Anyone with an allotment?

Yes, it was very relaxing. I also used one to make a cane / small bits of wood store in the shelter too as they just rot in the open and scatter in the shed.

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That is a brilliant idea!

yeah really good!

Plus 1, excellent idea, using that :)

I'll be listing supply & fit on Etsy shortly ;)

Ha. Might take you up on that.

Lockdown 1.0 was pallet time. And compost bins of much lower standard of your pallet work was done.

Lockdown 2.0 started with harvesting the pumpkin patch

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Good haul that!

I'd take that haul over my pallet work. Our 2020 squash yield from multiple plants = zero. :(

yeah we are chuffed with them. Had already harvested some candy roasters.

We did have a big hand of help. Though reckon some wood working skills would help more in long run

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pumpkin pie is coming out of the oven right now.

It feels random. But we are happy bed 4 delivered. Our leeks and beans have been massive fail

I got one squash this year. However it tasted fantastic and was about 6kg so did us 4 meals and a pie.

That's an interesting plant pot.

I'm with you on random, we did great on some stuff but squash was a failure just never got going. Fed that bed today so hopefully it'll be more productive next year.

6kg

!! Nice!

We're still digging out tonnes of broken glass and plastic bags, but today brought some pretty visible progress which feels good. Should have a few bits in to overwinter soon.

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I’m going to put in 3 beds for cut flowers for Mrs Bear

Hot composters, anyone with any experience of them? Thinking of getting one for the plot so I can tidy up my random heaps of nettles, thistles and other weeds.

@7ven has one, also @dancing james I think

I do, and it's wonderful!
I've been at it for 7 months now (family of 4). Took out the bottom 100l yesterday to create a bed in the front garden. Probably had a good 400l out of it so far. I get spent malt and hops from the local brewer on the street. Foxes had a bit of a go at it a few months back but it's still going strong.

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Amazing things, just need regular feeding and a supply of woof chips and shredded paper.

Some geezer at our allotments has used about 95% of the manure that got dropped off for everyone. Apparently had 4 lads barrowing it up yesterday and levelled and redid his whole plot in a day.

Industrious no doubt but really not in the spirit of it as there’s now fuck all for anyone else to use.
We’ve got just enough for now and there’s another load in Jan but plenty of people haven’t got any yet.

That’s pretty mean spirited.

In other news, made a pumpkin pie today.

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What does it do that a regular compost heap doesn't? Is it insulated?

It is faster and will take more material. Their biggest selling point is for domestic purposes as you can put cooked food and raw meat in.

Worth looking at the website and YT.

As above, it's insulated and operates at temps between 40-60deg c.
Can put your weeds and food scraps in as its pretty inaccessible to vermin and kills most of the nasty pathogens and seeds. Spits out some useable goodness pretty quickly. I think DJ composts his dog poo in his.
Have a read about it here.
https://www.hotbincomposting.com/hotbin-composting-science.html