Turning the compost bin

One of our first jobs of the New Year on the allotment was to turn the compost. We have six compost bins. One is for leaves and two of them are manure bins. We used to have a good supply of manure delivered to the allotments, but that source has now come to an end. We may have to look elsewhere.

The other three bins are for compost. One bin is for current use for all our garden and kitchen waste. The middle bin is for compost which is rotting down and not being added to. The third bin is pure well rotted compost ready to be used.  That's the system.

We turn our heap about once a month with a fork to allow air to circulate.  We find that the stuff rots down quite quickly and within about 6 to 12  months we have some fairly decent compost ready to be used.

As the first bin was quite full Richard decided to turn it into the middle bin. I let him get on with it. It's quite a strenuous job. The compost looks good but still has woody bits in it. That bin will now be left to rot down without any more stuff being added to it.

It didn't take me long to start filling up the empty bin with compostable waste.  We bring kitchen waste from home, fruit and vegetable peelings as well as cardboard tubes, shredded paper and newspaper. Also added is anything which will rot down from the garden or allotment. Grass cuttings and dead plant material. No perennial weeds, although I do add nettle leaves( no roots) which are good for making compost.

Comfrey leaves can be added too if I'm not using it to make comfrey feed. There is a big clump of comfrey on the plot as well as plenty of it growing outside on the lane. It's a plant which grows big and can take over if not controlled. But it's brilliant for feeding crops especially tomatoes. Woody plant material takes a lot longer to rot down so is not always a good thing to put on the compost heap, but I always put some twigs at the base of the bin when I am starting a new one. It allows air to circulate.

I never fail to get excited about making compost. To me there is something really magical about putting rubbish in a bin or on a heap and then months later to dig out a lovely crumbly mixture to put on my garden or allotment beds.

Autumn on the allotment

The days  are getting  get shorter, and colder and our time on the allotment is often dull, damp and misty. But the work is easing up, there is no rush now to get things done, we have all winter. The leaves are falling  from the big sycamore tree.  Every time we go, we find the top of the plot carpeted with with a layer of leaves. So sweeping up these leaves is one job which will keep us busy for a week or two until they have all have fallen. But it will all be worthwhile as they will go in the leaf bin and rot down to make lovely leaf mould for the beds next year.

leeks growing well

As crops are cleared and the beds weeded and tidied up, we are covering the soil with a good layer of well rotted manure.  There are still plenty of vegetables in other beds which will keep us going through the winter--leeks, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, fennel, beetroot, parsnips.

mulched bed

Both the greenhouses are now empty. The tomatoes were finished weeks ago and last week I picked the last cucumber, cut back the chillies and sweet peppers and had a good clean up. I had a lovely box of vegetables  to take home that day.

 

Today I pruned the fruit bushes-- blackcurrants, gooseberries and redcurrant and  then covered the bed with a layer of our home made compost. The blueberries got a mulch of pine needles, saved from last year's Christmas tree as they like an acidic soil.

Most of the flowers have gone over now but the Rudbekias just keep on going and every time we go I cut another bunch to take home with me. We have had frost a few mornings recently and the dahlias turned black, so I lifted them and put them in the greenhouse to dry out.

rudbekias

I love this clearing up process as the growing season comes to an end. It's bringing about a time of rest for us, although there are always jobs to be done throughout the winter, but we don't need to go down to the plot so much now. It's a time to look back and a time to look forward. Some crops may not have done well, but there's always another year to think about mistakes made and try again or try something different.

One sad bit of news is that we haven't seen Ziggy the allotment cat for a few weeks now. She was always there to meet us when we arrived demanding food and she followed us around as we worked. She had started off living on Plot 10b which was Helen's plot and when Helen gave up her plot Ziggy came over to join us on Plot 8. She was getting old and we could see that she was quite weary and struggling. We will probably never know what happened to her and where she decided to end her days, but we feel pleased that for the last few years of her life we provided her with food, love and comfort. Read her story here http://margaretspatch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/ziggy-allotment-cat.html and here http://margaretspatch.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/greedy-cat.html

Garden calling

The garden has been calling me for a week or two now. But I have been neglecting it and giving all the attention to the allotment. Not that this time of year and the current weather conditions are really gardening weather. But a gardener will always find something that needs to be done. Having spent most of January doing jobs around the allotment I decided that I needed to give some time to the garden. The garden does tend to take second place to the allotment, but it's good to see that it can look after itself for a lot of the time.

