Renewing Woodchip Paths

 

Sandra a plot neighbour who lives in the block of flats behind Mill Green allotment site sent me two photos that I've turned into a Panorama of my plots. 

When Sandra took the photos of the plot this afternoon I was on it, as my daughter Kelly was working from home and could keep an eye on my good lady wife. 

This means you can play Where's Wally and find me!  Technically Wally has plot 4 on our allotment. 

The chap we were getting woodchip from, well more a mulch than path quality has not been able to supply us for a while. I got contact details of two tree surgeons from the Allotment administrator, and asked the plot holders who live two doors down from the entrance gate to contact them and ask for some woodchips. 

Again what we have received is more leafy mulch quality rather than good solid woodchips, but beggars can't be choosers and anything is better than nothing for the moment. 

Old woodchip on 3 of the paths has turning into soil and is now supporting weed growth. I shoveled up the woodchip and swept it up off the weed membrane and put into flower buckets to be used as brown material in the Daleks when more greens arrive.

Closer view of the rotted woodchip, and the weed membrane that was cut with a soldering iron so that it dose not fray and allows me to remove and sweep up easily and forms a barrier between the underlying soil and the woodchip. 

On taking the first of 3 square flower plots full of rotted woodchip paving to the Dalek army, I spotted that the First Early spuds are in the process of lifting the lids off that I put there to stop the foxes and cats digging in the buckets. 

Woodchip Path being re-laid with the new woodchips.

Close view of the woodchip path that is spread and then compacted with the rake to between 50 - 75mm.

Completed woodchip path. The paving slabs at the ends originally held down the weed membrane against the wind before the woodchips went down, now I'm just waiting for paving slabs to come up on Freecycle so I can infill the path with saving slabs so the woodchips are only a margin. 

Clearing the path next to the Dalek Army.

Completed path between bed 6 and the Dalek Army. 

There are other areas that need topping up, and I'm thinking of filling one of the Daleks with this mulch like woodchips to use as browns until the next rot down and path replacement. 

If you did play Where's Wally, then the answer is setting up the sprinkler on the asparagus beds whist on the way back to the car park to get another load of woodchips. I also ran another top wire on the fist bed of spring Raspberries and clipped back some of the canes that were growing over the path between the them and the Asparagus bed.