Filling Raised Bed 16A

As the weather forecast last night today has been dry, not massively warm only 7C outside on the plot, and once again I was up early enough to get to the allotment for 9am and I worked at filling the top framework of raised bed 16A

The photographs show what I filled the raise bed with, and again I took a 10 minute break every hour and came away from the allotment around 1pm.

First a layer of Magic Cardboard to delineate between the branches and woodchips that I filled the bottom layer with yesterday and what I'm filling the top section with today. I had a tug full of rainwater and poured it over the cardboard. 

Next was a layer of leaves from my Leaf Bin

Leaves from the leaf Bin

A sprinkle of dried coffee grounds from Starbucks that my sister collects for me.

Ground Coffee beans added

Carrot Foliage from the Snowmen carrots that were harvested last week

Carrot Foliage spread over the bed, I don't have a lot of greens to add because of the time of year. Later in the year I would add grass clippings. 

Square Flower Bucket of spent compost and loo rolls added, from last years failures to grow. 

Two square flower buckets of soil decanted and weeded of mares tail roots that were missed when the buckets were filled, and weed that have grown since.

The Oakland Gardens 30L Pots with handles were emptied of the humus that was excavated from the footprint of the raised bed, and again the soil was combed through to remove any mares tail roots

Raised Bed 16A topped up to approx. 10mm off the top of the scaffold board framework

Then a dusting of spent coffee grounds to put the slugs and snails off from making the raised bed their home.

I didn't have time to sort out hoops and debris netting and I still need to make additional raised bed frames up, so to keep the foxes off the raised beds and digging my work out (as they have done previously) 

I've covered Bed 16A with 3 scaffold boards and the upside down garden tray.

Pet Scan tomorrow at St Georges Hospital and possibly seeing little man Thursday, as the weather forecast is snow and heavy rain in Surrey, so the allotment will have to do without me for a couple of days.

Those 3 scaffold boards stacked on Bed 16 need the bands removed from the ends.

What's Tomorrow Going To Be Like?

 

Now that's what I have been looking for, hopefully I will get Bed 16A completed tomorrow.  

Bed 16A Decanting Humus IV

The weather didn't turn out as predicted today, this morning was sunny 7C a little windy and more importantly, the rain expected at 11 didn't arrive until 2pm.

As I was awake at 5:30, I breakfasted, washed, dressed, medicated and was out of the front door just before 9am, arriving at the allotment just after 9am.

I immediately got to work excavating the last of the humus material from the footprint of raised bed 16A, my anticipation was that I may get the excavated material backfilled with woodchip in the dry 2 hours predicted.

First barrow load of woodchip

Woodchip consolidated by foot traffic, i.e. me shuffling backwards and forwards over the area so 115kg and size 11 trainers. 

Another wheel barrow load of woodchips from the car park

Again spread and consolidated

I was working for 50 minutes and taking 10 minute breaks for a drink and a short rest, I managed to screw the base if 16A to 16.

Then filled the lower frame with branches from the ash tree that was pollarded in Autumn last year, then adding two more wheel barrow loads of woodchip into the first level raised bed scaffold board framework.

The branches were cut up and spread around a little more and then covered with another wheel barrow load of woodchips.

Another two wheel barrow loads added to the base raised bed frame

A final (for today) wheel barrow load of woodchips added and spread evenly. Andy started to also get wheel barrow loads of woodchip to top up one of his paths on his allotment. He commented on just how heavy the woodchips were because they have been rained on everyday since Christmas. 

I got Andy from plot 12 to give me a hand to lift the raised bed 16A frame off the boards on bed 16 and place it on the top of the bed 16A base framework.

It was 12:45 and becoming overcast. I did not cover up the bed again as now it is half full of branches and woodchips I would like the woodchips to settle and consolidate and any rain will help that process. 

I made my way home for lunch.

Bustaseed Tip Out Propagation Kit

  Tip Out Propagation Kit

Readers of my journal will know that in 2019 I went on a quest to find heavy duty module trays to replace the flimsy modules that didn't last and needed replacing on a regular basis and found CMH Containerwise Material Handling, and trailed and blogged about their range of Long-Life Propagation Trays. 

Soon after Charles Dowding teamed up with them to make smaller trays closely followed by Hew Richards, which I had suggested to CMH and was informed by them that the gearing up cost to produce them was too much, A year later Charles Dowding went into partnership with CMH to make the smaller module trays happen, Hew Richards then creating his smaller tray range with them. 

As I have not been looking to increase my holding of heavy duty trays until last year when I purchased some of Charles Dowding and Hew Richards modules from CMH, I had not come across Bustaseeds, until their Tip Out Propagation Kits were offered as a prize on one of the gardening Facebook groups. 

I contacted Niall Magee the director of Busterseeds and asked to trial their Propagation Kits and he kindly arranged for a twin pack of Tip Out Propagation Kits to be sent to me that arrived last week. 

