Hungerford allotment blog - grow your own, harvesting and vegetarian cooking. Enjoying allotment wildlife, weather and other things that catch my attention.
Enjoying time on the Marsh Lane Allotment site in Hungerford, Berkshire.
A record of successes, failures and a handy reminder for me.
From 2017 each post title brings a song to add a little extra music to the world - enjoy!
On Saturday we decided the time had come to deal with our dalek compost bins on Plot3. Three of them have been composting away for at least two years with new material being added on top but no stirring - it’s quite awkward to get in to mix the contents.
I will try to stir it a bit more in future, there were definite layers of wet and dry which could have broken down more with a bit of human intervention.
The worms, woodlice, slugs and centipedes had done a pretty good job though. Compost worms always look so lovely and clean.
The un-composted contents were moved on to a spare compost, along with the worms, as starters for the next lot of compost. We managed to extract the lovely newly created soil through the little door at the bottom for a bit of sorting - how did all that plastic get in there?!
So as the sun was going down on Saturday (5:15) we left the plot with 3 compost bins ready and waiting for re-filling and 10 bags of humus-rich soil to go in the bottom of the bean trenches. Aah, home-produced compost is very satisfying.
That meant that Sunday was trench-digging day. The squash tunnel is becoming a bean tunnel this year. Digging trenches is such hard work, especially after a few lazy Winter months of barely moving - we took it in turns to dig! The Sun didn't show, which was probably a good thing, but the birds were full of song around us.
We only managed one trench, the other side can wait till next weekend. Does it look like it's getting thinner at the other end..? Hmm, must be something to do with perspective *ahem*
On the breaks between digging we weeded the garlic and leek plot - the leeks are very poor; there are only a few there which are any good unfortunately.
The garlic looks ok so far, but they've got a good few months more to grow so I won't count my chickens!
Talking of chicken, well, definitely not chicken actually "What the cluck" - I prefer to call it 'Cluck' - a plant-based alternative to chicken. I enjoyed two meals at the weekend using Cluck and chestnuts.
Cluck is too chicken-y for Jamie so he has plant-based burgers, which I find too beef-y! I added teriyaki sauce along with our home-grown cavalo nero in the top meal - delicious.
And this second one includes onions and a parsley sauce - Jamie didn't know what he was missing out on 😏 This is served with Sticky Rice which is so white you can hardly see it. I love it - 1 minute in the microwave, perfect.
A final close-up of a potato chit - they're so alien aren't they? They do amuse me 😊 and a segway to this song by Iron Maiden.
That potato chit is freaky, graet photo though. We don't turn our compost either, the pile is huge and is left for a couple of years - it seems to work OK.
Well don't you spoil your beans! I would have put the uncomposted/partially composted material in the trench and saved the matured stuff for making seed compost or planting potatoes or mulching valued crops/flowerbeds. Just saying what I would do/have done myself. Maybe I will do a post about it! Finally took delivery of my first early potatoes today. Now laid out for chitting.
Yes, they are spoiled, but hope they appreciate it. This plot has been a bit neglected and the compost has a risk of marestail so we weren’t keen to use it on our other plots. Good idea if we move the compost bin to another plot though, thanks!
That potato chit is freaky, graet photo though. We don't turn our compost either, the pile is huge and is left for a couple of years - it seems to work OK.
ReplyDeleteOh, you don't turn your compost? I thought it was the law :-) In that case, perhaps I won't bother even trying to remember to do it!
DeleteWell don't you spoil your beans! I would have put the uncomposted/partially composted material in the trench and saved the matured stuff for making seed compost or planting potatoes or mulching valued crops/flowerbeds. Just saying what I would do/have done myself. Maybe I will do a post about it!
ReplyDeleteFinally took delivery of my first early potatoes today. Now laid out for chitting.
Yes, they are spoiled, but hope they appreciate it. This plot has been a bit neglected and the compost has a risk of marestail so we weren’t keen to use it on our other plots. Good idea if we move the compost bin to another plot though, thanks!
Delete