Monday 27 March 2017

Tree - Walking Onion Bed One


The clocks went forward and I was up at 6.00 but being dark, and forgetting to reset the clocks before going to bed, I thought it was 5.00 and I went back to bed and woke again at 6:30 which was really 7:30, so I had lost an hour and a half or two and a half hours depending on how you look at it. The result was a late start on the allotment and I felt like I had lost an hour of daylight to work in.

I went to the allotment with great aspirations of getting the Catawissa Walking Onions in, and a bed of spuds planted, plus cutting the grass to the path at the rear, in my mind I may even of had time to erect the extension to the shed. I only managed to get two things completed, as time flashes past when your on the allotment enjoying yourself, or putting it another way perhaps I'm faster in my brain than I am in reality.

I had cut strips of weed membrane and stapled it to the inside of the bed to separate the soil and the timber on the sides. Then I lined the bottom of the bed with cardboard to hopefully put off any couch grass that may remain from coming up.  I had taken some compost material with me and decided that rather than add to the dalek I would line the bottom of the Walking Onion bed with it. 

Next I opened Dalek 1 and removed the fresher material from the top, complete with red wigglers. I had taken two buckets of Coir with me and mixed that in with the compost to assist in helping the raised bed to retain moisture and hopefully not dry out to fast.    


In best Blue Peter fashion the previously prepared walking onion weed membrane was found and laid down, timber roofing barren cut to hold down the edges, and the onion decanted from their vending machine cups into hole formed with the bulb planter. Some small coke bottles will go into some of the free holes in order to assist in watering the beds at depth.   

  
The next stage was to cable tie the anti fox and wind break mushroom tray bottoms to the timber posts. I will add a second level as the onions grow, and I collect more trays.  I laid some of the tile offcuts from the wet room over the weed membrane around the rear entrance and compost bins, better than land filling them in my books.


  
I did manage to cut the grass on the path behind my plot. The daffs are dying off and the comfrey is coming up at an alarming rate, looks like I may need that comfrey pipe sooner than later. I need to deal with the weeds coming up around the bottom of the Daleks next visit.

I also need to harvest a couple of more plants from Mill Green to fill in the gaps in comfrey Bed 2 in the back of the photograph.

I returned later in the day with a huge sack of grass cuttings courtesy of my sister in law and topped up Dalek 2 to the brim. The grass was already hot and starting to cook, and I made sure it went into the bin in layers with shredded paper added  

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