Of, amongst other things, heaps of shit.


In the meantime feel free to let your imagination run like a forgotten bath....


D x

Did somebody say sun?

Wow, what a blindingly lovely couple of weeks! I've been very busy clearing the plot of buried wooden planks, digging up weeds, digging up gooseberry bushes, clearing car loads of crap and even got to take down that rather weird structure this weekend.


I did all of this with a tee shirt on, so can confirm I now have a classic farmers tan. Hell yeah!


The ghetto shed is now no more, and the rather odd boxes which comprised it's base have also now been dismantled. I have to say, that I have never seen so many slugs, snail, woodlice and other beasties. It's a fairly decent indicator, that wherever you have rotting/decomposing wood, you have a veritable smorgasbord (yes, I did just use that word) of beasts just waiting for sundown to come and munch on your delicious crops.


A thing to make a mental note of for the future for sure.


So now, I've pretty much dismantled the whole site, bar the two raised beds at the bottom and 85% of it was rotten/rubbish. Some visits to the tip sorted that....


I now want to build a soil sieve. You won't know this (because why would you?) but the soil on my plot is profoundly rocky. Id say that it's almost ten percent rocks and stones. so no other reason than it doesn't make sense to me to NOT deal with it, I've decided I want a soil sifter.


I have a hand sized one, but it's not big enough. This is a 62.5m plot, which means I have to go 1m at a time.


There are plenty of options online but I dont' have many tools so I have to be conservative with my plans.


Historically I'd go for the biggest, all singing all dancing one but then fail at doing it.


This one looks like a great idea but do I have the tools and experience to build it? Probably not but I might still have a go....


http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Dirt-Sifter/


I'll post up some pics soon.

Nothing to see here

....please disburse.


Here are some potatoes. I dug them up in the plot, while clearing. There are shitloads. This is likely to be the last success story on this plot for at least 9 months....

This really is a nothing post.

Ahmin Yashed....

....checking your tomatoes.


I found this hilarious reverse troll by an internet savvy Asian guy and chuckled hard at the idiots trolling him. Turns out he had the last laugh. Very amusing....


http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/04/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-amin-yashed-facebook-banter-5732967/


Anyway...I'm taunting myself with shiny things. I'm still deep in green eyed mode when it comes to horticultural workspaces...


I can't decide between a shed, a greenhouse or a hybrid potting shed. I figure a shed doesn't give me the flexibility of being able to grow seedlings or tomatoes(which I eat in huge quantities), and I'm debating whether or not a greenhouse gives me the security for my tools that I want.... so I'm veering towards a Potting shed which is the best(or is it worst?) of both worlds.


These are the ones I'm pondering right now. This seems like a good price.

This looks like an awesome solution, but I don't have the experience to know if these are a waste of time. It does seem like a cracking solution though?

Does anyone have any opinions?

Each new hour holds new chances for new beginnings.....

....the horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.

If you are unfamiliar with the words above, I highly recommend that you watch  this recording of the profoundly beautiful and inspiring Maya Angelou poem 'On the pulse of Morning', originally spoken live to the world at the point of Bill Clintons inauguration:

If it sounds vaguely familiar, you may know it as the speech which was abridged and then immortalised by the Liquid Drum N Bass Pioneer & godfather LTJ Bukem in his seminal piece: 'Horizons'.

So why the rhetorical theme to this post? Well, since speaking to Dave I've come to realise that this entire site needs a ground-up overhaul. I need to deconstruct and demolish pretty much everything, clear the site stone by stone, and work it from the soil up. It's weird doing it, as I am effectively destroying the signature and years of investment of the previous plot holder, piece by piece. I keep finding clues about the previous tenant - the IPA bottles in the compost bins, the strangely arranged fencing to 'keep intruders out?!?!?', The neatly planted rows of root vegetables. The mysterious chest with god knows what in it.... all signs of work carried out, by person or persons unknown.

It has the hallmarks of a renaissance for the plot - after all it has been tightly shackled, regimented and enclosed for many many years now. And now I return it to just soil...

Probably a tad melodramatic, but the words of that song, and then the poem, came to me last night in a moment of contemplation as I worked on the plot and tried to remove yet more rubbish, with the aim of giving myself a completely clean start.

Since the last post I have completely ripped out all of the fencing, the 11ft dividers between the planting areas, and removed a very packed car-full of rotting timber, plastic, sheeting, canes, posts, stones, bricks and more. As you can see it's considerably more tidy looking already

 

open plan now, save for the raised beds...which are staying but may be moved

 

Most of the tarpaulin around the shanty hut is now gone, I've just left the roof on for rain protection...the the whole structure will be torn down eventually. You can see that now the only timber next to it is scaffold boards which may be useful for shoring up the plot edges.

