Last week I was talking about my plans to turn the Sunset Strip – a roadside section of my garden – into a mini allotment. After I’d dug out the shrub roots, Ryan and I went out to check on the measurements and potential layouts. Over the weekend, Ryan put together this rendering of what it might look like. There’s space for four 1.2×1.0 metre raised beds, and plants in pots along the back wall. There’s also space for two compost bins, avoiding the two conifer stumps that we will allow to decay naturally. The front of the garden is separated from the pavement by a picket fence. In no way, shape or form will this area of garden be bunny-proof, and there are a lot of bunnies just over the road. So learning what they do and don’t like to eat will be interesting!
Now the reason that the plan shows four raised beds of that size is that we’d spotted some pallet collars at Oxford Wood Recycling which would be perfect. They’re wooden rectangles, with metal hinges at the corners that extend downwards so that the collars can be stacked. We thought they’d make good ground anchors for the bottom layer. A UK standard pallet is 1.2×1.0 metres.
Oxford Wood Recycling, based in Abingdon, is an interesting social enterprise that I’ve known about for a long time, so it was nice to have an opportunity to support them. They collect waste wood from around Oxfordshire, and sell it on to people who need timber for their building/ craft projects. Their collection prices are cheaper than hiring a skip, so companies benefit from using them, and the wood is recycled rather than sent off to landfill. Of course, you can’t guarantee what they’ve got in stock at any moment. Waste wood that’s not suitable for reuse is chopped up for firewood and kindling,
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