Not rotten enough yet

The council have delivered some stable manure to the allotments. My neighbour John pointed this out to me in the late Autumn when he started to add mounds of the stuff to his beds. I went and inspected the pile, but to me it looks a bit too fresh to be incorporated just yet. There's hardly any muck, it's mainly fresh straw and wood shavings. In his book (that I have mentioned before here) Terry Walton notes that manure with wood chippings and sawdust is to be avoided, as it takes too long to break down, making plant growth poor. So, I have opted to stack a few barrow-loads in my new compost heap and maybe use it next year.

Roll on to January and John has now covered virtually all his 10 poles in the stuff, and I was a bit concerned to see another experienced plot holder, Roy, wandering off with barrow-loads of the same. However, when I spoke to Roy (a dangerous thing to do if you've got less than half an hour to spare), he volunteered that he wasn't using it on his plot, but was stacking it 'for a year, maybe two' before using any. Great, at least that's two of us with the same opinion. We mused a bit on the worn state of the ridings, and Roy told me how they used to bring sewage and waste from Wolverton Works down for allotmenteers to use. That was, until they discovered that due to the industrial processes it was full of poisons like lead. Hardly what you want on your vegetables. In those days, enterprising gardeners used to stack up the sewage (animal and human I guess) into a smelly pile, set a fire in the middle and let it burn for a couple of days to dry it out enough to use. I went away fairly pleased that we don't need to do that any more!

Where has John been... and beans

I noticed my neigbour John's plot starting to look overgrown, most unusual, and slightly worrying. The last time I saw John was about a month ago, when he arrived with a heavy heart to bury his recently deceased tortoise (same age as me, incidentally). Moog thinks that'll make a nice surprise for the next tenant of that plot, one day. John told me he now wishes he hadn't planted quite so much lettuce.

Happily I saw John again this week and it turns out he's been away on holiday, followed by a bad knee, so all is well. He thought we were suffering a bunny invasion, but it turned out he mistook Moog's burrowings for rabbit holes, and luckily I was able to put him straight as to their origin.

I reported in an earlier post that my first batch of French beans had rotted before germination. I have since found out that the same happened to a fellow allotment holder and work colleague Martyn, and, to my great surprise, my super-allotment neighbour John. So, it's obviously not something I did wrong, which is nice.

Conversation with John

Whilst I was building my compost bins, my neighbour turned up and pottered around his plot. Before long I was drawn over by the smell of fresh produce to see what he was doing. There before me, five perfect leeks, fresh, tender, and smelling delicious. What an excellent incentive to carry on with my work! Leeks are certainly on my list of things to grow.
It turns out my neighbour is called John. I’m pleased to say he seemed impressed with what I’d done so far, and said I was “doing it right.” So that’s a good start. He also pointed out the access hole in the fence where the fox comes through to sh*t on my plot. I have blocked it with a piece of board and a brick. Foxy can find another toilet.

John also let me know that we share a fairly sheltered spot, which isn’t prone to waterlogging like some others. He thought my side was a “decent bit of dirt, underneath.” He said there are a few tree roots at the top though, which extend a surprising distance into the allotments from the hedge on the other side of the fence.