Vinny's Allotment Plot

Back to the plot for the second time today. It was such a nice day it was a toss up between fishing and allotment. Allotment won at first but then I had a change of heart and went fishing.
Fishing was too easy with a nice trout bagged on my third cast so decided I would go home, have some lunch, then back to allotment.

Not been home long and managed to get all the wood I had cut bagged up.

Demolished a rotten bed and moved a more solid bed into its place raked it level, covered it with cardboard and tipped a bag of compost on top and levelled off.
Made a start on progressing with the bed/paths I have planned but as soon as sun went down it got a bit chilly.

Added a couple more piccies to show progress.

I need to get positions of all pathways delineated so I can order woodchip for them. Pointless ordering woodchip when I don't know where its got to go. I will have to get it tipped to a central area on the site then wheelbarrow it to plot quickly before other plot holders snaffle it.

I was shopping this morning but called at plot to cover my seed tatties that are chitting on the greenhouse bench. Covered them with bubblewrap as frost is forecast for tonight.

While I was there I felt I had to get cracking and achieve summat. Managed to string out and delineate the rest of the beds on the left hand side. This gives me seven 2 foot wide beds with pathways in between. Now I know where everything is going I have no excuse not to order the wood chip for the paths. I have loads of cardboard and hopefully enough to cover paths before adding woodchip.

I will wait until Easter is over before ordering woodchip and that may give me a chance to spade off the paths, lowering them and hopefully levelling them.

Added a piccie of where I am up to on the left side. Only two long beds prepared and planted with Japanese onions.Rest of  beds aren't prepared yet, including long bed down front of fence but at least I know where they are. Its going to be a challenge removing stones and levelling paths, but theoretically I can bury stones on pathways, add cardboard then woodchip as I don't intend shifting beds or paths again. Not sure yet whether to bury stones or not though

I was shopping this morning but called at plot to cover my seed tatties that are chitting on the greenhouse bench. Covered them with bubblewrap as frost is forecast for tonight.

While I was there I felt I had to get cracking and achieve summat. Managed to string out and delineate the rest of the beds on the left hand side. This gives me seven 2 foot wide beds with pathways in between. Now I know where everything is going I have no excuse not to order the wood chip for the paths. I have loads of cardboard and hopefully enough to cover paths before adding woodchip.

I will wait until Easter is over before ordering woodchip and that may give me a chance to spade off the paths, lowering them and hopefully levelling them.

Added a piccie of where I am up to on the left side. Only two long beds prepared and planted with Japanese onions.Rest of  beds aren't prepared yet, including long bed down front of fence but at least I know where they are. Its going to be a challenge removing stones and levelling paths, but theoretically I can bury stones on pathways, add cardboard then woodchip as I don't intend shifting beds or paths again. Not sure yet whether to bury stones or not though

Looking good fella

Do you mind me asking how much you pay for the woodchip?

Also, did you end up buying that black plastic roll, not sure if you were gonna use it for the paths?

I was shopping this morning but called at plot to cover my seed tatties that are chitting on the greenhouse bench. Covered them with bubblewrap as frost is forecast for tonight.

While I was there I felt I had to get cracking and achieve summat. Managed to string out and delineate the rest of the beds on the left hand side. This gives me seven 2 foot wide beds with pathways in between. Now I know where everything is going I have no excuse not to order the wood chip for the paths. I have loads of cardboard and hopefully enough to cover paths before adding woodchip.

I will wait until Easter is over before ordering woodchip and that may give me a chance to spade off the paths, lowering them and hopefully levelling them.

Added a piccie of where I am up to on the left side. Only two long beds prepared and planted with Japanese onions.Rest of  beds aren't prepared yet, including long bed down front of fence but at least I know where they are. Its going to be a challenge removing stones and levelling paths, but theoretically I can bury stones on pathways, add cardboard then woodchip as I don't intend shifting beds or paths again. Not sure yet whether to bury stones or not though

Looking good fella

Do you mind me asking how much you pay for the woodchip?

Also, did you end up buying that black plastic roll, not sure if you were gonna use it for the paths?

I will have to check up but my fire wood supplier said 30 squid for a pickup load of fresh stuff and 40 squid for composted stuff. I need the fresh stuff for the paths, but may forgo the composted stuff until next year. I will have to try and hold him to his quotes though as he makes it up as he goes along.
Yes I purchased a 14 inch wide roll of plastic damp proof course. Up til now I have used it on the long edge to the right of the plot and will probably use it on the long edge on the left edge of plot that I have just delineated. After that I will see how much is left.

Only a short time at the plot today but took the opportunity to dig a few worms for a fishing trip tomorrow. Started digging and clearing the left hand plot edge of weeds and stones. Around me I had three containers, one for stones, one for weeds (mainly elder) and one for worms. Dug and cleaned an area about 10 foot long by 2 foot wide. Three large buckets of stones  removed, some the size of tennis balls, two large boxes of weeds removed and enough worms for a few fishing trips. It was hard back breaking work and I soon got sick.
Soil is very wet and appears to be a clay/silty loam. Haven't decided what to plant it with but toying with the idea of sticking tatties in it.

Getting there. That's another bed prepared and planted up with onion sets. In the picture are two beds of Autumn/Spring sown Japanese onions and the bed I planted today has two rows of Sturon onion sets in it. Topdressed with a small amount of potting compost just to hold a bit of moisture near the surface and gave whole lot a feed of slow release fertilizer.

I hoed off and raked the weeds off the paths as well. I even gave paths a brush.

Next job is to carry on digging,weeding and de-stoning the boundary bed.

Another  1.5 hours at the plot today. Called at newsagent to post some ebay sales off and there were some boxes of flattened cardboard boxes outside. I asked if I could have one and wish I had asked for the four box fulls as the cardboard within is an ideal size for what I need at the plot.

Dropped off some chitted potatoes and put them in greenhouse with the others, then wrapped them all up snugly in bubblewrap.

Carried on with the onerous task of digging, weeding and de-stoning the plot edge border.Elder creeping buttercup and stones seem to be the order of the day in this bed. Only got about 2 metres sorted before I realised even though the sun was shining there was a pretty bladdy cold wind encircling my kidneys!

Put some glass over one of the wooden sided  beds to warm the soil but added a lump of heavy timber to keep it down in case the wind got under it.

Took dahlias,all seed tatties and Cape gooseberry plants to allotment and built a tent for them on the greenhouse staging. Plenty of room for my toms and peppers at a later date .

Watered my leeks, caulli's,kale and calabrese in the cold frame hardening off.

Carried on with digging, weeding and de-stoning plot border. Its a long slow job but I am about 3/4 complete now.

Piccie of border progression (although shadow of fence doesn't help any) greenhouse tent. types of weeds(mainly couch grass) and size of stones. I have no Idea what to do with all the stones I am digging up.

Also took the top boards off an old compost bin with the intention of growing sweetcorn there this year.

Went to plot today mainly to see if my tent in the greenhouse had worked to keep the frost off? The answer was 'no' and half my dahlias have suffered. Ah well, you live and learn!

Decided to empty my dalek and shovelled the contents onto cardboard set in a layer in one of my raised beds. After adding the home made compost I covered it with 3/4 of a bag of Aldi's finest compost.

I then set about digging border bed with four containers. One for stones, one for weeds, one for bits of plastic and other detritus amd one for worms.

Piccie of prepared bed and pile of stones I got from about six foot by 2 foot bed.