Lets talk about soil

When I took over this plot, it was overgrown. But the chap who owned it before me certainly did one thing right. The soil quality is fantastic. Something I really want to keep. After all it is the soil which makes the whole thing work.

But people don't appreciate the value of it. Now is your chance to start doing something about it.

It is Global Soil Week. OK, it was. But that still doesn't mean you cannot be complacent. Learn about soil. Better yet. Learn how to make it. Composting is a vital part of the process. We have a compost bin at home. All of our organic waste goes into it and the Council then take it off to a big recycler and produce industrial tonnes of it. You cannot beat it. But people still abuse this process. There have been reports of people who have bought this compost and found plastic, metal and allsorts of rubbish in their compost. Garbage in. Garbage out. It applies to many things as well as the old meme in computing.

We have waste bays at the allotments. But all the council do is come along and scrape up everything and take it away. Why? Because people treat it simply as a bin. Why waste essential material like that. We really do need our own, industrial strength composting system on the allotments. Perhaps it's something I should propose for the future.

Hangouts

It's been a little wet recently. So I haven't been down the plot. After all, I can't sieve mud. So I've been in my usual hangouts a bit. These are places I frequent on the Web. Places which have a good community of like minded people.

My first hangout is :

The Green Living Forum started life as a forum for discussing the TV program It's not easy being green. This followed the fortunes of a suburban family moving from the Midlands (Malvern) down to Cornwall to start a Green lifestyle. It rather hit home in a number of ways. Firstly, I used to work at the same place Dick Strawbridge used to work at in Malvern. Secondly, and more to the point, it's exactly what I want to do.

The second place I frequent is:

Backyard Aquaponics.

 Now Aquaponics is probably unfamiliar to you. What it is is using Fish to grow plants. The fish produce waste (Ammonia), which is broken down my bacteria into Nitrites and again into Nitrates, which is then consumed by plants as a fertiliser. The whole process is a circulatroy system using water as the main carrier. As such plants never need to be watered and benefit from the high availability of nutrients presented by the fish.
This has taken off big time in Australia. Mostly because it uses less water than conventional plant growing, yet is not as wasteful as hydroponics. And also because you can eat the fish as well as the veggies. There are a couple of companies here in the UK who have started doing this - most successfully too - such as Herbs from Wales.

The final place I hangout a lot is from a Dutch friend of mine:

JungleDragon is a photo forum dedicated to nature and wildlife. The photos that people upload are absolutely stunning. Don't believe me? have a look at some of their all-time greats.

Pruning the Vine

So last week I put a plastic cover over the pile in an attempt to keep the rain off. It worked. But it didn't solve the initial problem of the fact that the soil was too wet. Of course having the cover on did keep a lot of the rain out, as evidenced by large puddles in the dips of the cover, but is also prevented the soil from drying.

There are still too many large claggy lumps to allow it to be worked properly. But one way or another I'm going to get those roots out.

So I need to turn my attention elsewhere if I'm to have a productive day down the plot. The only other work that needs doing is trying to sort out the mess known as the Grape Vine.

It's been left to run wild the past couple of years. Fortunately grapes will withstand serious prunage. Its also the right time of year to deal with it. So out with the secateurs.
A short while later and it's looking a lot clearer. I also pulled out as much of the dead bindweed as I could get. There is a huge metal guide buried in there which will take some serious cutting with a hacksaw to get out as the vine has grown through and around it. But for the meantime I can leave it in there.

Last thing to do today, is protect the rhubarb. Not having any straw I opted to an upturned bin.

It's not ideal. But hopefully it will do. Next year I want to enjoy the rhubarb again.

Water water everywhere...

The is only one job on the plot at the moment. Sieve the soil. Except it's been too wet. I can't force the soil to dry (cue mental image of extra large solar dryer frying the soil) but I can stop it getting wetter... sort of.

One of the pieces of rubbish I inherited when I took over the plot was a large piece of polyethylene sheet. It's split down the middle but on the whole it's pretty serviceable. So it's time to put it into action as a rain cover.

A few bits of wood to hold it in place, and next week I should have some nice dry(ish) soil to work with.

More Stupidities

A little while back, I wrote about the "Authorities" trying to get people to stop growing vegetables. Well it seems like it's happening again.
Now I can understand some planning guidelines which can prevent eyesores and the lowering of market values, such as builders rubble and the like being dumped. But growing veggies?
Sorry, but I am completely perplexed by this.
Now obviously here in the UK we also have some laws. I've been researching into them. And it seems that there is absolutely no laws against growing food in your gardens. The only mandates are if you live in a gated community that has some kind of charter or covenant. But even then, thats only between house holders in that area. There doesn't appear to be anything at a Council or County level. I'll gladly accept details if you know otherwise.