The achievement of black plastic

After three years work, Kevin and I have finally cut down the worst of the brambles and the 2nd half of the lottie, not yet in cultivation, is now covered in black plastic.

This feels like quite an achievement, though one might wonder why in the hell I would celebrate putting down black plastic? It simply means that after a lot of very hard work, aching backs and scratched arms and pricked fingers, the brambles are seriously becoming EX-brambles* and the land has been reclaimed for growing.

In the space of the afternoon, the last quarter of the lottie went from being covered with brambles to being covered with black plastic. Thanks to some help from our friend Manishta a few weeks ago, we had already started cutting down the brambles in this section. You can see the pile of cuttings to the left.

 voila! brambles cut down

After a couple of hours work, much tea and pastries, the clearing was done.

take that brambles - plastic-fantastic

Then came the black plastic. Never has black plastic been such a welcome sight. The big bulge (ooooh, that sounds rude) is the large pile of brambles that we are drying out so we can have a bonfire with them.

Proud lottie holder 

The plot now

The first half is well into cultivation. In the third quarter of the plot we have started building raised beds and these will have the potatoes growing in them this year.  And the last quarter that we just covered? Well, we obviously still have to dig out the bramble and weed roots. But this will be where the shed, compost bins, and eventually (oh, dreams), the polytunnel will go. Oh, and a small area for an outdoor fire pit so we can cook some food we just dug up on the lottie.

In the meantime, the dream of finally putting up a shed is finally much closer. By the end of Spring, a shed I shall have. Black plastic - I love you!

*no ex-parrots were harmed in the creation of this lottie.

Mulching experiment: update 2

This is my 2nd update since first starting my mulching experiment in mid-November 2011.

For bed 1 (standard cardboard and compost mulch), the cardboard and compost mulch has broken down much more since December. You can see that in December it was covering over all the edges of the raised bed, whereas now (2nd pic) it is sinking down the sides as it breaks down.

Bed 1: Mid-December 2011

Bed 1: Mid-January 2012

Because of the unusually warm weather throughout December and part of January, I did get a few odd annual weeds trying to grow on the top, which I promptly pulled out. Otherwise, just doing it's thing, no bother at all.

For the 2nd bed (based on the idea of 'three-layer grow through mulch', see first post for description of my changes), it's a bit different. I think you can tell that the veg remainders mulch is starting to breakdown more,  just. Not sure the photograph shows it that well, but I can assure you it has. So far had no annual weeds have popped up, unlike bed 1. However, the old chard remainders that I had dug up and thrown on top, are trying to grow!

Bed 2: Mid-December 2011

Bed 2: Mid-January 2012

You can see the new chard shoots at the top (from the middle going towards the right). Yes, I had thrown a little used compost (from containers) onto this mulch, in part to help hold it down in the high winds. But I literally threw the old chard root on top, in no way digging it it. But the bugger wants to grow anyway. It's not a lone wolf either, as at the other end of the bed (not in the photo) some other old chard roots have started to sprout.

I suppose I'll pick the young shoots and then maybe throw the rest of the root into my compost bin at home. I don't really want the chard to grow in this bed, as this is going to be the brassica bed this year. However, I'm very impressed with just how much the chard wants to grow.

Overall, the 2nd bed is mulching down much more slowly, which isn't surprising given both the unusually warm weather until the last week or so. The cardboard underneath is also drying out more and so taking more time to break down as well. It will be interesting to see if the recent cold weather helps break it down quicker.  Will report back mid-February.

Making the most of enthusiastic bamboo

After sorting out the black bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra, we had to cut down in order to fix part of the fence that was knocked down in last weeks high winds, I've ended up with another lovely bunch of black canes. I've been musing over what to make from them, some pea and bean climbing frames, or another trellis.

I made my first bamboo trellis last September, and am now growing an evergreen honeysuckle Lonicera japonica 'Hall's Prolific' up the canes. The honeysuckle has taken off amazingly well, and even though it is mid-winter, it has masses of bright green new growth.

The black canes are not as black and shiny any more, but where the honeysuckle grows, you cannot even see the canes, so I can see eventually it will be a lovely green wall rather than the colder faded red brick and grey wall currently on view directly out of one of the kitchen windows.

Bamboo crammed in

The bamboo wasn't planted in the best place, squeezed in between brick paving and right next to the neighbours fence. So it's rather taking over, growing under the fence, pushing against it, which I think was part of the reason for the fence becoming weak.

However, it's a beautiful plant. I love the way it moves, the sound of the leaves, the fact it is evergreen, and is always elegant. I'm not that keen to take it out, so I'm making the most of this enthusiastic bamboo, gaining a yield at the same time as hopefully stopping it from taking over.

And now I have some more canes to play with.

Oxford Sow & Grow newsletter

For Oxford Sow & Grow, my garden advice business, I'm going to start sending out a regular newsletter with gardening tips and information on upcoming workshops.

If you would like to receive the newsletter, email me on jgp@cooptel.net and ask to go onto the mailing list. And no, I will never pass on contact details to anyone.

Don't know what Oxford Sow & Grow is? Check out the website!

Cultivate!

There is an exciting new food initiative in Oxford, Cultivate. It's a new food co-op that is to be community owned, run and financed by people local to Oxford.

I'm personally keen on Cultivate, not just because I know some of the wonderful people involved in setting it up (!), but also because I think the model they will be working on is great. They will be running a VegVan that will come to any part of the Oxford area where locals want them to come. This means not just the better-off areas, but the less well-off areas of Oxford. If people want the VegVan to come to their area, they will be able to work with Cultivate to make it happen.

Cultivate will have 5 acres of land in South Oxfordshire, and will also work with other local organic farmers and veg box schemes to source the food they will sell in the VegVan. I like this as it will be local food people working together, not against each other, and will help build a more sustainable and resilient food system in the Oxford area.

The reason I'm particularly blogging about Cultivate now, is that they will be opening the Community Share Offer on Monday 16th January, at their launch event. So if you would like to find out more, do RSVP to them at info@cultivateoxford.org.

If you cannot make the event, you can also join their mailing list and they will keep you up-to-date with information on the share offer and other news.