How it was in October 2005

The compost heap was fairly small in October 2005. It was been dispersed around the allotment and a new pile started. As I had been away in Switzerland for some time and my wife was suffering from a strain injury things had become a little overgrown. That is now largely back under control. Both the strain injury and the weeds!






As we dug over each area we covered it with a straw mulch to suppress weeds. You can see an area that has been mulched in the picture behind the linkaboard square and next to the Kale.

The overgrown plot next door belongs to an elderly gentleman who is having difficulty and has now been mown and trimmed by his son in law. He made a visit just after I took this photograph.


Preparations also started for next years curcubrit bed. A containment area was built and as manure became available we started to fill it. the first layers were of horse stable manure a mix of droppings on wood shavings that were fairly mature. In April we got cattle manure and topped up almost to the top with it and then finished off with some less mature horse and wood shaving manure. The whole thing was then covered with a tarpaulin to stop leaching from the rain falling on the heap and let the manure mature a bit longer. The Butternut squash, courgette and pumpkin seeds have now been planted at home and will go in in a couple of weeks time. The brassicas next to the enclosure are White Sprouting Broccoli plants. Over the last week we have had several feeds from these plants which are now probably one and half times higher than you see them in this photo. In front of the enclosure you can see a couple of plastic cloches. These were used to start off some leek plants.

If ever there was a good value packet of seeds it must surely be a packet of leek seeds. You get a large number of seeds for a reasonable price and then provided your ground is fertile you get a massive crop of leeks that sees you right through the winter.