| Plot 17 – The Earthly Comforts Garden Season Three – Plot 17 Growing Season April – September 2023 The Allotment Plotters Directory |
| It’s all go, go, go and more go to boot! |
| When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden. Minnie Aumonier |
| Suze’s orchard fence coming together nicely – this will aid in wind security for the polytunnel, the bark chipping project slowly coming together and more space is gradually covered and worm farm one nearing completion. Sunday 09th April |
| A fully loaded Beemobile looks like this much to Suze’s chagrin. But l keep telling her “Belinda [car] loves being a country belle!” This load was last Sunday and we were finally able to move some of the potted plants down – blueberry, goji and cherry and the mints. |
| It’s been a couple of weeks since l last wrote about the work Suze and l have been doing down at Plot 17. In the previous episode, towards the end of March, l explained how we had increased the soil depths of some of the raised beds in preparations for the growing season and how l had decided to take the plot from fifteen active outdoor beds to twelve. There were two main reasons for this move and several secondary ones. However, the significant reason was originally to decrease the number of surplus to requirement beds which were initially three, and relocate their soils to the other raised areas that needed more depth and finally to move the worm herds down from Willow to the allotment so that ‘everything’ would be under one roof so to speak. Secondary reasons included and were not restricted to being able to introduce an area for different potted plants and mobile potato growing. [Suze and l are not huge potato eaters, so we decided not to extend this vegetable in one of our main beds and further agreed that two raised beds for sweet potato would suit our diets more efficiently] But, of course, things change. Life is all about change, and when an allotment is starting under new farming management, nothing is set in concrete, and everything is subject to change and alteration. Plot 17 is no exception to this ruling either. I briefly mentioned having one of the surplus raised beds kept in a constructed position just in case l wanted to introduce a second worm farm. Later that day, l decided to have two outdoor worm farms instead of just one. The two new large wormeries had to be designed differently from anything l had before because they will be utterly outdoor worm herds and open to the soil beneath the farm base, whereas everything else has been closed. The decision was not to farm for worms but for the worm compost – vermicast. So the farms were created with different specs. In addition to everything already mentioned, Suze and l had numerous other tasks to work on, such as transferring plants down from Willow, extending the bug wall and making it more of a deliberate feature to the allotment, prepping the ground for the new rainwater station, bark chipping every time we saw new deliveries arrive and also making the area where the polytunnel is to be sited more secure. We have had an assortment of weather climates since the 29th and, in truth, have only had three decent days to work down on the plot. We make up for it by working very long hours down there when we can. On the 5th, we finally started sowing seeds at home and achieved around 40% of our target. We hope to complete that task sometime this coming week. It hasn’t just been poor weather which has slowed us down but being busy with other gardening commitments and Suze working on her home companion business. We are just more active now. I have also been engaged in composting projects with The Compost Doctor, which l will write about in due course. Plus, l have been busy with Gazen Salts as well. Jobs still to be carried out and finalised are erecting the polytunnel, which we need desperately, and l now have a team of friends waiting in the wings to help us with that task, and the rainwater station poles need to be dug in, and the actual roof to be attached. The wormeries need to have their tops added. Then, in addition to everything else for April, like more seeds to be sown into modules, plants to be repotted, seedlings to be sown directly to beds, soils pH’s to be checked, composts to be turned, more soil depths to be increased and so on, you know the usual. We also have the challenge of sieving off the three Willow worm farms and transferring the contents to the allotment. That can only happen once l have finished establishing the two worm farms on the plot and set up the initial compost worm herds, which are currently in P17’s compost units three and four. Setting up the new wormeries is all about layering and acclimatising the three different worm herds [Willow Herd, Plot Compost Herd and Allotment Residents] and then combining them all in one farm. It’s all go, go, go and more go and more to boot. But at least now we are in the growing season. Now we are concentrating on where things will be sited in the plot. It gets serious now, and we start to set things in concrete. When we can sigh in relief, we should see the fun side of it all … You know? |
| Thankfully on the 5th April we were finally able to start planting some of the seeds that were desperate to be sewn. We decided to miss the first stage [mini-modules] and instead opted to plant into small pots. We have so far only managed to plant out 35-40% of all the seeds needing to be sewn. The last image is from Thursday 13th and displays the keeness of the beans and peas to get going! |
| Last Sunday 09th we had hoped to be able to plant out in the allotment strawberrues [pictured above] , shallots and garlic. Well at least we have the berries in the ground. We have to the end of April to plant the shallots out if we want a spring sowing but if we miss that we will plant in autumn. We may have missed the opportunity to sow the garlic … maybe. |
