Leaf Mould & Transporting Manure

I wasn't up for a hard days digging so I decided to collect a huge bag of leaf litter from the path alongside the cemetery leading to the allotment.

Bags used to deliver sand and other building materials work well for this.

Placed saw dust down first to act as a weed suppressant. Filled bag on top, covered it to keep the rain out (mistake as damp leaves are desired), and wind from blowing the leaves away.
Over the year it should break down into lovely leaf mould. This will make a great carbon rich soil topper on my heavy clay soil.

While I was there I decided to fill one of my newly constructed raised beds with the horse manure just outside the main gate of the allotments. Again one of those bags comes in handy.

As I pulled away the axle snapped clean through. I've emailed the allotment folks about the damages (dolly belongs to the association/ society). I await their decision. Next meetings is in 11 days. I'll be showing up with my wallet.

Shoe Box Garden March 2011 update

Not much growing in March. Have topped the the beds with some rotted horse manure and the field bean plants are growing very slowly. I'm using them to fix nitrogen and to add organic matter to the soil.

The fig tree was moved into the mini green house with bottles of water (to act as thermal stores) for the winter. I threw in a handful of field beans, which are doing better then those in the beds. I'll chop and drop these into the pot once the weather warms.

The comfrey is making a come back and will be back stronger their first year. I'll be using the leaves to make a liquid feed.

Here's another. I have a third also. They act as nutrient pumps bringing nutrients deep down up into their leaves. Come late summer I'll split each one and transfer three new plants to my allotment

In this corner I have two bags filled with autumn leaves from the front garden which should give me leaf mould come next autumn. I purchased the mushroom log which has mushroom spoors placed into drilled holes. Lets see how it turns out.

Planted x 3 Minarette fruit trees, 2 variates of cherry and pictured here a  duel variety pear.

Feeding The Hard Working Worms

The wormary in my garden dies a great job. All those worms turn my kitchen scraps , hover contents and some of my newspaper into to great products.

1. Worm Tea, this is the liquid which seeps to the bottom and is collected via a tap. I add this diluted to my watering can and use like a liquid feed.

2. Worm Castings, which I also dilute with water and spread over my soil.

Passive Solar Heating

I think this is truly the answer to eco building. It's so low tech, low maintenance, and extremely cost effective. All it takes is desgining the home/ building in a way to maximise the sun rays during winter months and shading out the sun during midday during in summer months. Oh and selecting building materials with high thermal mass (ability to absorb and hold heat). Ok there's a tad bit more to it, but like I said it's all in the planing phase, and I'd hire a specialist to calculate the figures and angles. Any way, I'll stop rambling and let the video do a much better job of explaining.

CLICK Here for what wiki has to say.

Raw Materials for the Allotment

On my week off from work, I hired a van for the day and roped my brother in for a hard days slog. We first pick up about 70 scrap scaffolding broads from TRAD in Barking (£0.30/foot ex VAT) , and also stopped by the Building Crafts College in Stratford and pick up some bags of saw dust (free if they have any out back). Then came the hard part, lugging the lot through the walkway to the plot. I was shattered after ferrying all the boards and saw dust from the small grass patch which is road side under the railway bridge and down the bridle path. But will have some serious digging and raised bed making to do during autumn and winter.

Coconut Revolution (Bougainville: Our Island, Our Fight)

My Friend Kam has been on about this video for years, and I finally got to watch it.

Badshah's message to Mathematist