YouFarm.org

A Ton of Earth, A Bra, Syringe and a Shoe

Phil — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:28:00 +0000

Last Tuesday a Ton of fresh organic top soil arrived from my friends at Dandies Soil, I was out so it was delivered into the parking space in the front of the house, 2 weeks of rain meant it was going nowhere fast. Finally on Sunday me and Matt managed to get it into the Van, and took it to the allotment. Plan A was to wheel barrow the 40 X 25 Kilo bags over the field. That proved far too taxing and we switched to plan B : Throw them over the fence.
My arms are feeling it today, but it must have saved us 2 hours. The Ton I orders (the amount chosen by the fact it sounds like a lot) managed to fill 2 of the raised beds. Still need to figure out how to fill the other 2. Needless to say I don’t plan on repeating the soil journey.

We also planted an Apple tree and some blackberries, whilst digging the whole for these and clearing some more bramble weeds, we found a marvelous array of goodies, including a Bra and Syringe and a Shoe, that must have been one wild night!

The making of the raised beds

Phil — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:53:59 +0000

Last Saturday, armed with a Petrol Driven Generator, A Circular Saw, 20 Large planks of wood, 2 electric drills and 4 friends, project allotment got underway.

An early trip to B&Q to get the wood was followed by a cheeky stop at Greggs to get the pies and on to the allotment we went, the wood awesomely fitted through the fence, everything else went over, and only the heavy generator had to be walked around to long way.

step 1 : cleared earth of any large brambles still lurking under the soil, flattened the parameter and then laid out the agricultural cloth.

Step 2: Layout the wood in the initial shape, and hammer in the corner posts.

Step 3: attempt to screw the side panels to the post. Fail. then drive quickly to Wickes and get some nails after following the advice of Kasper the Estonian shoemaker.

Step 4 : Watch the aforementioned Shoemaker hammer 4 inch nails in 3 taps, He is now on nail 10 whilst i’m just finishing my first.

Step 5: complete the whole bed, and repeat 4 times

Step 6 : go to pub for much needed beer.

Great work Team! I now have a tonne of earth sitting outside my house, after it was delivered on Tuesday, looks like a little job for this weekend

Ultimate raised bed allotment

Phil — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:14:13 +0000

I was looking around for some info on how to best build a raised vegetable bed, and a quick search on You tube turned up these videos.

This one has the be the most perfect raised bed allotment in the world.

When it comes to constructing a raised bed, this video was the most instructive when looking at what you need to consider.

This will be the guide for the lads when it comes to make them. Bring it on

5 rods of Joy

Phil — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:02:04 +0000

Not having enough space to grown more vegetables has been my ongoing problem for the last few years. So when I received the call last month informing me that there is now an allotment site available for me, it was a dream come true. 18 months on the waiting list had not dampened my desire, and I went down to the site the following week to see what I’m dealing with.

The site is the other side of the borough and has recently been cleared of brambles so the location and soil are not perfect, but my own 5 rods of land for £52 a year cannot be argued with.

5 rods (for those who dont know) is 125 square metres, half the original allocation given to allotment holders, but much more manageable for first time allotment growers. And having seen the size of my five rods, I’m happy not to have 10 to contend with.

Given the quality of the soil I’m looking to do some raised veg beds with new topsoil, to save me digging up the whole plot.

Mid Feb looks like the kick off point, looking to get a few of the guys down to help. Have purchased a rake and a fork, have been lent a wheel barrow (thanks D for that one) and am looking to borrow a generator, so that I can saw and drill the raised beds onsite. ( not to mention the tea for the troops).

Harvest Time

Phil — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:00:23 +0000

So the summer is officially coming to a close and the plants are generally past their best, but it has been the best harvest ive had and made me realise even more how much i love growing. Next year I will grow more!

Vegetable Update

Phil — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:52:13 +0000

Its July in the garden and all is well. Pretty much everything is doing well and nothing else has gone to the big garden in the sky.
Ive ignored all guidance on the corn and am still growing 4 of them in the same pot. The peas and mange tout are doing amazingly well, climbing up their little frame and sprouting wonderful pods. Ate some of the peas during the week, think they need a bit longer.
The courgette, Butternut squash and tomato are yet to do anything exciting, except the tomato is now about 4 foot tall.
Everyone in the house is amazed that I have not killed anything yet, and the garden of death has had a metamorphosis into the garden of life.

The moving of the sweetcorn

Phil — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:12:41 +0000

The sweetcorn I bought came in a small pot with 4 plants in it, so I just planted this in a bigger pot and hoped they would grow. But Chris’s mum jean gave me a great tip yesterday, which was they need to be planted in a grid with lots of space in order to pollinate correctly. So this weeks task is to put them into the tubs and position them at the back of the garden in a grid. I also found this great page that tells you all about growing sweetcorn

How to grow peas

Phil — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:58:52 +0000

I was looking for some guidance on the best conditions for growing peas, and found this really usefull page with everything you need to know, really simply laid out. http://usagardener.com/how_to_grow_vegetables/how_to_grow_peas.php

Am now going to move my peas to the end of the garden to get more sun.

The first photos from the seed project

Phil — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:42:40 +0000

Ive just got my first photos back from one of the people that received the free seeds. Tamsin sent in these photos. she says “My tomato is about 7? tall and has baby tomatoes forming and lots of flowers. The lettuce also looks great. “. Great to see them all doing so well.

The New Garden

Phil — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:26:27 +0000

So Ive finally moved house, and now have some real room to start growing some more. Not much flowerbed, but lots of room for little pots, and a few large pots already in place.

So ive not wasted any time and have started planting out some of the pots I had, also have planted some more seeds in the shed at the end of the garden that has a plastic clear roof. Hopefully it will be someway towards a greenhouse.

Below are the current collection that are growing