Builder's Bag Beds!

Today, we managed to start something we've been thinking about for a while - builder's bag beds. This is a good way to use something that is otherwise waste, and they make a useful-sized raised bed. Rosy and Matt did most of the hard work. First they dug up the deep rooted weeds from the area where the beds were to be sited, to stop them growing up through the bags. The next step was to fill the bags with a mixture of soil and compost. We are still using municipal compost from last year, so this was sieved to get rid of any weeds that had grown in it and mixed with the soil-rich heap of composted "super weeds" that we created last year. That might sound a bit risky, but we put them under a black pond-liner, which had the great result of heating them up so most of the weeds died, and then kept the pile so dark that no weeds re-grew in the pile. We folded down the sides of the bags by half, so they wouldn't take too much soil too fill but would still be deep enough to grow a good crop. The compost that's left is really nice stuff, so we are hoping that it will help us grow some nice stuff.

Rosy and Matt work out how to get the raised bag beds to behave

The two new beds that Rosy and Matt created are now filled with potatoes. The next beds will be planted up with pumpkins and beans.

Phil filling pots

Whilst all that was going on, Philippa was getting lots of plants potted up in the polytunnel, and Dan and Ellis, despite getting caught looking very relaxed, also found the time to do a lot of tidying up in the area where the new clay oven will be put.

"We're just thinking about which job to do next, honest!"

Ellis and Dan working hard to get the clay oven site ready

Time for Tomatoes?

We headed down to Windmill Community Gardens for a busy day of planting and weeding. Despite the very variable weather, we managed to get lots done, but it's a worry - some things that should already be in the ground are still in the polytunnel because it's so chilly, and some things we have put in to the outside beds have just sat and sulked, like our first planting of cabbages.

Ta da! Chris is thrilled with his newly sprouted broad beans

However, some things are working very well. Chris did a sterling job planting broad beans a few weeks ago, and was delighted to see that they are now showing. The peas also seem happy, and the twigs we put over them have done a great job at protecting them from birds. We planted up our raised-bed potatoes, which was a lot less effort than planting the ones in the low beds, reminding us that high
raised beds really make a difference for folk with bad backs or trouble bending. Helen bravely tackled the weeds in the herb garden which seem to be enjoying the plot more than we'd hoped, although thanks to efforts like hers, the herbs are still winning the battle.

Rosy planting potatoes

Newly completed potato bed

Pink Lady - Helen weeding in the herb garden

In the polytunnel (a very popular place in this weather!), Ellis and Phillipa planted Helen's tomatoes, then Rosy planted a living mulch of lettuce and basil seedlings around them. Dan and Ellis also used the warm space to pot on some French and Runner beans for planting out once the weather improves.

Ellis and Philippa planting tomato plants in the polytunnel

Rosy appearing surprised by the plants

Dan and Ellis with their little beany friends

One problem we hadn't anticipated came not from the weather, but from one of our robin pairs, who have decided that the narrow ledge above the sink in the outdoor kitchen is a good place to make a nest. Unfortunately, gravity and breezes keep knocking the nesting material into the sink, so we made them a state of the art nesting shelf at the front of the structure, where any fallen stuff won't be a health hazard, and we put the remaining nesting material on it. We'll see if they take the hint and go for the new site.

Ellis constructing a new house for the robins

One of the most novel creations of the day had to be the strawberry cone! This is the answer to "What do you do at a community allotment when someone dumps a damaged traffic cone in your hedge?", and involved cutting holes into a traffic cone, turning this upside down and filling it with strawberry plants and soil. We topped it off with a funnel made from a plastic bottle to make watering easier. It should be quite a sight once it gets growing... and also rather tasty!

Rosy and Tracey battling to construct an amazing traffic cone strawberry planter

Back to Winter, but with Easter Fun

Well, we knew it was too good to last - Winter came back to us with a vengance this week. We had plans for Thursday to have the Bilborough Children's Centre visit to enjoy some Easter related activities, and we'd been hoping for some sun, but it wasn't to be. We still managed the fun though, and to get across lots of great environmental messages with our "Cycle - Recycle" theme. We also had some practical planting, thanks to Chris, who helped everyone plant their own peas and mark out their row so they can come back and pick them.

Chris gives a pea planting demonstration

Another activity which was much enjoyed was making plantable Easter cards, using an egg-shaped template and glue to stick poppy seeds to the card. We hope there will be lots of poppies in Bilborough this year! Thanks to Matt for running the activity and making some really cool cards.

