I rang the local pallet yard and asked if they had any pallet collars. He had, but they were £6 each although he would deliver them for that much. I bought some and he delivered them within 20 minutes!

I got some cardboard we had saved and put that underneath and laid the pallet collar on the cardboard. I decided I’d used them one high only. The man who delivered them said some people use them three high.

I filled the barrow with muck and tipped it in. It took about a barrow and half of muck to come over half way up. I then got some beautiful top soil and put that on top. My raised bed is now ready to go. I actually have two ready to plant into.

So what do I plant in them?
You can plant lots of things in them – salad veggies, onions, beans, garlic, shallots. You can plant sweetcorn, cabbages, strawberries, beetroot and lots of other things. You could try root veggies like carrots and parsnips too.

It’s going to be fun planting seeds in my brand new raised bed.

Picture to follow!

Pallet collars are used on top of pallets for allowing things to be stacked. They can be used stacked on your allotment although I’d want to put plastic in around the gap between them to avoid soil washing out.

On Saturday, June 2, residents will be invited to step back in time to the 1950s on the Preston Village allotment site.

The event will include gardeners in 1950s work clothes; plots using principles from the era; 1950s gardening and allotment artefacts including tools, posters, gardening books and seed catalogues; and music.

Find out more here

The allotment is on the Monkswood Estate, opposite North Shields RFC playing fields.

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I’m not sure we have acres of Kudzu like on this video – but interesting all the same.

Interesting video. He uses it to help break down straw bales and piles of leaves.

Compost needs:-
carbon, nitrogen, air, water and microbes. Carbon to nitrogen ration should be 30 to 1

Straw is carbon, as are leaves.
Urine is water and nitrogen.
Add some soil to bring microbes!

Geoff Hamilton used to swear by adding urine to the compost heap. I believe Bob Flowerdew does too!

Video to watch using a tumbler –

Brown : Shredded paper, cardboard, paper towels, straw or sawdust. Shredded stuff works faster and better.
Green : food scraps
Use ratio 3:1 so you have more brown than green.

Wear gloves!
Pick freshly grown nettles – as many as possible. Chop down in a bucket with a spade. You could shred them in a shredder. Add water. Leave a couple of weeks. Use the liquid as plant food. It’s a good nitrogen fertiliser. Dilute to weak tea colour to water onto plants.
Good for producing green leaf!

According to Garden news this week, a BBC1 documentary about allotments is
to be filmed starting this month and through summer, and they’re looking for
allotmenteers to take part.

If you’re interested, the contact is tors@wildpictures.co.uk

It’s freezing cold so after nearly 3 hours on mine today I’ve come in to catch up on the news.

Very sad – Allotment fire claims life of pensioner

RESIDENTS will soon be growing their own produce in a built-up area of Halifax.

As part of the Vickerman Street improvement plan, twelve allotments have been created and several will have shared use.

A TEAM of gardeners have taken security at their allotment site to a new level by taking part in a dedicated course.

A total of 54 members of Whiteleas-based Holder House project have undergone training to help make the plot they look after more secure.

Fantastic products at Original Organics and with a brilliant invention here for making compost quickly. There are several composters that allow you to rotate the container which speeds up the process by mixing everything together. This one is the cheapest I’ve seen and it does it by being rolled on the ground so there’s no complicated set up.
It’s certainly an interesting idea and I think something people would all like to try. If you can make compost in 6 weeks with a little effort then that’d be fantastic for your garden.

I can see this being incredibly useful – imagine turning out good quality home made compost every six weeks! Rolling this looks easier than turning a huge compost bin full of material.

What to fill raised beds with?

I’ve got people inquiring about what compost to use. My answer is don’t! Use well rotted manure with some top soil on the top.
Bags of compost will dry out too much in a raised bed and require much too much watering. With the threat of hosepipe bans coming in for South East England it’s going to be a worry for gardeners this year.

So do everything you can to eliminate the need for watering.

Use well rotted manure or garden compost. This will hold water better than potting compost. Mulch well after a good watering. Water only in evenings or early mornings. It’s a real waste to use water during the day as it’ll evaporate and scorch plants.

Get a rain barrel or as many as you have room for.