In the autumn I cut back some of the very messy looking dead plants and left the rest--the grasses and seed heads, to give some interest through the winter and provide homes for insects and food for the birds  I decided that now was the time to finally cut back these plants and get ready for spring. I was glad to cut the grasses down, there were bits of dried grass blowing about all over the garden. Not sure if that was the result of the winter storms or Holly the cat who likes to roll about in them. Holly supervised as I worked and was probably a bit miffed that I had destroyed her playground. The birds might feel a bit more secure now that she can't hide behind clumps of plants as she likes to do, ready to pounce.

The garden looks a bit flat now, but soon new shoots will be appearing and the empty areas of the borders will fill up. As I cut back I discovered some treasures-- snowdrops, narcissi, crocus. I also found a lovely pink hellebore flowering for the first time since I bought it from a charity plant stall two years ago. The  hamamelis, otherwise known as witch hazel is now flowering. It's yellow spidery flowers are a welcome bit of colour at this time of year.  I  potted up some tete a tete narcissi into small pots to display on the garden table.  These can  be seen from the house and look brighter every day as a few more flowers open up.

As I worked on the borders, Richard dug out some compost from the compost bins.  He managed to fill an old dustbin. My next job after I have finished clearing all the borders of debris will be to mulch the borders with compost or leaf mould, but I will need more than a dustbin full of compost for that.

Packing up for the allotment

 As we were packing up the car ready to go to the allotment I thought it must be like setting off on an expedition with the amount of stuff we sometimes take with us.  There are the essentials, flasks, milk, cake, fruit, maybe lunch too.  Then  there's the all important wellies with an extra pair of socks. My husband's tool bag goes in and any garden tools we may need. We have a collection of tools in the allotment sheds, but some tools like my favourite border spade and fork are too good to be left at the allotment where they could be stolen. So they go in the car every time we go.

Those are all the essentials for every allotment visit, but then there are all the extras.  Sometimes there are bags of garden or kitchen waste for the compost heap. This week there have been trays of plants for the woodland garden, trays of strawberry plants for the polytunnel and bags of compost. It's not surprising my husband said we couldn't fit any thing else in.

What do you take to the allotment with you?

Compost bins

It's funny how sometimes things which seem terribly boring to some people can make you feel really happy. This week for me it has been compost bins. Yes really!  My husband who is incredibly good at making things has made some compost bins for our allotment on plot 8.  I'm happy because, I've now got some compost bins, which is something every plot needs and they have been made for very little cost as most of the materials were lying around on both of our allotments. I'm also pleased because it has tidied up the bottom end of our plot and it's another stage in the progress of the allotment.

We now have somewhere to throw our kitchen and garden waste, although we do have bins on plot 10b and in the garden, but it seems to me that once you get into doing compost making you need more and more space for it. So I don't just have compost bins I have manure bins too because we have a supply of manure regularly dumped nearby which we can all help ourselves to. I also now have a  leaf bin and I won't have a problem filling that either.

What simple things are making you feel happy?

November in the garden

The garden takes a back seat during November and December with all the preparations for Christmas, fortunately there is not usually too much work to be done out there at this time of year. But if we get fine days when the sun shines, even though it might be cold, I often have a longing to get out and do some work. 

The main job at the moment is sweeping up the leaves, of which there are loads. We have a big leaf composting bin which my husband made and it produces lots of lovely leaf mould each year.  I've also planted up some containers with evergreens and cyclamens for outside the front and back doors.
  