Poppy seed Easter card making

Knowing how little people enjoy it, we also had a digging area, and also a place to make clay eggs full of wildflower seeds to throw into a patch of bare earth to make a little wildlife-friendly flower area.

Ingredients for pancakes and healthy sandwiches

And, since it's Windmill, we have to have some food cooking! Rosy and Phil made some super-healthy sandwich spread with cheese, onions and carrot, and also some of our famous apple pancakes, once we'd worked out that they work in Metric, whilst Tracey, being ancient, had written out the recipes in Pounds and Ounces! I think it's fair to say that a lot of apple was smuggled into willing mouths, and the food seemed to disappear as soon as it was made.

Making apple pancakes - one of your 5-a-day!

Ray helped the session go with a swing by entertaining us on his guitar. Notice that he had worked out what the temperature was going to be!

Ray adds a bit of entertainment with his guitar

Tracey meanwhile was making paper in the polytunnel. She had done a deal with the lovely people from Pulp-friction, who brought their smoothie bike and their spare blender cup to make the paper pulp by pedaling to make the blender work. That meant that the paper was really re-cycled!

Having fun with paper making

Tracey was able to show everyone how to make paper themselves, so most people got to take away a sheet of their own, and Pulp Friction have borrowed the kit so they can become experts themselves. For anyone trying it on a cold day like this - make sure you put a bit of warm water in the vat!

Paper making workshop

We've heard that the families from Bilborough really enjoyed it and have had a good time planting their cards and seed-eggs, as well as trying out some of the recipes. We're looking forward to inviting them back when the weather is warmer!

More weeding and planting - hottest day of the year so far!

Today involved a couple of small but fun projects and lots of fairly minor but essential tasks which were a pleasure to carry out due to the glorious sunny and warm weather. It seems hard to believe this is still March.

Rosy and Helen get on with yet more weeding

Firstly, it was necessary to weed out the sensory garden and give it a general spruce up. As well as weeding, we felt that the area would benefit from an attractive border to distinguish it from the surrounding orchard and pathway. To do this, Tracey, Helen and Ellis gathered some old discarded and mouldy work boots which we had found during our last big clear out. They were far too worn out and decrepit to be useable, but not falling apart, so we thought they deserved to be recycled Windmill-style.  We filled them with compost and planted them up with beautiful colourful pansies. We then arranged them in a line following the curved edge of the sensory garden and created a really attractive display, complementing the primulas in the main bed. They were also arranged alternate right and left in order to create a theme of 'walking around the garden.'

Helen with the flowery boots.

Ray and Ellis help tame the chicken wire

Meanwhile, the rest of the team concentrated on preparing the new asparagus bed. This is a long-lived perennial crop (meaning it keeps growing every year without being replanted), so we needed to make sure it was as good as possible for the new plants. They like a well-drained soil, which ours is, but we added a bag of sharp sand, just to make sure, along with a few barrows of well-rotted compost. The asparagus plants look like mini mutant octopii, and they need special treatment, to make sure they sit in the ground in the best way and aren't damaged. You need to build a cone-shaped pile of soil in the bottom of the trench and then arrange them on top of it, so you can spread out the roots and make sure you don't damage the crown of the plant. We tucked them up safely in their new spots, and we'll be watching eagerly for the first growth. We don't get to eat any this year, but the spears do grow into attractive ferny foliage, so we should enjoy that. Then next year, we get the first taste, yumm!

Ellis and Chris arrange the 'mutant octopii' in the asparagus bed...

Another job that had us anticipating future taste delights was renovating the strawberry bed. This needed weeding, removal of the runner (baby plants that the parent strawberries grow on long stalks to root around themselves),  and a general tidy up. New volunteers Nathan and Mark got stuck into this and did a great job. Then we added a top-dressing of compost around the plants, and mulched them with straw. As the main bed was full with the parent plants, this meant that we had to find new homes for the runners including some being placed in pots and barrels across the site. Chris also hatched a great plan to plant up an old road cone he'd found in the hedge, so watch this space for the most novel strawberry planter in Nottingham!

Look - we finished the strawberry bed!

