HERE'S A CLEVER TRICK, USEFUL EITHER WHEN CLEARING A NEW ALLOTMENT - (ESPECIALLY IF YOUR SOIL IS A BIT LUMPY AND HARD) OR IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS WITH POOR DRAINAGE!!!
Use a bulk bag (the kind that come with builder's supplies in). Set it up in a difficult corner (but a sunny one) and use it as a compost heap. As you clear your plot, fill it with all your allotment and garden waste (anything can go in, even weeds, but not just grass clippings on their own) until the early part of the winter. At Christmas, cover the top with old compost sacks to keep everything snug and stop anything growing.
In the spring, level off the contents and firm them well down. Cover with a 4-6" thick layer of soil or bagged compost, and fold down the outside to just above the level of the soil inside. Plant 4 courgette, squash or cucumber plants at the corners. They will root into your compost heap, spill attractively down the edges, and be at a comfortable height to pick. By the autumn, when you take the plants out, the compost inside will have rotted down quite a lot.
Once cleaned of the courgette and squash plants, fold the top down further to take account of the rotting down, and add a little more soil or bagged compost on top, and mix in some general purpose fertiliser like pelleted chicken manure. Sow with winter salads, spring onions and maybe some herbs. In March add some more lettuce seeds and some radishes.
Meanwhile, on a sunny windowsill, have some climbing french beans or runner beans growing on in little pots. In late May, take out the last of the overwintering and spring salads and tidy the soil up. Add some more fertiliser, slot canes into the perimeter, tie them in the middle to make a wigwam, and plant out your beans. They will love the moist, squishy compost and give you a good crop.
Once the beans have finished, tip out all the contents and use to mulch or dig into your soil!
Use a bulk bag (the kind that come with builder's supplies in). Set it up in a difficult corner (but a sunny one) and use it as a compost heap. As you clear your plot, fill it with all your allotment and garden waste (anything can go in, even weeds, but not just grass clippings on their own) until the early part of the winter. At Christmas, cover the top with old compost sacks to keep everything snug and stop anything growing.
In the spring, level off the contents and firm them well down. Cover with a 4-6" thick layer of soil or bagged compost, and fold down the outside to just above the level of the soil inside. Plant 4 courgette, squash or cucumber plants at the corners. They will root into your compost heap, spill attractively down the edges, and be at a comfortable height to pick. By the autumn, when you take the plants out, the compost inside will have rotted down quite a lot.
Once cleaned of the courgette and squash plants, fold the top down further to take account of the rotting down, and add a little more soil or bagged compost on top, and mix in some general purpose fertiliser like pelleted chicken manure. Sow with winter salads, spring onions and maybe some herbs. In March add some more lettuce seeds and some radishes.
Meanwhile, on a sunny windowsill, have some climbing french beans or runner beans growing on in little pots. In late May, take out the last of the overwintering and spring salads and tidy the soil up. Add some more fertiliser, slot canes into the perimeter, tie them in the middle to make a wigwam, and plant out your beans. They will love the moist, squishy compost and give you a good crop.
Once the beans have finished, tip out all the contents and use to mulch or dig into your soil!
