Compost corner

Today was to be a day of compost bins. Not the kind you buy ready made but hand built - and hand moved!! The plan was to construct two large compost bins and relocate the contents of two existing compost bins to the new ones and also to spread the good compost around the site. However, this was scuppered by a nesting robin. One of the old bins will have to remain until the eggs have hatched and the fledglings have flown.

The compost we can't move

And the reason why we can't move it

The other pile was moved, partially to the area for the new compost bins (new compost that hasn't yet rotted down) and the older rotted down material mainly used in the smaller polytunnel.

Last year, strong winds blew down a large tree. The remains were removed but a large stump was left behind. We decided to employ the services of a local tree carver Roy Bouffler. Roy has done many tree carvings in and around the area in return for a donation to the local Jospice. Examples of his work can be seen in Victoria Park amongst others.

The stump before Roy started

Roy in action hand carving his design

The main work now is planting seeds and planting out crops, such as salad, potatoes etc. Although one final piece of work on the rain collection system has been completed. So as we prepare for a wet Easter weekend, the rain collection is in place.

More next week, but remember to follow us on Twitter and have a look at the other photographs from today on Picasa

See you next week

@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