Thursday 20 May 2010

Clearing the derelict part of the allotment

When we took on the allotment 3 years ago, it was entirely derelict. It had been out of use for at least a decade and had suffered from a small amount of flytipping. A large, brick greenhouse had occupied the centre of the allotment but had been demolished and the rubble left lying on the allotment.

Over the past three years we had brought two thirds of the allotment into cultivation. The remaining third has, over the past few weeks now been cleared. We cheated and got someone in to do it for us. The result is a much bigger plot than we expected (showing how overgrown it had become) so it is about 40% of the allotment. In addition we have large piles of rubbish and rubble that need to be removed. Our incinerator was used on Saturday to get rid of some of the wood and brambles but frankly it barely scratched the surface.

I walked around the cleared site this morning and thought about possible uses. I'm still wanting to get chickens so it could be a good locaiton for a chicken run. There will be plenty of space left over for crops.

cleared allotment May 10 5

The bricks were from the demolished greenhouse. We are not sure what the corrugated iron was from but we will probably keep it to set up another rainwater collecting system. We collect rainwater in butts from the greenhouse roof but this is not enough for our needs. We have no mains supply on the allotment either.

cleared allotment May 10 3

This photo gives some idea of the size of the newly cleared space.

cleared allotment May 10 2

And this one shows some of the rubbish we need to dispose of.

No comments: