Some Clever Ideas to make allotment growing easier.
Trench Composting
Quicker Composting...
Dig a shallow trench, 5" inches deep by 22" depth and 3ft wide in a redundent,
maybe heavily shaded part of your allotment.
Spread this good extracted soil equally spread across your beds.
In the trench pour x3 wheelbarrow loads of chippings and leave for six months.
Because the moisture levels are always maintained on this way of trench composting
the chips break down more successfully and much quicker than normal (see pictures below).
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Seeding your bed with Mycorrhizae Funghi to improve crop yeilds
Burying rotten 2" tree limbs down the centre of your beds may help
to increase the levels of this useful Funghi (Mycorrhizae) present
within your banks soil. Lots of studies looking at the symbiotic
relationship between this Funghi and healthier plants. Next year will
experiment with seeding the bed with rotten 2" branches collected from the local woods.
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Easy to assemble Fruit Cage.
"easy-to-assemble" vegetable cage using a few strips of pallet wood
and gardman stakes (20mm diameter). No screws or nails are used. The cage
is held together by wedging the stakes through the 20mm drilled holes
at each corner. The angled cut on the horizontal pallet slats that make
up the top of the cage give the netting somewhere to be stretched onto.
The cage can be easily dismantled and quickly re-assembled on another pallet
partitioned bed. Also notice the structure is slotted into the pallet at the back for stability.
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Block Paving bricks as edging / paths.
Recycle some old 'Block Paving' bricks as edging bricks to dug over sections.
They are cheap as there are always bricks left over when they are laid
on peoples drives also they are frost resistant. It is relatively fast to lay
them down, no cementing necessary. Just scoop off a 2" section of turf and down they go
Seeding your bed with Mycorrhizae Funghi to improve crop yeilds
Burying rotten 2" tree limbs down the centre of your beds may help
to increase the levels of this useful Funghi (Mycorrhizae) present
within your banks soil. Lots of studies looking at the symbiotic
relationship between this Funghi and healthier plants. Next year will
experiment with seeding the bed with rotten 2" branches collected from the local woods.
Easy to assemble Fruit Cage.
"easy-to-assemble" vegetable cage using a few strips of pallet wood
and gardman stakes (20mm diameter). No screws or nails are used. The cage
is held together by wedging the stakes through the 20mm drilled holes
at each corner. The angled cut on the horizontal pallet slats that make
up the top of the cage give the netting somewhere to be stretched onto.
The cage can be easily dismantled and quickly re-assembled on another pallet
partitioned bed. Also notice the structure is slotted into the pallet at the back for stability.
Block Paving bricks as edging / paths.
Recycle some old 'Block Paving' bricks as edging bricks to dug over sections.
They are cheap as there are always bricks left over when they are laid
on peoples drives also they are frost resistant. It is relatively fast to lay
them down, no cementing necessary. Just scoop off a 2" section of turf and down they go