Tuesday 10 January 2012

Barking mad!


Have spent a lot of time lately reading a lot of gardening blogs  and they all have one thing in common…………..LETS GET CRACKING, so today I went to the plot to start a BIG job. The aim is to put down landscape fabric so that I can bark over the top to keep the weeds down as last year as it was a fresh plot the weeds were a Nightmare at one point some were knee high and I was going down to the plot 2-3 times a week but just could not control it.
The plot itself is over a half plot but not quite a full size one its 17meters long by 12meters wide  and I have allowed enough room on the walkways to get a wheelbarrow down so about  80cm wide, back in November I put the finishing touches to my raised beds.
I spent in total £35.00 on fabric all 20m long I had to shop about for the barging though! The Range was the best as it was not only 20m long but it was 2m wide.
I haven’t got the bark chippings yet but think that’s going to cost me another £40.00 which will be the most I have spent on the allotment to date as my ethos is to, where I can recycle or reuse.
It took me 3 hours to do a 3rd of the plot so planning on going tomorrow to finish it off as I can spent more time there. Then once that’s done all the structural work is almost complete and I can concentrate on the most important part of the plot…………………………………….the soil.


6 comments:

  1. That is what we did between the raised beds at home, except we used the plastic from potting compost bags then laid bark on top. The bark needs topping up every year though as it gradually rots down. I love the smell of the fresh bark. Seedlings do take root in it but they are easily pulled out. Your plot is taking shape nicely you should feel very proud of yourself.

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  2. thanks Elaine, I worked really hard last year to get it where it is now cant wait to get stuck in this year. I did think about using old compost bags but didnt really have enough to cover the area I needed.

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  3. It's looking good. On the bark chippings have you tried your local council or firms offering tree cutting services as they're sometimes happy to get rid of chippings for free. Might not be as good quality as bought in bark chippings though.

    I can't wait to get started either but our ground is now like mud so it needs to dry out before it can be dug.

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  4. Try your council parks department - ours delivers chippings to our site free when the prune trees in the district. They are usually glad to get rid of it.

    At least the incredibly dry weather we had kept the weeds down next year but all that has come to an end. Whereabouts do you garden?

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  5. thanks for the tip about the council I just contacted them, but unfortunatly they dont offer any type of service now due to cut backs it all goes to the recycle centre.
    I Live in Colchester Essex and have an allotment by the Railway its a new plot of land added onto an exsisting allotment. this time last year it was jsut a feild of grass check my blog in november as i wrote a peice about it.

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  6. I personally hate that fabrik.
    I'm with the people advising you to find chips in larger (free?) quantities.
    I've used cardboard boxes under the wood chips, that works well enough, but the chips kill the grass without the fabrik... And as the chips break down, can be added into the beds as a top dressing... They break down into a beautiful potting mix!

    Find a friend with a pickup truck and go down to the recycle center... It's a money saver! Get as much as the truck will hold, and then get more!
    The people that maintain the power lines will often drop off chips, the tree maintenance people will often drop off a load... I've gone so far as to follow one of those trucks around town, until it stopped to beg woodchips!

    The beds look good, find a source of manure / compost, and dig that stuff in...

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