In the week we found a nice lady advertising well rotted horse manure local to us, so I phoned her up and arranged to go and pick some up. We made a packed lunch for the horses in return for some bags of brown gold and set off in the car. Well the mound of horse muck was rather large, and the owner said it has been there for at least 4 years. Fresh stuff was on the top so I dug deep whilst Philly held the bags open for me to fill. We filled the boot, and the horses were given some fruit. We have been told that we can go back when we want which is great!
The manure, although well rotted, is rather wet at the moment, so I wanted to build another compost bin on the plot so that we could get it mixed with some newspaper and straw to try and dry it out a bit before we add it to the plot. It's a nice rich dark brown colour and full of worms so it looks like good stuff.
I then went out the following evening to see if I could pick up some old wooden pallets. My luck was in, and I delivered 5 to the plot Saturday morning.
After lunch, Fenn was dropped off at his Granma's house and Philly and I trundled off to the plot to build the new compost bin.
The ground was frozen solid, and as a result we were the only people mad enough to be at the site. We nailed together four of the pallets in a square and emptied the 10 bags of horsey doo doo's into the new bin. This was well mixed in with some straw and a shredded newspaper. The final pallet which had a solid rather than a slotted base was placed on top to aid heat retention.
The ground was frozen solid, and as a result we were the only people mad enough to be at the site. We nailed together four of the pallets in a square and emptied the 10 bags of horsey doo doo's into the new bin. This was well mixed in with some straw and a shredded newspaper. The final pallet which had a solid rather than a slotted base was placed on top to aid heat retention.
Within the hour we were back at Granma's house to pick up the boy, and the rest of the weekend has been spent dreaming about vegetables and sheds rather than doing any work.
I have however managed to put together a rough plan of how I want to lay out the allotment, with a five year easy crop rotation system.
Fruit is to the left hand side of the plot; where I would also like to site a shed.
The first bed will be brassicas, then beans and peas, then potatoes, then onions and root crops in the final bed.
This is only a rough plan, and we doubt that the plot will look anything like as smart as this, but it should give us good use of the space. Suddenly what looked like a huge plot now doesn't look quite so big!
Oh and the spuds are chitting in the attic room ready to be planted later this month or early next.
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