Cardboarding allotment plot - part 3

The building crafts college in Stratford dispose of wood shavings. So when possible I take a bag from the trash and put it in my brothers car boot and leave it in my front garden. Come allotment day it gets brought along and used on the plot.

The saw dust and wood shavings mix is really for the paths which will be formed once the raised beds are in place.

I'll then lay cardboard in the paths and cover with as much saw dust as possible.

The empty beds will then get a turn over. Maybe double dug. And Hungarian Rye Grass seed planed to act as a winter green manure.

Wall to wall carpeting for the Allotment plot

I've been a bad boy, I have neglected my allotment for some time. I will not bore you with my excuses.

As a result I have lost half my plot. Which is fair. And have about a month to get my remaining half of the plot in shape.

Nothing like a fixed deadline to get me focused.

So I enlisted some help. Shaks will work for me in exchange for me working for him. I. E. For every hour he helps me. I owe him an hour of help.

Now Shaks didn't want this arrangement, but I insisted.

The plan is simple. Take as much cardboard down, then cover the ground, then place a raised bed I've already knocked up. And fill with plug plants I've started at home.

I'll cover the finer points in another post. For now here is a before and after photo of 4 hours graft.

Work crew on the plot at the allotment

With so much on at the moment the allotment has been neglected. I sent out an request for help to the Jnr squad (all of my younger brothers friends). we started work around 15:00 and paired up in two man teams (total of 6 of us). We worked till 20:00

One teams remit was to clear the long grass. Team two went over the brook to collect leaf mould to add mulch to the beds. Team three was to lay cardboard into the beds after pulling up any weeds.

What's working well: 
-The lasagne mulching system of laying card board, manure, then newspaper then mulch is working extremely well. little to no weeds present.
-The group effort makes for a more enjoyable effort.

Not working:
-The paths in between the beds has an abundant amount of grass and weeds.
-No yields.
-Fire fighting. I'm reacting to what the plot is doing.

Problems: 
-Lack of gravel or wood chip in close proximity to cover the paths.
-Lack of man power. I can't keep asking of others without paying them back in some way.
-Going away from end of July to mid Sept.


Next achievable steps.
- Set up the plug production in my home green house.
- Make 18 compost at allotment to have a high quality medium to plant plugs into.

Long term goals for plot. 
- Set an example of permaculture principles in action for a low maintenance and high yield plot.

No dig allotmenting, well only a little

This morning me and Zub dug out some heavy weight bramble roots, covered the area with cardboard, placed a 4ft by 8ft bed ontop (made with scaffolding boards). Then covered the cardboard with horse manure (4 wheel barrows), then many layers of newspaper and then topped with leaves.

Next steps include.
1. Start up plug plants at home
2. 18 day compost next week at allotment

Explaining what we're doing at the allotment (East London Style)

My allotment buddy has been great. He picks me up at sunrise on each Sunday morning and off we set for a hard mornings graft at the allotment. He keeps asking me why we don't just do like all teh other plots. But after answering all his questions I think he's getting the it (lasagne gardening aka sheet mulching)

Here he is explaining it East London Style

Ideas for Multi Function Shed at Allotment.

 Here's some info on rammed earth floors - click here

 

I'd love to combine the rocket stove mass heater into the rammed earth floor, whereby the floor itself becomes the thermal mass.

 

Now the green roof while truly AWESOME in terms of insulation, creating habitat, and longevity may need to be sacrificed in the interest of speed of construction and water harvesting  yields. So how about something like this? then build my cob walls and polycarbonate sheet the south facing side.

 

If I was a rich man - I'd just get this, and just insulate it very well.

 

Your thoughts...

Permaculture

After nearly two years on the waiting list I now have a plot of land. While it's only a very small plot (allotment) it's still somewhere for me to grow some food. As the plot is a twenty minute walk away from my apartment I decided to go the low maintenance route to gardening. while researching I came across permaculture. Once set up it should mean extremely low maintenance, and while the whole forest garden plan can't be applied to such a small plot I'll be using some of the key concepts into my humble allotment plot.

I'm currently reading The Earth Care Manual: A Permaculture Handbook for Britain and Other Temperate Countries by Patrick Whitefield

Along with watching Food Forest by Geoff Lawton

Check out this fantastic video of how permaculture was used to grow a sustainable crops in the desert.