allotment

 The sciatica has eased up this last week and I'm currently able to work on the allotment again.

My goodness, a lot has grown since I was last there.

Richard's been doing his best, but it's a lot of work for one person and he's been unwell himself for the last few days.

It's depressing to see how much stuff has been dumped on the compost bays by new plot holders.

There are two types of new plot-holders: those who have an idea of what they are doing - through experience or doing a lot of reading.; and those who don't.

Those who don't have a clue generally adopt what I call 'weeding with a shovel'.  Their method of weeding consists of slicing off the top 5-10cm of soil in order to remove the weeds.  They then dump this in the compost bays.

Result: 

Massive loss of soil fertility - most of the organic matter is in those top few inches.

A serious increase in winter waterlogging - this is a heavy clay soil, and their plot is now lower down than all  the neighbouring plots...

 

I'm using a 'weed mulch' this year.  As I remove weeds (taking care to knock the soil from the roots back onto the plot) I lie them down on the surface of an area I cleared yesterday.  

This is mainly to reduce the impact of the sun on the soil.  It provides a little bit of shade which helps prevent the plant roots getting too hot.  It provides a mulch which should reduce water loss from the soil.  As it rots down, it will add organic matter directly to the soil without me needing to dig it in.

I'm doing this around larger plants, rather than close to seedlings. I don't want to bury tiny plants before they're fully emerged.

I've also tried an experimental weed mulch around one of the weaker squash plants.  The slugs have been picking off the weakest ones, so hopefully they'll go for the easier snack of dying weeds.
As soon as the squashes get a little growth in hand, they become slug proof, but they just need a little extra help at the start.