Weed and seed day

Today, as it turned out was a day of weeding and seeding. The first major and laborious task was to continue clearing brambles out of the orchard. Rosy and one or two helpers attempted to dig out each and every bramble where we would be extending our wildflower meadow.  With their long, thick running roots the task proved to be a long hard slog, as we had to dig out as much root as possible to prevent regrowth.  They dug and dug and dug, and eventually got there in the end and the area was nice and clear - many congratulations on a brilliant day's work!

Matt digs out a bramble

Rosy rightly looks pleased with her work

Meanwhile, while all this was going on in the back orchard, Helen also did her share of digging in the fruit cage. While the weeds in there were nowhere near as invasive and difficult as brambles, the task still took the majority of the session to complete. The cage was full of dandelions, couch grass and many other weeds with deep and rambling roots. In a similar case to the team in the back area, Helen also had to dig out as much weed root as possible to prevent regrowth and competition with the fruit bushes. We keep this area heavily mulched, but it will be a few years yet before we are completely on top of the deeper rooted weeds.

Helen in the fruit cage

Matt on log sawing duty

Matt, Chris, Ellis and Dan also took regular breaks from bramble clearing to saw up more logs for the fire pit. Whilst they were doing that, Ray made a good start on the path-side fence, which needs attention and lots of brambles woven into it. He also brought along a little friend to keep an eye on the proceedings...

Ray's little friend 

After all this digging and sawing, it was such a relief to finish the day by sowing some wildflower and grass seed into the prepared orchard. A highly relaxing task which will hopefully yield stunning results come the Spring and Summer.

A lawn at last!

In today's session, Tracey was joined by Ellis, Dan, Matt, Rosy, Philippa Chris and Helen. The primary focus was on sowing grass seeds to produce a lawn in the back area of the site. After much hard graft on digging out brambles and building debris and flattening out the ground it felt very good to finally sow the seed which will (hopefully) produce our much longed for lawn.  In addition to this, the weeding and digging continued in the other parts of the sensory area and we will hopefully have a path to our willow obelisk which we created last year.  The aim is to grow more sweet pea plants up the obelisk. We will have this site looking perfect eventually.

Lets sow a fine seed

We will have a lawn at some point!

Rosy digging out the toughest rooted bramble in the world!

Meanwhile, Chris and Matt took it in turns to cut up more wood from the trees which we took down.  We will have a fantastically large supply of wood for our fire pit once all the logs have been cut!

Tracey, Helen and Dan pose for the camera

Dan

The School Trip to Windmill

Well today it certainly appeared that the new Windmill year was fully back on swing with our first school group visit of 2012.  The group in question was class P5 from Robert Shaw Primary school.  The session was based around water and  how it can be conserved. This was done through three fun hands on activities: building a rain water collector, modelling a river flow and taking part in a water conservation trail around the site.

Welcome to Windmill!

For the rain water collector task, Matt split pupils into groups and tasked them with building a collector using only plastic sheeting, sticks, a plant pot and tape/ string. The intention was to collect as much water as possible from a square metre area, and channel this into a bucket using only the materials provided. It got pupils to work together as a team, while thinking about what shape is most effective to collect rainfall. The pupils created all sorts of contraptions, with varying levels of success. It ended up being a dry day, so we used watering cans instead to test how much could be caught, with sometimes messy results!

Matt and his team begin collecting 'rain'

Is this an effective rain collector? Matt finds out

For Tracey's river flow activity, a large bucket of water was channelled along a tray of sand, to simulate the flow of a river. Instead of flowing in a straight line, the 'river' created meanders (bends), showing how water acts in real life river systems.

'Let's flood Buckingham Palace!' - the children place clay house (and palace) models beside the 'river' to see if they would flood

'Can we have a flood yet?' - Tracey demonstrates how a river flows

Rosie engaged the children in an exciting water conservation trail of the site, showing pupils different methods used on the allotment to help conserve water. Armed with maps and marker pens, the task certainly got pupils thinking about the importance of water conservation, and how everyone can do their own bit to save water.

Smile! Rosie with her team holding an all important map

Rain = tastey fruit! Rosie's team

The pupils finished the morning enthusiastic, and full of questions, after a highly enjoyable few hours! We rounded off the day doing a few tasks around the allotment, such as working on levelling the contemplation area (well done Dan and Ellis), and some weeding. It can safely be said that today has been a highly enjoyable and successful day down at the allotment!

Last but by no means least - we mustn't forget the fantastic weeding done by our regulars