Composting horse manure.

Friday 28.01.11 ....Darren and myself took the afternoon and gathered up 3 trailer loads of horse manure,not easy work,especially when its quite fresh.The manure is going to be used for our potatoes in April,as a fertilizer for the seed potatoes.The manure has to be piled up ,and then covered,i inserted 4*1.5metre lenghts of BT plastic ducting,so that this would speed up the composting process,by introducing air into the heap.In the winter it can take between 3 to 6 months for the manure to break down to a pleasing compost.By covering the horse manure,it not only speeds the process,it generates alot of heat in the heap,and hence kills off, snail eggs,flies and their larve and any grass or weed seeds that have passed through the horses.

sunset on a number of blisters

Aquadulce Claudia beans

Darren s beans were planted early December 2010 in these earth pots.They ve been sitting outside since then,in the frost and snow.

Unearthing the past

Darren s Arran Victories from last year (planted approx early april 2010),still in great condition, no signs of frost damage.They re nice to see ,but can be a nuisance if left in the ground undetected. Popping up in the summer in the middle of your plot.

Rotovating and Dunging

G

To day the rotavator had its inaugural appearance in the allotment, as did the horse manure (thanks to my kind neighbour).

The 1 st signs of 2011

Darrens onion sets are starting to show signs of life after a week under glass in the allotment

Making the beds.

 So far i've completed four of my six planned raised beds,for the timber i used treated 6x1 1/2 screwed together and it worked out at £1.24 a meter from a local  hardware store.

The beds were made to the size of 3 foot wide by 8 foot long,with a 2  foot  space between each one for working around,making the beds

any longer or wider  would have become to much of a reach for planting and weeding.Getting  the beds level and in line was a bigger job than i thought as there was a slight run of on the land but well worth the effort as they are really starting to look the part even with  next to nothing planted in them yet.

After my final two beds are made and in place my next job is to work out and build some sort of net

frame that be easily lifted on and off the bed when i

am working on and around the them.

Darren.

Im the other half.

Im the other half of the Oldtown Allotments, Darren has done the informing so far, so hopefully i ll be on this a bit more frequently now. Yesterday, whilst Darren was building his raised beds,my wife and i took a walk down to the village,(annalong,co down)i counted 4 vegetable plots,varying in sizes. This is also part of what we are about. We want to start a community spirit,for growing,competition and trading of fresh produce.Also, everyone has their own ideas,techniques and sometime secrets with regards to the biggest,higher yields, planting,harvesting,preserving and storing of the years veg.I myself personally want to learn so much about this wonderful hobby and way of life,and i m very eager to hear of other peoples adventures in the allotment...........Robin

Late Autumn 2010....

 On an early Autumn morning of 2010 we gathered this sea weed from the shore in preparation for next years beds.....It was spread over the ground just before the winter so that the frost would help break it up and let it rot into the ground easier!

Only time will tell if our hard mornings work paid off.....

Hello to all and welcome to our blog...

First of all let me say thanks to you for giving us a little of your time.

Over the next few months....years...who knows! Robin and myself will be keeping you all posted on our allotment adventures! Both of us have been trying to grow vegetables for a few years now with little success, with pests and weeds being the real winners,so after alot of reading,web searching and listening we've decided to not let it get the better of us and really give it a go....
I hope folks that by following us on this we can all learn together on how to prepare the ground,plant,grow,maintain and finally harvest home grown vegetables fit for a king!