I had a load of rotted cow manure delivered to the allotment at the end of last week, about 8 tons in total.
The farmer had to drop it onto the roadway as there wasn't enough room to drop it straight onto the edge of the plot so I have been spending quite a lot of my time shoveling s**t over the weekend.
So far I have managed to get just over half moved with a bit of help from my son Will on Saturday, a total of 86 barrow loads.
The barrow that I inherited with the plot has turned out to be almost useless - the plastic wheel is squashed in two places and it sticks between the forks at every opportunity - once you get onto the grass friction helps it to turn, but when on the plastic tarp that the muck was dropped on it just slides and won't turn. Also, most barrows have a kind of frame surrounding the wheel that you can use to help tip out the contents - this one doesn't so you have to bodily hurl it forwards to empty it. Not good.
Help is at hand courtesy of my mum who is buying me a barrow for my birthday - thanks mum!
There is now a pile about 9 meters long and two wide running down the middle of my plot - the plan is to move about another 30 barrows to add to this pile and then move the remainder on Saturday when we are going to rotivate the middle section and add manure to the soil as we go, using the rotivator to turn it in for us.
Also on Saturday we will be getting some timber to make raised beds - when I say some, I mean absolutely loads as my step-dad has gone and bought 400 foot of 7 x 2 3/4 timber. While me and Will rotivate he is planning to cut it to size and make up the beds. Thanks Ken!
We may even be in a position to actually plant up some veg this weekend!
I really don't know what I did with my spare time before I started this allotment :)
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