Removing the Retail Packaging Sleeve that keeps the kit together until you want to get into it and play the clear Lid made of 800 micron formed APET is made to fit the profile of the green base tray which is made of heavy duty injected moulded polypropylene  

The base tray includes a 20mm wide dedicated access point for bottom-watering  between the cell insert and the side of the tray on the left on the photo above

I really like this as I bottom water my CMH modules, as it helps prevent saturation and surface mould, thus there are no holes in the base tray 

The Kit Dimensions are L 350mm x W 250mm x H 50mm (cell depth)

Weight of Full Retail Kit 795g

I removed the 7 rows of 5 cell inserts and placed the lid next to the tray

I lifted the green base tray which feels very durable and well made, in the photo above you can see how the lid is profiled to fit into the bottom of the tray to make storage when no longer needed easy.   

The dimensions of the Cell Insert are approximate and again the Inserts feel robust and durable and likely to last longer than the 5 year guarantee than the product comes with. 

7 rows x 5 cells per strip giving 35 cells per tray. The white inserts will help reflect light and the 50mm deep cells are perfect for seedlings, but I can see how deeper root trainer versions would be beneficial. 

I can see me starting off my sweetcorn in these this year, As I have used various modules and container over the years, but have not found an ideal product yet, but this could be the one.   

In the photo above the Cells Inserts have no compost in and they pop off the rectangular upstands that hold them in place within the tray, that's why the lid is not sitting flush.   

I've seen one YouTube Review where they guy complained that he had to cut his seed labels in order to get the propagator lid on but with the lid and the tray being 50mm deep a standard 100mm long 12mm wide plastic label is going to be fine and if needs be, it can be placed at an angle. 

The ability to remove individual, 5-cell rows allows for easy monitoring of roots, is a real benefit. I have tried transparent module in the past, but this is ideal, I can also look out for any slugs or their eggs.  

OK this is a stock photo and I don't expect the white cells to be that clean and gleaming when the soil blocks are decanted, but they are going to be easy to clean. It takes a long time and elbow grease with different size brushes to clean the CMH Modules, these are going to be a lot easier to clean. 

Ease of removal will prevent root transplant shock.

Now that I have arthritis, following my cancer treatment, I can see that these kits are going to be easier for me to use due to its easy-to-handle design. . 

Common Criticisms

• Your Using Plastic As I have covered before, it's better to invest in long life heavy duty plastic gardening equipment than the flimsy plastic modules that need replacing on a regular basis.   
• Price: Several reviews mention that the initial cost is higher than traditional trays, though most feel the longevity justifies the investment.

Where to Buy in the UK

You can find these kits at major gardening retailers including:

• Gardening Naturally
• Mr. Fothergill's
• Quickcrop
• Amazon UK
• D.T. Brown 
• ebay
• A google search also found :-

Offers currently directly from Bustaseed.co.uk

There are discounts applied for quantity and if you want more than 10 units contact Niall Magee of Bustaseed 

As I use these Tip Out Propagation Kits I will Blog about then and will label the post Bustaseed 

Bed 16A Decanting Humus III

 

A sunny day today and around 8C so an early lunch and a long afternoon on the allotment continuing with decanting the soil and back filling with woodchips from Bed 16A Raised bed on "Avalon" the name for my two half plots 1 and 1A at Mill Green allotment.

I could now get in the raised bed frame and start to decant the humus material

It was nice to see many more plot holders visiting today, during the wet weather it's only been the die-hards that visit all year round.

One knows which plot holder are likely to get a no-cult notice this year already, and funnily enough its the ones that did last year. That's not my problem I shall leave the no-cults to Jane, I'm only the site rep and not a policeman for the council.

A couple of 30 litre pots filled later I had a trench excavated and placed a decking board as a shutter to the trench and back filled it with woodchips and then capped it off with decking boards. 

A couple of 30 litre pots filled later I had a trench excavated and placed a decking board as a shutter to the trench and back filled it with woodchips and then capped it off with decking boards

Decking board shutter placed to hold back the woodchips from entering the lower area to be excavated next.

First barrow load of woodchip dumped levelled and compacted using a 115kg of me via my feet

Second barrowload of woodchips levelled and tamped with the rake and then again compacted by walking all over the area.

I started to decant the remaining humus, but I was quite frankly knackered, I had been taking small breaks to hydrate and catch my breath but with the time getting on, yes I finally remembered the battery for the clock on the shed, I decided enough was enough for the day. 

Rain and sleet forecast for tomorrow, so it's debateable if I wlll be able to continue tomorrow so I recovered the bed to keep the rain out until I have decanted the rest of the humus and back filled the whole of raised bed back to surrounding ground level.

Bed 16A Decanting Humus Continues

9C today, my phones battery was really low this morning so I put it on charge and went to the allotment in the afternoon for a couple of hours. Work continued on bed 16A decanting the humus material enough that I could fill a trench with woodchips and then place some old timber decking cut to fit, such that I can now step into the footprint of the raised bed and continue to decant and weed the humus into 30L Pots with handles.

Bed 16A after excavating a trench to a spade depth and back filling with woodchips, then adding some old decking boards cut to the width of the raised bed. 

Covering up Bed 16A as the rain started to fall just before coming home, board laid to support the garden Tray 

Garden tray over the bed and some weight to prevent the wind from moving the tray

I ripped up enough old decking material to 800mm long to line the bottom of the whole bed, once all the humus has been decanted.