My allotment adventure: D-Day
Forking for victory
Luckily for me, I have some lovely friends who are just keen enough on the great outdoors and the idea of being green fingered, and who have a healthy appetite for cupcakes which is what I baked to coerce my helpful friends into joining us for D-day. Armed with spades, forks and hoes, the 7 of us allies made fairly light work of stripping the turf, digging, forking and hoeing our first 3 beds defeating the bind weed roots as best we could. Our first 3 beds for my crop rotation scheme are ready for brassicas, roots and legumes. From reading up I discovered that using crop rotation is an excellent natural way to rotate and maintain the nutrients in the soil.
Eat your heart out Jethro Tull. I’m a pioneer on the precipice of my allotment adventure!
Team D-Day
Equipment for D-day:
- Tape measure
- Garden twine
- Wooden stakes
- Mallet
- Spades
- Forks
- Hoes
- Weed suppressant membrane
- Soil testing kit
Enjoying cupcakes down the allotment
Stopping those weeds
Tasks accomplished:
1. Three beds measured and staked out with garden twine
2. Each bed stripped of turf, dug over, forked and hoed (bind weed and couch grass roots picked out)
3. Weed suppressant membrane (porous material that allows water to drain through but suppresses the essential light needed for weed growth) anchored down across of (most of)the rest of the plot using clumps of turf – excellent reuse of materials!
4. Soil test used to ascertain soil type. Soil was on the acid side of neutral, perhaps that will come in handy when I get into planting.
Before
After
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