Allotments 4 All

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Having finally run out of "outside" lettuce with the week of frosts I went to check on the "winter" lettuce I had planted out when I took the toms down in my large greenhouse. I had noticed some nibbling damage on my last visit so had put out some more slug pellets but they have been grazed virtually down to the ground! Even the spares on the potting table... the rocket is untouched... can anybody suggest what is doing the damage... it's probably not birds as the greenhouse has been closed.
Do mice eat lettuce? We have voles and shrews on the site but have never seen any on plots near me... it's a twelve acre site!
Last winter the lettuce weren't shaved off... and we were cropping until March. We have decided to put some late leaf beet in next year as well. 

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After the cold weather have been down checking on the lottie,
brought in some leeks, swede (which I had stored in sand in the greenhouse against the frost), celeriac (similar but in the garage as they rotted after the frosts early last year), carrots, a white cabbage and the last of the red cabbage which were splitting from all the rain. With potatoes, onions and squash from store it's looking good. 

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Planning next years crops, Not having the room I had at the plot some will have to be left out. Keeping it to basics this time and see how it goes, Can't eat spuds and most root veggies so there's a saving. What crops would you use if you were cut down with space. I expect I'll need a few more raised beds in the end but I hear that there is a glut of sleepers to build them with. Rishi will be selling them now.

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My compost heap is pretty much that, a heap about a sq metre by half a metre high, and it's now cold and dormant. I doubt the compost will be ready for next year, especially as it is now fast asleep. I chuck about two big carrier bags of kitchen waste on each week, whatever the weather. But the latest stuff is barely decomposing at all. It's kept frozen fresh :(

What's the ideal shape to get the thing full enough to be hot and rapidly decomposing? It's all very well the man on 't internet saying 1 m cubed, but if I only have material to 1/4 fill it it will never work well, will it?

So..... I have some pallet wood. Would it be worth me making some smaller, more cube shaped composting boxes? I'm thinking I could make one or two about 600mm sq by 900 high and have them nicely full, rather than what I have now which never seems to get any higher. I'd leave air gaps in the sides, but the big difference would be height and having a lid to keep it a bit warm.

Worth the effort? Or maybe I should invest in a couple more daleks/tardises?

Incidentally, why don't the daleks have air vents?

I really would like my compost to be ready next year.