Allotments
For people who don't have a garden or their garden isn't big enough then an allotment is one way of getting some land to grow crops.We realised in autumn 2010 that we needed more space to grow soft fruit. At that time there were no Council run allotments in West Lothian however, there were some new private ones just up the road. It was one of these we took on.
March 2011 Day 1
As the allotment site had previously been a field when we fist looked at it it was a grassy site. Part of the site preparation undertaken by the owner was to remove the turf to allow is a head start. When I went up to put the initial marker canes in inNovember 2010 it was so wet I ended up up to my knees in mud. This guided us towards creatng raised beds to allow drainage, with paths beneath.
We waited until March 2011 before we went up to start the job in ernest.
We waited until March 2011 before we went up to start the job in ernest.
Building raised beds
This is how far we had pregressed by day tow - mid March 2011. The ground was still very wet and it was difficult to walk on despite the weedblock - bulk bags split to size. However, the beds started to go in, each pathe taking about an hour to put in place, not including the ferrying of wood up. This was done by the site owner in his Landrover, the only vehicle likely to manage the job.
Day 3
With all the wet clay and the paths being churned up we put down chipped bark (FSC) as we made the paths. This meant that we could walk on the paths without doing too much damage and kept our boots a bit lighter. We now had all the beds in place down the left (West) side, this picture is taken facing North. We decided as this was mid March we would start to plant as we built so we didn't miss that window.
Start of April 2011
As the ground is so weed infested we decided to trial a permaculture method of ground clearing. We are lucky enough to have a bike shop close to us and the owner allowed us to take as many bike boxes as we wished. These we took to pieces and laid in the beds which were then covered with old wood - untreated and horse manure, compost and leaf mold with a mulch of chipped bark on top. All bar the horse manure was ours, the site owner provided the horse manure. The theory of the wood is that it retains moisture and slowly releases nutrients supporting the plants in their early years.
We will see if it works. Certainly during the three weeks of dry weather following planting in April the plants that were in the most "woody" beds did best. Not sure this would count as scientific evidence but was an interesting observation.
We will see if it works. Certainly during the three weeks of dry weather following planting in April the plants that were in the most "woody" beds did best. Not sure this would count as scientific evidence but was an interesting observation.
