Planting Potatoes and The Allotment Skip Arrives

Turning up on the wrong shift can be dangerous! Planting spuds and loading skips, plus the mystery of the green compost bin resolved.

Normally I turn up in the afternoon or early evening but today I went in the morning, which turned out to be a big mistake. First things first, though.

The missing compost bin turned up. I noticed it a few days ago at the back of someone’s plot and checked my lid fitted, so I was pretty sure it was my bin. When he arrived today I asked him if he’d seen a green bin that had gone missing in the winds earlier. Immediately volunteered that he’d found it so it is now returned to its rightful home,

So, back to the plot to start planting the rest of the maincrop and the skip arrives on site. We get a skip every 3 or 4 months and amazingly it is always filled. People had started dumping rubbish ready for it so we piled that in. As for the pratt who had left 2 car batteries there….

That took about three quarters of an hour for the three of us on site but the worst was to come. The chap who took over a plot in april had a pile of couch filled soil that was to go. He is constructing deep beds and this pile of soil was for the dump. About 30 barrow loads. We lifted and tipped each barrow load, after this my back was not happy.

Back to the spuds. All planted and pelleted chicken manure scattered at the highly scientific rate of a couple of handfuls to a square yard. Put some on the new potatoes on plot 5 as well.

Took the cloche off the second row of peas – they’re doing well and so are the weeds. Got those out and put some sticks in to support them. Putting the weeds into the bin, I realised how the path was getting a bit grass covered so more weeding.

Then sowed a small patch of radishes before it started to spit with rain.

Back at the ranch, the potatoes in the greenhouse were topped up with a growbag between the three of them.