Ready, Steady...

The past few weeks at Littlemeadow have been about preparation for the new season. Improving the level of the ground for both Muppets and Quackers and structual jobs like nailing mesh to the pallets to use as pea frames, clearing away the last of the dead and dying plants. The idea with the pallets is to create a means for climbers like peas, beans and pumpkins to do so over the top and, by placing it at an angle and propping it up, providing the shade needed for crops like spinach and lettuce. My carrots were almost non existant last year, so I'll possibly plant these under them too. I'll create a line of them in the bed to provide a decent amount of shade, and then hang netting or fleece for when the sun gets round.

The ground has gone from a soggy, sticky mess to a dry hard, impossible to work surface, and I have had to go against my wish not to dig to break up the hard cap on the surface. Watering it first and leaving t for an hour or two has helped, but with no rain to replace it, the water butts are now low before I've even started to put plug plants or seeds in!

On the up side, I managed, before the long line of frosty mornings, to transplant the grass growing in the beds to the path, where I wanted to join the two grass side paths into complete long strips, freeing up some slabs to use under the feed shed (to keep rats from tunneling in). This was slow work but has been cheaper than setting grass for the birds to eat, so I'm not grumbling. These paths will, when strimmed, either provide food for the Muppets or be added to the compost bin to make the mulch I intend to lay over beds in the late autumn.

Space has been made between the netting tunnel and the feed shed for the placing of an IBC tank, which will mean better collection of rain water from the shed. This in turn will be poured into the various water butts on the plot to ensure water is available in the dry season.

One project I've started has been to move the tool store to the composting area and plant wild flowers in its place. I may even put a seat here, which has been lacking since taking on the second plot last year. Originally I was going to block off the gate and create access halfway along the boundary, to make me walk through the planting and notice the jobs that need doing. I have changed my mind, realising that this would only create the job of replacing grass I've been trying so hard to nurture. I like the grass paths. Yes, they create more work because they need maintaining, but they provide nature with a home and food for the Muppets. I can also use it in the compost bin.

The paths between the raised beds in the other part of LittleMeadow have been covered with woodchip to help them dry out, and this has worked. The paddle pond area has also been covered with a fairly thick layer of woodchip found at the main gates to the site, and this has meant I have been able to return Tegwyn and Lewis to the lower half of the fruit cage and reopen the paddle pond area for the other three. Trystan, being the most dominant drake, was becoming possessive of Ava, posturing and trying to take chest feathers from Lewis.

All of the paths on the second allotment will be left to grass over naturally once the level is high enough to stay dry all year round, so providing food for the quackers when the raised beds in the vegetable side have been meshed off. I have some pallet wood to screw to the sides of the raised beds to do this and am thinking of how the division of the ground will work to keep Lewis and Tegwyn away from Gethin, Trystan and Ava. 

 Seedlings (started in paper pots) are beginning to fill the mini greenhouse at the house, and the conveyer belt system of moving trays to Littlemeadow has started. The potatoes were planted at the end of last month and are now pushing shoots through the soil. And I didn't go mad digging trenches this year to put them in.

In the latter part of last year, I discovered Charles Dowding, a no dig gardener who disturbs the soil as little as possible. I'm following his advice and teachings to see if his methods work better than what I've done for years (Look him up on youtube, he puts things simply and it makes a lot of sense). In October, I started covering the beds in the second allotment (infested with dock and bindweed) with double layers of cardboard and laid used straw from the Quackers on the top. Whatever is still not decomposed is now being removed to the compost bins so that the vegetables can be planted as and when they are ready in paper pots or the ground is warm enough to plant direct. I've also stopped digging out the weeds and now simply cut them just below soil level, repeating the process until they simply stop coming up. Shallow weeds are taken out. This means no more disturbing or killing plants I want to keep!

Hopefully later in the year I'll be able to show you lines of wonderful vegetables...