Welcome to our plot!

I'm Hazel, and in Nov 2006 my friend Jane and I took on a half plot at Hill Allotments, Sutton Coldfield - we want the satisfaction of growing and eating our own fruit and veg, and to improve our diet (and fitness!).

This is the story of what happened next...........

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Planting & Picking!

Saturday mornings are always busy at the Hill – plenty of plot holders about as I arrived this morning including teacher Barry, supervising some onion lifting at novice neighbour Jody’s plot – Jody had his toddler with him, checking out what was growing on daddy’s plot.

Firstly, I wanted to put some feed onto the legume & misc. beds, so I went to the shed & bought enough fish, blood & bone to cover – a grand investment of £1 for 2kg.

Once this was raked in – whilst having a chat to Retired Maureen – I planted out the last batch of BROAD BEANS (witkeim manita), as well as climbing FRENCH BEANS (barlotti) & DWARF FRENCH BEANS (talisman) then back to the miscellaneous bed to plant out half a dozen each of LETTUCE (mini green & little gem) & to sow a row of RADISH (french breakfast 3).

Whilst popping a few weeds on the top of the compost bin, I wondered how the other bin is getting on (currently 'cooking'), so I took the lid off & had a poke around with the fork.

Although the edges are looking unrotted, the middle is looking almost ready. I stirred it up as best I could, added a huge bucket of comfrey cut from retired Maureen's out-of-control plant then a big bucket of rotting manure from the skip – dug from down in the middle where it is steaming & too hot to touch, then I re-covered the bin.

This just left the nice bit of harvesting – I dug up the first POTATOES (dunluce), then picked some BROAD BEANS (barry plot 19), RADISH (french breakfast 3), LETTUCE (hsl stoke), a few STRAWBERRIES & a couple of RASPBERRIES, which tasted very good indeed.

That just left the first of the sweet peas to cut & a wander down to the bottom to see how Rhubarb Brian & John Badger were getting on. All in all, a very satisfactory couple of hours work – albeit spread over a good deal of the day…

4 comments:

  1. If part of your heap is steaming and too hot to touch then I'd say it is doing very well indeed.

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  2. Sadly it is the horse manure skip which is steaming, Bilbo - I'd be well impressed if mu compost bin did that!

    I'd be able to bake a jacket spud in the middle of it - mind you, it might taste a bit funny...

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  3. Hazel, I'd go and acquire a barrow-load of that lovely muck and add it to your compost heap. Whenever I have put some of our cow-muck pile onto the compost heap (usually when I have a lot of grass clippings and I want them mixed with something) it heats up amazingly quickly.

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  4. Yes, I've done that, Bilbo - then laid on a bin bag on top to keep the heat in - I'm hoping that the compost will be ready to use in a month or so.

    The second bin is chock a block, and I don't have room for a third bin!

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