Anyone with an allotment?

I did a sprinkle of woodchip at the bottom of my trenches this time. No specific reason other than it was a bit wet and claggy that day.

I’ve been given a bunch of fresh wild garlic bulbs. Where should I plant them? Presumably somewhere that won’t get dug over every year? In with the herbs? In a planter?

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When recently chipped from living wood, the processes that lead to rot, (various saproxylic species), do have a demand for nitrogen as the lignins and celluloses are solely carbohydrates. If acceptable to you, pissing on the mulch layer of wood chip a couple of times, will provide the required nitrogen.

I tend to use liquid seaweed, looks and smells the same :)

Welcome to my nightmare

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Don't see any ground elder...... Life is good :)

Tarpaulins everywhere, glass everywhere, old carpet.

I’m going to rob my local bike shops bike boxes to cover everything over, to stop the weeds.

This plot is going to be for cut flowers. Dahlias and peony’s to begin with.

was it on fire when you arrived?

Looks like my old plot but less metal

Has very end of the world alert on your phone vibes. My local society asked what experience I had as the plots are "in a challenging condition". They've literally just got some speedwell, dandelions and bolted kale on 'em. This looks like the stuff of nightmares.

So far I’ve pulled 5x builders tonne sacks of plastic and metal junk out of our plot.
Was vacant for many years. A fair few on our site were in a similar condition as the council never kicked off anyone who paid their subs so ‘vacant’ plots became dumping grounds for others.
Our opposite neighbour comes once a year at most, looks like they’ve not done any actual work on the plot in a decade.

Been offered a plot, will have to wait to find out which one but I'm over the moon whatever it is.

Will spread rapidly I think so maybe in a container.

Hopefully I’ll get the rest burnt next weekend.

Happy days. Long wait for you!

Just got a Hotbin. Obvs I can read their website, but anyone got any tips for getting it started well? have plenty of chicken poo, shredded hemp hen bedding, and normal food waste which could go in. Also an existing compost heap which is doing nothing fast which I’m hoping to put through it.

Try not to cram it full needs space for air to flow.

Buy a 60l storage barrel to keep next to it and fill it with woodchip and shredded paper. As far as I can tell you can't really add too much but it'll go anaerobic without.

Thanks, hoping the shredded hemp will help as ‘woodchip’ but will get on collecting other similar stuff too.

Ours has stalled two years on the bounce, Christ it’s a horrible job emptying it. Echo what’s been said that you can’t add enough brown material and shredded paper.

Ours has also been much harder than they make out. You need 5 times the amount of paper and brown material you think, and yeah emptying it when stalled is pure sick in mouth territory.

Just a few sticks in the bottom, a load of grass and some leaves or shredded cardboard should get that carbon to nitrogen ratio right and see you steaming in no time.

I have a 3ft x 6ft gap in my garden bed and intend to use it to plant veg this year. Its just in the middle of an existing bed

Is there anything I should be wary of? plants nearby that are toxic e.g foxgloves, bulbs etc

As far as I know there aren't any massive concerns with cross contamination etc. Just don't try and cram too much in there. Maybe something that grows up rather than spreads out, like beans/corn rather than squash/pumpkins.

Firmly into the greenzone with the hotbin again. Over winter, the carbon bag had become soggy and it wasn't allowing any air through. I removed it, let it dry in the sun for a day and now it's steaming through the vent again.

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Onions of Spring. Strong flavour.

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