sunday 15/08/2010

A very productive day today, couldn't go early as I had to go shopping first and it was probably to wet anyway.  By the time I got there it was mid morning and I started by marking out the first path and levelling the ground which meant that the soil I dug up went on the second bed raising it up. After doing the first path I marked out the bed and the second path and cleared this as well putting the soil from this onto the third bed....get it ? The second bed will be for brassicas next year but for potatoes now, the same for bed three.I then dug over bed two smashing the large lumps up and generally picking out the last of the roots. I then planted two rows of Kestral potatoes for Christmas I also added some blood,fish and bone as this is virgin soil and I have had no time and no manure to add.

This is my potato bed as you may notice it does not go right to the end of the bed, so the last three feet I have planted green manure : Mustard Seed.

I then dug over bed three again removing the large lumps by smashing and chopping them up, I then planted bed three with green manure.

To be honest I wasn't quite sure on the paths, they seem such a waste of good soil, look at it this way if I have 10 beds and a two foot path between each than that means there will be 18 foot of the allotment used just on footpaths. But the thing that made me go for them in the end, is the fact that I will not have to re dig the allotment again because I will not be walking on the beds just adding to the soil with green manures which I know have to be dug in my the ground will be easy to dig....we will see.

Here are a couple more pictures,

I have also made a small video seems to have come out ok first time using the nano to video.

 This is a plan that I have done for this year, to see it better click on the picture, most of the beds will be put down for green manure as the growing season is nearly over now.