Anyone with an allotment?

An historic day yesterday. Our first ever harvested allotment produce! Just enough coriander to add to a stir-fry for dinner but it's a start. :)

1 Attachment

So do you now need to change your username to PhilCurryHouse? :)

Well done.

Home made feeds - has anyone got an recipes.

I was chatting to a guy today whilst filling up my watering can. He was telling about his home made feed. Wouldn’t tell me what was in it but did let me have a bit. Liquid shit. That’s how it smelt

Any ideas?

Rotted nettles or comfrey left in a waterbutt I’d guess.

Comfrey smells pretty rank once rotted in some water. Good stuff by all accounts.

Wouldn’t tell me what was in it

Also, WAC, it’s not a fucking competition, share the knowledge.

Quite so

We do one with nettles, bloody stinks

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybjrD5Fxk1E

There is a special type of comfrey to plant that doesn't spread and invade, Bocking 14, iirc.

This was just a patch of type 1 hardcore prior to lockdown.

Beds were made with spare shutter ply and wood scraps. Filled with topsoil, covered with a layer of cardboard and topped with a mixture of leaf compost and household compost. Installed irrigation dripper system this week.

Next I need to start attaching some of the taller bean and pea plants to the hazel frames. Also I ought to find out what needs pruning and how to do it. About 60% is stuff I have grown from seeds and the rest were seedlings neighbours left on my doorstep - traded for wild garlic or sourdough loaves.

Have also included a picture of the salad/herb trug too.

4 Attachments

Looking very promising

He’s a bit of a douche

Smart work. Deer proofing as well?

Tomatoes in (fingers crossed for no blight) and harvested (foraged?) the elderflowers here to make some flavoured gin (although at the moment it looks like the worst ever ‘sample’ even a doctor would shudder at.)

2 Attachments

Got it!

We have roe and muntjac round here and want to deter them.

Also when our dogs see us digging in the garden they sometimes try to imitate and “help” by also digging so it stops them too.

Photo dump. I've been pretty busy with work through lock down so didn't get to germinate as much as I'd like, but luckily my buddy's been unemployed and on it. Need to improve the soil at the end of the year, local stables said we can help ourselves to manure so need to get the dung-trailer up and running.

8 Attachments

What's the process of dungery? I feel ours needs a lot of work - what do we do / when do we do it? What's the going rate for horse shit?

roe and muntjac

Same. This year have managed to keep them at bay. Love to see them, not so much when they eat all the things :(

It's a good question, everything I read seems to just say 'well rotted manure'. I think this usually takes up to a year or more to get to the 'well rotted' stage, though you could probably just chuck it on the beds over winter.

You can usually pay someone to deliver a load of horse manure to your allotment, local farmer/stable etc. Ask one of the serious allotment types where they get theirs from they should have a name and number to ring. Least that’s how it works here. Think it’s about £30/40 a ton delivered. My inherent aversion to paying for anything I feel I could get for free has thus far prevented me buying any so I’m currently composting goat manure as I know someone who gives it away.

If you have stable/horsey ppl near, horseshit is usually (should be) free to cart away - you’re doing them a favour. If it’s ‘fresh’ bung it in a compost bin, the rot process takes a few months (dep. on the time of year it’s, er, produced :)

edit- too slow, also what @Tonts says :)

Thanks all - yep, have read about about it being well-rotted. I feel, as a farmers son, I should know this kind of stuff but my shame has put me off ever asking.

So if I were to get a fresh batch, now would be a good time to do so in that I could chuck it on the compost heap now and have it ready for mulching over winter?

Edit: hangabout - it's bloody June. Last I checked it was January. Christ.

Find someone who owns a horse!

A lady at my work owns a horse and every week she brings me a big bag of manure

We get manure free on the plot (lots of local stables), so usually add to a depth of four to six inches over the ground in oct/november and then dig in after the drying march winds. Usually do half the plot; green manure planted on the rest - it’s a better soil conditioner. Some crops don’t like going in on horse manure so worth thinking about your rotation.