Preparation and planting

Another busy week on a warm spring day with lots of preparation needed, both for the planting of the wildflower area and also inside the poly tunnels - areas of mystery!!

Plenty of parsley and spinach in these beds

Who knows what might be in here!! Beetroot, garlic....who knows!

This is the area of the allotment that will be planted with wildflowers to encourage pollinators. They will help to pollinate the vegetables before it was dug over. The turf had been stripped off.

And this is it after - and boy did my back ache!!

The rough area that we reclaimed down the side of the second polytunnel has been dug over, weeded, dug over again and weeded again before having a new layer of soil and manure added to enrich and improve the soil. It's a long way from the entrance to the allotments to the green gym area and a lot of wheelbarrows were used to transport it. Well done to all those who moved it as it took some shifting.

Raised beds and plots were also planted out in particular, this bed with strawberries.

So what's coming up? Madeleine and Marion will attend a day in St Helens with Lancashire Wildlife Trust to learn how to prepare a wildflower meadow. They will also help in preparing the ground for the initiative. Next week the guttering will be fixed to the shed and 4 water butts connected - all we need now is some rain!!

The second polytunnel will have the beds dug over in preparation for tomatoes and an inventory will be taken of seeds that we have. I wouldn't bet against someone turning up with a list of activities that need to be carried out too!

So onwards and upwards to next week and remember, you can view more photographs here and on Twitter

See you next week


@SeftonGreenGym

Time to "shed" the pounds

Who came up with that title?!?!


Anyway, what does it all mean? Well, with the shed due today, it was time for a mad rush to complete the shed base. This involved all hands to the pumps which was fortunate because a large number of volunteers had turned out again.


Eventually, the base was finished and the shed in place. A new fence, shed base and now shed in 5 hours a week over 6 weeks. Great effort from all the volunteers.

Further progress was made on the seed planting. Peas, leeks, parsnips, lettuce and beetroot all sown and letting mother nature take her course. Swathes of grass around the orchard have been moved and the ground prepared ready for the RHS Britain in Bloom 2012. Everybody is looking forward to seeing the flowers in full bloom as well as the pollinators that will help our crops.

So that we comply with H&S regulations we've put up a small fence around the large pond and also covered the frog spawn with netting to prevent the local duck population eating it.

As well as the blue and great tits around the site a woodpecker has been heard close by. It would certainly be a pleasure watching at work as we carry throughout the spring.

More to come next week when the compost bin area will be nearing completion.

Remember, you can view our photographs here and keep up to date with our musings on Twitter.

See you next week for more.

@SeftonGreenGym

Spring is in the air

First some good, nay excellent news to report. Thanks to Local Givings donation matching for March 2012, the green gym has received nearly £3500 in generous donations. This will allow us to complete a huge amount of work with adding yet another dividing structure (which will be a natural hawthorn hedge), recover the 2nd polytunnel and to buy plants and tools.


Spring is definitely in the air. Another pleasant morning for the good folk at the green gym.
The biggest sign of this was the incredible amount of frog spawn in the pond - I can truly say I've never seen so much. 

Now that spring is well and truly here (but beware those late frosts) it's time to get down to the real detailed and nitty gritty work. The first big job today was to clear one of the compost heaps so that  the ground beneath it could be levelled ready to store a number of compost (including a comfrey bin) and general waste bins. 

This, in addition to finishing off the base for the new shed and should see the end of the major infrastructure work this year.


A number of new raised beds have been built and the compost from this particular corner was used to fill them. I hope to add a plan of the site in the next week or two as well as planting schedules to show what we'll be growing.


Plenty more seeds and onion sets have been planted this week. Work is also continuing on the area down the side of the polytunnel that was reclaimed. There is a phenomenal amount of glass and other rubbish buried down here and it's looking increasingly likely that we'll only be able to plant more raised beds unless the top foot of soil can be removed. Mind you, with the average age being 102 perhaps raised beds aren't a bad idea ;o) There is also a lot of ground elder which I'm sure has huge benefits - to someone - but is very invasive and it's roots take over everything. It's very therapeutic removing it though!


So what of the coming week? The weather is looking promising for another dry day for the green gym (I will not be held responsible for this proving not to be the case) so if you enjoy reading what's happening, come along and join in. New volunteers are always welcome.


More photographs from this week can be viewed here.


I'll leave it at that for this week, have to make some bird boxes if we're going to catch any birds that have yet to nest this year.


See you next week
@seftongreengym

First day of Spring and the sun is shining

1 March 2012 saw the sun shining for this green gym. Perfect weather for finishing the fence.

Phil was in early to get the final panels ready and in place. Finally after 5 weeks, the fence is finished. Next for this particular area is the planting to attract wildlife. This will consist of native shrubs and climbers which should hopefully see an increase in the numbers of pollinators needed to help in the growing of fruit and vegetables at the allotment.


The unseasonably warm weather brought out some early insect life, including the beetle below and hoverflies.

Plenty of work was taking place planting various vegetable seeds such as broad beans

And now that the fence was finished, the important shed base could be laid.

Work also continued clearing the uncovered area by the side of the poly tunnel. As well ass bags of rubbish that had previously been dumped there are also tree stumps that need to be removed. David spent most of the morning digging two particularly difficult ones out.

It will soon be possible to add additional raised beds to this area, but there are many other jobs that need doing first. First of these is to plan what should be planted and also in which part of the allotment. What better way to do this than with a well earned drink and a sit down to discuss it.

More photographs can be found here

So onward and upward as we head into spring and the planting regime kicks in. It won't be long until some home grown vegetables will be on the side of my plate - yum yum, can't wait.

See you next week.

@SeftonGreenGym