 

As mentioned before there are 3 compost bins and a water butt(topless/blue). However, the previous tenant had evidently given up some time ago, because the compost bins contained a combination of composting bits, tin cans, glass, tiles, plastic bags, compost bags, cardboard boxes and fuck-knows-what-else, covered in shite.   I set about emptying the three compost bins...and here's what I was presented with:

It may not look like much on here, but that's a serious pile of cack.

A huge pile of composts bags and other non-compostable shit. Which will need going to the tip. The mix of composted material and just pure litter, was approximately 55/45 - compost to the right, the rest to the left. Fucking marvellous. It's all covered in endless slugs, snails, spiders, larvae, mud, rotted vegetation and woodlice...

...and shitloads of fucking ants. Two of the bins had full blown ant colonies in them, meaning that any rubbish being put in my car was full of ant eggs, and hundreds of thousands of ants. An absolutely piss awful situation.

 

I came to the conclusion that I would have to individually shake each and every single piece of rubbish which needed binning to remove as many ants as possible, empty the large blue water butt, and use it as a makeshift bin, which I would then place in my car and transport the writhing mass of crap to the tip. I've done some shitty jobs in my time, but being covered in a swarm of two competing Ant colonies, flying ants, pupae, and other horrible shit really did take the biscuit. Oddly enough, I enjoyed the experience - it had some kind of cathartic effect...the rebirth of the plot facilitated by a rough, dirty, disgusting journey of hard labour, skin crawly moments and sweat. Lovely.

So anyway, the packets, bags, pots, plastic, bottles and cans were duly shaken off and piled into the big blue bin. As I didn't have a spare, clean tarpaulin to line my car, I didn't risk an ant infestation quite yet. I've let it all settle down for the night and will collect it later....

The remaining pile of so called compost will be disposed of in the on-site weed bins, which were full when I looked last night. By then I might be starting to make some progress.....

I like this clearing up project. My only bugbear is getting rid of rubbish from the site. It's just not simple with the bug factor. But I'll get there.

Now, where did I put those headphones....

LTJ Bukem - Horizons

It's binding, I'm afraid...

..bind-weed, that is.

The whole damned plot is riddled with it. On a glorious day yesterday, I spent a couple of hours clearing stuff. Bind weed, grasses, dandelions the size of cabbages... It's got it all. Underneath this stuff I found lots of veg.

Garlic

Red onions, in droves

Leeks

All completely useless of course, but interesting to see how the plot had been planted, nonetheless. I learned that the phrase 'gone to seed' is a real life phrase, to describe veg that have been in the ground way too long and are now way past their harvest date - and are putting out seed. Well I never..... it does raise the interesting question of knowing when to harvest your crops? I'm sure that dilemma will present itself to me next year....

 So I filled a brown sulo bin with weed, but have really only cleared about half of it so far. Feeling pleased with myself that I'd got a good bit done, but also even more aware that I haven't got the faintest idea what I'm doing, I showed the plot to my friend, a chap who has many, many years experience.

With the first look on his face being something akin to the face you'd pull if someone dropped a really smelly one in a lift, I knew that change was afoot. He was...intrigued...by the fencing and boards bordering each section of the plot, and also faintly appalled at the shanty shack at the top corner of the plot.

"That's gotta go. In fact why is that fence even there? These boards are pointless. and why has the previous owner put a fence around the plot? What's the point, it just makes accessing the crops more difficult?"

I have to say, when presented with those questions, I found it hard to reason it out. Looking over at other plots, and seeing their neatly lined rows of veg, with pathways between each, I was somewhat puzzled myself.

"That...structure. That's gotta go"

I found myself tormented by this. As shockingly bodgey-looking as it was, it was solid, and could withstand strong downpour, giving me some shelter.

But looking at it reasonably, it's a real piece of shit. Quite why the previous tenant saw fit to encase one end with blue mesh, I'm not sure. There are gooseberry bushes in there, groaning with heavily laden branches full of fruit. Fruit that I'll never eat, I should add. That and more damned bindweed... along with the mysterious chest, which could contain bullion, pirate treasure, severed limbs or frozen lamb joints.

However, gooseberry grows in full sunlight, so that'll remain a mystery that they will take with them. Its only redeeming feature is that it provides immediate relief from blazing sun/rain. But that's a push and it does take up a decent chunk of the plot.

I soon came to realise from Dave's grave tone that the plot, as it currently exists, will soon be referred to in the past tense. It will be an ex-plot. It will cease to be. The whole lot has to be ripped up, dug out, sorted, cleared and redesigned, piece by piece, stone by stone, plank by plank.

Initially I feel quite daunted by that, as there's a huge amount of timber and other crap which will need clearing. However, looking at the plot in general, it does give me an opportunity over the next 7 months to really make it my own. And I bet the Allotment association will be delighted to see that back of that timber frame/tarp affair. This 4 row split will disappear and be replaced with nice straightforward rows, with pathways in between.

So now, and for the next few months, I will be demolishing, clearing, and redesigning for spring planting..... as you can see there's work to do....