Composting Corner

An early start to the day and on the allotment by 7:30 whilst the top half, Plot 1A was in the shade of the trees and the rising sun. First job of the day watering whilst everything is in the shade. I installed two deep watering points in the beetroot bed and filled in the gaps with beetroots grown in loo rolls.

Three more parsnips started in loo rolls were added to those already there. The cucumber  mesh was extended in height to on both beds with cucumbers and the Marketmore cucumbers from the Space Saver at home were planted and watered in.

I harvest a Cucumber and Radishes today and I should have harvested some courgettes as they will be turning into marrows shortly if I don't. 

I topped up the small comfrey pipe again and noted that the liquid is now near the bottom of the handle of the milk bottle and will keep an eye and replace the bottle with a new one once it's 3/4 or more full.  The new bottle replaced yesterday on the large pipe has approx. 10-15mm of pure comfrey juice in it and the bottle is just still visible above the pipe. So as its flowing, I decided not to clear last years plug of comfrey at the bottom of the pipe and will clear the pipe at the end of this year ready for next year.  

I cleared bed 7 of the window fames and was going to plant the rest of the beetroots, however by then the sun had raced up the plot and it was far to hot the sweat was already dripping off my head and onto my glasses so I decided to remain up the top end of the plot and in shade as much as possible for the rest of the morning.

I cleared the store extension to the shed and brushed out all the debris that had gathered over last year and winter, and swept up the patio area. Knowing that I would be working in the shade because of the 32C forecast, that I had taken my brother label maker with me and started to label all the food buckets with lids "Coffee" "Compost" "Coir" "Paper" "Sand" "Hops" etc. and sorted out all of the buckets that have been living under the potting bench, under chairs, around the greenhouse and over the plot. and have stacked as many as possible (27) in what I now regard as Composting Corner. 

There are a few full buckets left over, and a few empty buckets and these have gone back under the potting bench, But at least now I know what's in each bucket and the same material is now stacked together for ease of finding when needed.   

I managed to get the last of the pop bottle cloche frames taken apart and on a future visit the pop bottles will be cut up and brought home to go in the plastic recycle boxes on rubbish day.    

Before leaving at 1pm, I made sure that both bird bathes were filled up again as we have a load of Robins around the site that come and visit when you are working and exposing soil, bugs and potential food for them.