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  Anne Hardcastle October 4, 2010 at 7:45am

  These bins look great Pete. I put two, rather hasty ones, together yesterday with my son's help. Next year we shall build some like yours ! I think Harry Dodson, a favourite of mine too, is right not to cramp surface roots. Mind you, 60lbs per square yard is a lot of manure !
  I have opened a couple of trenches where my peas and beans will go next season and shall top them off with a little topsoil before sowing at the normal depth.
  Thanks for the "weeds" link there is very good advice there. I liked the idea of starving the Equisetum. It is an "impossible" weed but you can spray it off if you really have to. Thankfully it is not present on this plot.
  I am still drying out the Twitch roots but shall eventually put them in the compost.
  
  This is a favourite time of year with me. I am working away at cutting out all my planting beds before the nights close in.
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  pete September 29, 2010 at 5:44pm

  Sorry for late reply Anne... when we took on our plot – with broken window frames, bindweed, the ubiquitous carpets and matted twitch, we tried to thoroughly clear it, and we separated the beds with 12” grass paths --- the weed that did come back was quickly chopped off and soon died out. I would think when Charles initially dug and cleared his ground he made sure it was in 'good heart' with plenty of compost/manure.
  
  Karen and I tried to clear a horse-tail ridden allotment for a chap some years back – then covered it in black plastic and we did it again a year later (not sure that's the best way – see this page) I wouldn't take a plot with horse-tail mainly because the weed would probably also be in the adjacent plots.
  
  You must remember The Victorian Kitchen Garden series Anne – well look what I found in a book by Harry Dodson - “I don't mind double digging or trenching ground for runner beans, but for a very long time I've not believed in actually digging trenches for them.... he goes on... Runner Beans grown in such a trench had a pot-like existence. To my mind this was wrong, because their roots spread naturally sideways through the top soil, sometimes to a distance of 2ft. Instead of a trench they should be planted in ground which has had a good all-over spread of manure, well dug in during the winter. In my gardens we always used to reckon on 60lb of farmyard manure per square yard – leave the digging rough for the winter and break it down in March or April...”
  
  How about that! - but then Charles and Harry could water their veg gardens every day if needed – or maybe most folk dig a trench because it's just tradition, I don't dig one for French Beans.
  
  Here's an old picture (they've got corrugated iron lids now) of our compost bins:- Karen and Pete's Recycling Centre
  
  

  
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  Anne Hardcastle September 16, 2010 at 10:12am

  Thank you for the encouragement Pete !! The photo of a veggie plot on your page looks pretty good to me.
  I shall make a couple of trenches for next year's runners during the winter and try what you suggest. Plenty of compostable material coming along and I shall add some shredded newspaper or cardboard for water retention.
  I have rather struggled with the Charles Dowding technique because, if you read carefully, he does indicate that perennial weeds should be smothered OR removed. The issues on my plot stem from its original conversion from grazing. This was done in winter 2009 by deep-ploughing-in the sward and thistles. Twitch and thistles just reappeared within weeks ! The clods of grass are more than 3 feet down in places and the twitch and thistle roots were broken up and spread about.
  
  Several of us including me have covered part of our plots with landscape fabrics or or similar and are waiting for what is underneath to rot ! To this extent I am using the No-dig method but in order to make a start this year I have dug and extracted twitch and thistles from 47 square metres. I also invested in a Haxnix "Speed-ho". Brilliant! I keep other areas which will eventually be paths clear with this and compost the tops! (seed free of course!) I do not plan to dig these plots again and am accumulating mulches as fast as I can.
  I still have to edge the beds and create bark covered paths between. BUT, I am making progress and I love it.
  Do you make trenches for the Climbing French Beans too ??
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  pete September 15, 2010 at 9:18pm

  Your beans look alright to me Anne – I saw your question 'which runner bean for free draining soil' – I believe climbing French beans do fare better than runners but I couldn't be without either.
  
  Amusing Charles Dowding saying you should spread compost and manure around your beans, when of course you should really put it underneath them first – or anything moisture retaining.. but then I guess he is the top modern no-dig man.
  
  I was talking to a chap in my local recently and he was saying how he had once helped his father bury a mattress to grow beans a-top of ! Most folk on our allotment site dig an open trench and slowly fill it over the winter with anything and everything and then backfill with the soil before planting - or sowing, which will get you a stronger root system
  
  I have Charles' book Anne and as we generate so much so called waste from our work we are able to employ the original no dig method cuz you do need a lot of compost for an allotment sized plot... if it's on a sandy soil like ours is - because it will be eaten up pretty quick