Allotments 4 All

We got a delivery of leaves from the council yesterday, but of course they've dumped them on top of the wood chips.  :( What with the huge pile of mushroom compost and various horse manure mini mountains it's actually quite hard to get to your plot!! ;D

I felt sorry for the Council bloke sweeping up the leaves as it was very windy that day and it didn't look any better after he had finished.  Probably better to wait for all the leaves to fall and do it in one go, but I suppose if someone slips on the pavement they could sue.  We have a special Council leaf van that collects them and they don't go with the normal rubbish, they go to be made into compost, which the Council use on their beds, parks and any left over if you ask nicely gets delivered to the allotment.  But there won't be many leaves left if Enfield if Cornykev is around night and day collecting.  ;D ;D ;D

Quote from: grawrc on November 07, 2009, 17:11:45
We got a delivery of leaves from the council yesterday, but of course they've dumped them on top of the wood chips.  :( What with the huge pile of mushroom compost and various horse manure mini mountains it's actually quite hard to get to your plot!! ;D

Wish we had that problem, Anne- we get nothing delivered! :(

My leaf composter requires 40 bags a year, although I get about 15 bags from the garden, its not enough.

Now it gets dark early, I sneak out, late evening, and fill the car with bags of leaves. If you know when the collections are due, its positively a gold mine.

I then spread them in the grass back at home and use the lawn mower to shred them and pick them up again. Straight into the composter, and if they're a bit dry, soak them with the hose - if they re dry they wont rot down.

In the spring/summer I also collect grass cuttings from the neighbours (again under the cover of dark), which when mixed in with the leaves warm it up and add moisture.

Turning the whole lot over not only mixes the stuff, but also adds oxygen.

Its the combination of moisture and oxygen that the microbes need to decompose the leaves.

Mine's done in 12 months, just in time to start all over again.

Slug-killer I have a strange picture in my head of you going round your neighbours gardens in the Summer with your lawnmower in tow & the neighbours waking up & wondering what on earth is going on ;D ;D ;D.
We have a Jim's Mowing franchise man as one of our neighbours so I think I will ask if he has any leaves to get rid of ;).

You mean like a secret Lawnmower Man, robbing the rich of their grass ?   ;D

I can't be bothered to actually cut the grass, I just 'harvest' the bagged up stuff - let them do the hard work.  :)

Another bump for the newcomers amongst us, I hope I'm not upsetting any council workers out there.   :-X        ;D ;D ;D

Thanks kev will be out collecting this week

Oh sounds fun, I've got my eye on a couple of piles of grass clippings and hedge trimmings in the hedge down the allotment......might have look out for some leaves too  :)

Begining to feel a bit hard done by of late.  No free bees of any sort delivered to our site.  The only thing we've had is a rent rise. 
I've been trying to get our allotments officer to deal with fly tipping on the site.  We no who it is and its been going on along time.
Reps meeting in Nov so am going to take a couple of plot holders with me to ask why nothings being done.
Hope your having a good halloween and have a save and happy bonfire night.  Won't be around so much in the next few weeks so take care.  Regards, Taurus.