| The many stages of the construction of the worm farms one and two and the expanding bug wall and lay of the land. |
| The worm farm construction is very different to previous worm farms. This is due principally to the fact that the farms will be open to the actual soil instead of closed units. In essence, if the conditions are wrong, all worms could escape into the lands around them, so the secret is to build farms where they are happy to stay. I opted to create a more natural compost-styled substrate for them and have incorporated lasagne layering methods from the ground level up. The lasagne layers are organic chemical-free horse manure, wintered leaves, compost soils, rotted-down bark chippings, cardboard strips and then the last layer will be the worm farm contents. The rooves are still to be constructed, and then the farms will be ready for the residents. |
| I hope you have enjoyed this post, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time. Till then, have yourselves a terrific day! The Autistic Composter |
| Earthly Comfort Designs available on my Redbubble Store. Collections – Earthen Wurmin, Inspired By Nature and The Autistic Composter Please Pop Along and Check Them Out. |
Earthly Comforts 
That fence! Suze ‘wove’ that herself? Holy Carp! The allotment is a full time job, it’s a shame you can’t sell on what you won’t use…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Grace – no, no, Suze didn’t do that. She decided to buy woven matting for the fence for the inside of the fence and she will weave the canes on the outside.
Good grief if Suze could weave like that, she would NEVER been unemployed in this neck of the woods. Everyone is looking for weavers 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ah, I remember the post where she was weaving a fence so I thought this was it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Last week Suze decided she didn’t have another canes to do the entire fence. So she then decided to purchase bamboo fencing mats to cover the internal side.
With the materials she does have she will then be able to weave them on the other side of the fencing itself. You will see the difference as the outside fence will look more like a woven basket 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’ve done a really remarkable job! Oh what you could do in our couple of acres, if ONLY … I’m really seriously impressed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow a couple of acres is our dream Marilyn 🙂
LikeLike
It’s why we bought this property. Mind you it isn’t easy property to mange. It’s “ledge,” so technically we are on the downward slope of a mini mountain. LOTS of huge rocks. Boulders. Roots and rocks. Very hard to garden here because the ground is hard. We have to put in a LOT of fresh earth even to set seeds or plant bulbs. BUT. We have 2.5 acres which, around here, we apologetically say “We ONLY have 2.5 acres” because everyone else has at least 10 or 30 or 50 acres. Living rurally has some advantages. Land is the big one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, l have worked and tried to plant into giant rockeries before it is hard work and soil is always a muchly sourced out resource.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s looking good Rory. You’ve taken on a huge task but once it’s all setup, things will be easy. All the best with the wormeries and poly tunnel
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Sadje, once everything is done, it’ll be less stress. I know we can’t control the poor weather but that doesn’t make things any less stressful at times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get your point! The farmer is more than 50-60% reliant on the climate and weather conditions.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sadly and that is the main issue we are facing. Everything we are needing to do of late is outside – our business – outside, compost – outside, allotment outside …. it was sunny today and tomorrow and we have to race in case the weather breaks to put plants in. But we also have a really busy day Monday for our clients and the forecast says the weather will be fine, l certainly hope so.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope you can get all that you need to do. A light rain May not hinder your progress but a storm will definitely make things difficult
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Sadje, light rain isn’t a significant problem it’s still workable, BUT sadly most of the weather we have been experiencing has been erratic and heavy rain squall with no middle ground.
Still it’s sunny today and we have lots to do 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Make the best use of sunny weather.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You guys are soooo impressive!! Wow! You guys show the world what happens when people given a chance to do amazing things 👏👏👏
That is incredible!! 👏🙌👏🌹
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Trisha, it’s certainly coming together. When l look back on what the plot looked like in September even l think ‘Wow, look at that!’
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know!!! I remember 😮 that’s why you guys have me stunned 😮👏👏
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha l hope Suze and l can appreciate it all when it’s done as it is slowly killing us 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You will for sure!! Is incredible work 👏 totally worth it – you can already see the massive difference 🫶
LikeLiked by 1 person