Allotments 4 All

I have just thrown out the broad beans that I sowed in my first week at the allotment in March.  They did a great job but all good things have to come to an end. 

It originally took me most of a week to dig the first small bed.  I sliced into the rock hard soil an inch at a time.  In all I spend six solid weeks digging.

Yesterday I dug it over in about 15 minutes.  Though my very first crop of Tesco Parsley which has been supplying handfuls every week was cheering me on as usual.

I should have liked to dig in some more manure, but I have gone off that at the moment.  Using recycled compost, hope that does not get problems as well.  Got the compost bin but every week I fill it up and every week it ends up half empty.  Not usre that it will provide enough for a allotment.

it's amazing what a difference can be made. I've noticed this year (my 2nd) that the soil is becoming much more manageable. And my back is grateful for it!

I've been pondering how to maintain the soil, in terms of adding organic matter, and am also very wary of manure. And I know that my compost heap won't stretch that far this year. I've been mulching with either straw or grass cuttings which has helped with the weeding and the drying out, but will also (I presume) help in terms of adding some nutrients back into the soil. I plan to be collecting leaves etc in autumn. I was also going to do some hot bed / trenches for the bean beds next year to help

1066

We use our broad bean haulms for putting in the trenches in the onion bed along with manure and bonemeal ready for the overwintering onions

Quotesome hot bed / trenches

What are hot beds?

QuoteWe use our broad bean haulms for putting in the trenches in the onion bed

I like the sound of this.  I have a lot of broad bean haulms and don't think that the compost bin will cope with large amounts of them, they are a bit woody.  Our weed disposal service (otherwise known as pigs) deal with brocolli stalks but turn their noses up at broad beans. 

I had forgotten about overwintering onions.  Used to buy sets from a man in the market but not seen him for years.  He also used to do wonderful celery in the spring and I never managed to find out the variety.  But never tasted better.  When do you buy them.

We have grown Radar this year.They are supposed to store for longer than lots of others way into autumn. We got our sets from Marshalls but you can get them anywhere I think.

Digeroo, I'm not sure if I'm using the right term! But basically you dig a trench and then put veg peelings, leaves, straw, shredded paper etc in and then cover with soil. So basically the veg matter rots down (creating heat and moisture?) while the beans etc above are nice and toasty!
I've tried it this year in an area where my dwarf french beans are growing, I also mulched with some manure and have since mulched with grass clippings (to keep the weeds down) and I've had a bumper crop. If I remember right I shoved loads of half rotted canna leaves in for good measure as well, so it will be interesting to see how decomposed they are when I did the bed over in a month or two.

1066

Have a look on the internet or yell.com for mushroom farms in your area. Mushroom compost is usually cheap if you bag it yourself (60p a bag in my area) and you can use it as a mulch or dig it in, in autumn for the worms to do all the work ready for spring.

Neil