Allotments 4 All

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Hi all

I have made a start on 'Winter Preparations'

I have lifted a load of plants (spit them if necessary) that have outstayed their current position.

My problem is; still haven't got my garden laid out as I want it, and to be quite honest I am not actually sure what I want!

I want to get my herbaceous border less labour intensive, but this year it just run riot with plants growing much higher than usual.

My Chrysanths are about a foot higher than they normally grow, some new stuff I put in turned out to be either too high or too low growing, and I just didn't like it hence me lifting the amount of plants I did!

My neighbours hedge had grown about two feet thicker resulting in the foliage covering my pot store, so I cut this back to my fence line.(took 25 x 70 litre compost bagful to the tip)

Now that it has been cut back, I will get a lot more light into my greenhouse.

I have erected a mesh fence to hopefully keep the hedge under better control in future.

I have included a few before & after pics below.

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We are told volunteers or working parties to carry out work on boundaries or common areas are not allowed by our association because they would constitute employees and effect our insurance costs - is this correct?  It sounds a bit strange to me.

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Next year I am switching to raised beds on my plot (apart from the potatoes).
What are peoples opinions of the best size for raised beds?

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How to improve “compostability”?

My household has been using so-called biodegradable bags for food waste which I have been adding to the compost heap. When I came to spread the latest bin-worth onto the allotment it was apparent that the bags had degraded slower than their contents.

How do I get the bags to degrade quicker. They look horribly like bog paper where I’ve spread the otherwise OK compost?