This is one I made up last year which is still looking good.

The gaillardia are still  flowering happily.

I've done a bit of tidying and cutting back in the borders, although I leave most of the cutting back for the Spring.  The grasses take over when the flowers die back, although this one is not an evergreen so it too will die back eventually.

The holly tree is still full of berries, so last weekend we cut some branches and have stored them in the shed where it's cool ready for our Christmas decorations in a week or two. There are still plenty of berries left for the birds. They also enjoy the windfall apples which we have left lying around as well as the food which we put out for them. We also have squirrels running around and a few weeks ago there was a hedgehog. We're hoping it's found a place to hibernate. It shouldn't have too much trouble finding anywhere, there are plenty of places which we don't clear of leaves.

Clearing up

It's that time of year when there's lots of clearing up to be done in the garden and allotment.  We had a good weekend at the allotment with some lovely weather to keep us going. I went with a plan and worked through all the jobs on the list.  That's made me quite happy now. I love lists!

We've cleared away veg which have finished, weeded and dug over beds. The compost from the old potato bags have been spread over cleared areas and then these beds were covered with membrane to keep the weeds down. We  have manure to put down on some of the beds but as there's still stuff growing we'll have to leave it for a while.

There are plenty of vegetables in some of the beds to keep us going for a while. The leeks are doing well. I earthed them up but they won't be ready to pull for some time yet. There are parsnips, beetroot, celery and celeriac. It's the first time we've grown celery and celeriac and we weren't sure if they will do anything. At the moment they are just leaves with no sign of anything worth digging up.

The brassica bed has brussels sprouts, red cabbage, kale and purple sprouting broccoli which we are picking regularly.  We harvested one cute little squash plant. I pruned the raspberries and cleared the rhubarb.

My husband turned the compost heaps over.  I'm a bit wary of going near those compost heaps ever since I encountered the rat.  The mice are still around.  My daughter disturbed them as she was weeding.  It's a bit freaky when they suddenly shoot across the bed right next to you!  They were quite cute though and one kept poking it's head out of the hole to see if we were still there!

Busy at the allotment

Our allotment visits are usually just at weekends unless we need to harvest or water midweek, so when we go at the weekend we can see what a difference a week makes.

Most things were doing really well when we visited at the weekend. I'm pleased with the brassicas they look really healthy and hopefully well protected by the new netting  frame which my husband made.

 
The broad beans were amazing and looked to have grown at least 2 feet, but probably not!

The peas are doing well too but I must take more notice of planting distances on seed packets as they were very overcrowded.

The climbing french beans were looking a bit sad and some had died since last week's planting, so I planted some of my 'spare' plants in the spaces left.   I don't know what the problem is, maybe poor soil or cold.  I also sowed some dwarf french beans in between the  fruit bushes. I planted some celeriac which I've grown from seed. I've  never grown or eaten it before so that's something to look forward to. Also sowed some oriental radish in between the rows of celeriac. Another new plant to try out.

The brassica bed is full of weeds, so I started weeding there, but it really needs an afternoon just focusing on weeding and we didn't have enough time on Saturday.

We were pleased to see the sweet peas planted in old tyres are starting to take off. They had looked a bit sad for a few weeks but now they are racing up the netting.

The fruit is coming along fine and the rhubarb is looking good, but I'm not picking it as it is in its first year. Shame!

My husband started work on the compost heaps after the council workers had almost destroyed all the work we had done so far. They had been doing some cutting back of conifers and some weeding around the plots and just chucked all these perennial weeds and stones on everyones' compost heaps. He cleared all the unwanted weeds and stones from our bins and put old carpet down on top of the heaps.

Every time we've been recently I've meant to sow swede seeds, but either forget or run out of time. That's a job for next weekend.  I also think we need more flowers to brighten the place up.  We planted some nasturtium in each raised bed last week, and the sweet peas will look lovely when they are in flower.  I've got some calendula seedlings at home which I'll take along next weekend .

Plenty of jobs to keep us busy.!