A bit of this and a bit of that....

First of all here is the photo of the trial im doing this year that I promised id post on here. For anyone who didn't read about it this is what its all about: Last year I mulched a lot of things with straw to good effect and I wondered if shredded paper would have the same effect. (I have an endless supply from a friend). So this year in the top tunnel where I have planted all my garlic I am mulching one half with straw and the other half with shredded paper to see if there is any difference.

You can just about see the garlic coming through. On the right (paper) side is 'Cristo' and on the left is 'Carcasonne Wight' with some elephant garlic at the back.

On the new plot I managed to get half of the car park covered with wood chip. What I've done is to put a layer of either cardboard or four sheets of newspaper straight on the couch grass below and then piled the chippings on top. Hopefully this will eventually kill off the couch grass and any that pops up around the edges can either be pulled or sprayed.

On the photo below you can see the back of the new compost bins which I have covered with heavy duty plastic which I luckily found in a skip the other day. This will not only protect the wood but also help insulate the compost inside.

Back on plot 1 the rhubarb is going for gold. I reckon it wont be long before we are picking...

Spent yesterday afternoon mulching the squash and dahlia bed with partially rotted leaves. They are mostly oak leaves and are what the council drop off outside the allotment gates. This bed did accommodate just dahlias last year but I have applied some old lime and it will host a mixture of squashes and any dahlia tubers which have survived the winter unprotected.

The girls are looking fine and healthy even though they have stopped laying! We have one duck laying at the moment with the other two on strike. The geese have started this year yet but i'm hoping anytime soon they will...

Yesterday was a lovely day here despite it trying to rain late afternoon. We almost had a sharp shower but it left this brilliant rainbow:

Back over to the new plot and the first compost bin is completely finished and has had its removable boards inserted at the front. All the wood has come from old pallets which our friend John the Baptist dropped off for us. We have already started adding to this first bin so it shouldn't be long before its full.

Dug a couple of comfrey roots up from plot 1 and planted them on the new plot, adding to the existing row I planted last week. The one clump had been heavily mulched with woodchip and you can see how much further forward it is compared to the others due to the extra protection and heat of the chippings. This row of comfrey will be for cutting to add to the compost bins and also to make a liquid feed for tomatoes.

Last but not least we had a presentation night to go to last night at Stourport. Here I am collecting the trophy for the winning collection of 6 kinds of veg. I also won a silver salver for the best two vases of flowers in the show.

That's all for now folks- i'm tired and my shoulders are aching like nothing on earth. So have a good day and keep looking forward to the next post...