Call that a pallet?
Despite the fact that erecting the shed was one of the first things I did on the plot, it's been neglected since, and in need of a floor so I could build upwards with shelving, etc. We recently had some heavy duty pallets delivered at work, with heavy ply covers, rather than the normal softwood slats. I put them aside, only to find that someone else in the office, who has also just got an allotment, beat me to it and took them home the other day.
Fortunately, during the week, we had a delivery turn up on a huge pallet, with 3x1 beams and some great runs of timber, ideal for my shed floor. The thing was massive. After calling rank on another of the office staff and claiming 1st dibs on it, I headed over yesterday and just managed to squeeze it onto the roof rack on the Landy.
THIS is a pallet!
My route home from work passes by the local household waste recycling site. Unfortunately, certain people consider that this makes it acceptable to use the local hedgerows and byways as a secondary dumping site when the recycling site is closed. Stopping off to check the straps on the roof rack were still holding OK, I was greeted by this at the entrance to a byway.
Fly tipping morons
I can't even begin to put into words what I think of the kind of people who do this sort of thing. I can only assume they're so retarded that they think it'll somehow disappear into thin air overnight. In reality, what will actually happen is that it'll sit there for a few weeks until someone (me probably) complains to the council, at which point, they'll send a clean up crew inВ to remove it. Once that happens, another retarded degenerate will come along and replace it with a fresh pile.
After salvaging a usable plastic bin from the pile, I headed back to the plot, stopping off for a few more bags of rotted manure on the way, then set about a) finishing off my second raised bed and b) stripping the monster pallet for the timber.
I finally managed to get the pallet broken down and discovered that it had almost exactly the right amount of timber for the floor. All of this is now painted with wood preserver and ready to go in. During the afternoon, my plot neighbour offered me some plastic sheeting before they binned it, which I accepted, as it'll make a nice damp proof membrane to help protect the floor.
At work, we get quite a lot of one type of oddly sized pallet, which recyclers tend not to want to take away. I've found that, with a bit of care and patience, it's possible to split these down and make a raised bed, perfectly sized for my plot.
Pallet Raised Bed Under Construction
I'm positioning two of these side by side, to give me somewhere to grow salad and other crops which might come under attack from the rabbits and other wildlife. I'm reluctant to put up fencing but, if it does prove necessary, I can add a post to the corner of each bed and quickly add netting if necessary. I finished the second bed yesterday evening, and piled in a couple of bags of well rotted manure. Mixing this into the top soil, my female blackbird joined me expecting me to turn up loads of worms for her to feed her young. Unfortunately, the ground was so dry that even a couple of spades deep, the soil was still dried out and almost completely devoid of worms.
Thankfully, a short while after getting up this morning, we had a short spell of rain. Not much, but hopefully enough to have given the ground a good soaking. It's actually quite scary how little rain we've had this spring. Checking back, it was March 28th when I put my water butts in place, yet we've barely had rain since. If things continue at this rate, I can see it turning into a fairly poor growing season.
After a long day on the plot yesterday, I left late in the evening just before the sun went down. As I drove off the plot, I stopped for a minute or two to watch the rabbits around the hedge down one side of the site. Three young, obviously born this year, were quite happily feeding around the entrance to their burrow. I was little more than ten feet away from them, yet they barely took any notice of me. I find it a bit frustrating that the situation is allowed to continue and people spend a fortune fencing and netting crops against the rabbits, when they're allowed the run of the place. I'm not especially into killing wildlife for the sake of it, but I'd dearly love to take my gun down and to pick off the odd one for food. This would at least help check their exponential growth slightly and might lead to the rest of them moving to somewhere safer in the long run.
April 25, 2010
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Tags: fly tipping, pallets, rain, raised beds, Shed В· Posted in: Construction, Shed
One Response
I’ve just taken on a plot, planned a layout, and worked out that I need at least 176m of timber just to edge the beds! I think I might need to get a short-term job in a warehouse… рџ™‚
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