Glass & Manure

Topsie · « **on:** May 11, 2008, 23:38 »

Firstly ... Hello, I am new and this is my first post

Strange title but I have 2 questions.

1. I have just gotten a new alloment well october ish and the council were nice enough to clear all the brambles and then they had put loads and loads of top soil on it but it is full of glass. We are removing as much as I can but i am worried that if I miss any and my potatoes, etc might grow and he glass might go in them.

May be a stupid question but was just wondering if this is possible.

2. While the coucnil were adding the topsoil they also added manure to the whole of my allotment. Now this was very nice of them and I have merrily planted out carrots, parsnips etc etc and have now reaad that they shouldnt be planted in manure due to forking etc. Is there any point in me carrying on growing these then or will forking just make them look funny but still taste ok?

Sorry about the lengthy post but these questions have been bugging me for a while.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

vegmandan · « **Reply #1 on:** May 11, 2008, 23:52 »

Firstly I would ask your council to remove all the topsoil,as it's totally unacceptable for them to provide you with stuff full of glass.

Give 'em some flannel about health and safety and they'll probably replace it with the best loam you could imagine immediately.

Failing this just persevere with what you've planted.

O.K they may or may not be forked but they'll taste just as good and next year once all the muck has been mixed in with the soil you should be O.K.

woodburner · « **Reply #2 on:** May 12, 2008, 01:09 »

Ye gods! What the 'heck' were they thinking? Are you sure it was the council?
I've never heard of council supplying manure OR topsoil.

Many places give away manure for free if the supply outstrips demand as they have to get rid of it somehow, but topsoil with glass in it is worse than useless. If the land needed topsoil then it was unsuitable for allotments in the first place.
tbh it sounds more like cowboys than council. If someone dumped a load of contaminated topsoil on my lottie I'd be jumping up and down. :!:

Topsie · « **Reply #3 on:** May 12, 2008, 17:09 »

Yeah was def the coucnil ... the allotment hadnt been used for years and when they shifted all the brambles off the top they found underneath that there was concrete and stuff so wasnt the best so they scraped it off with a jcb and then replaces with topsoil and then manure on top. So it was the council.

As we are just working on a small bit at a time I just keep picking up the glass as the larger bits are easy to see but its the smaller bits I am worried about.

However, I did mention it to a bloke on the allotment commitee and he just said yeah there loads of glass all over the allotment due to green houses blowing over last year, but my topsoil was added after this so I would have thought that it wouldnt have affected it.

Unfortunately, i have had allotment a few months now and only just really started working it as I had no greenhouse so was growing seeds as home so I cant really say anything now as I should really have noticed it earlier. So thats my fault really.

woodburner · « **Reply #4 on:** May 12, 2008, 20:45 »

Ahh, that does explain the need for new topsoil! Your lottie neighbour's remark makes me glad greenhouses have never been allowed where I am. I hope I don't come across the remains of a cold frame though

weeeed · « **Reply #5 on:** May 12, 2008, 21:50 »

Welcome Topsie, now you are being spoiled you know!! We all spend our time digging out glass every tim e it rains but I don't know anyone else who got top soil or manure on their plot. Just keep digging and weeding and planting it will all come well in the end.

Arls0308 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 13, 2008, 10:27 »

Hi,

My allotment is full of glass, mainly from broken bottles by the look of it. God knows what people were doing on it before it was left to go fallow. I wasn't lucky enough to have the council come and scrape off my weeds and brambles and give me some manure! When I asked if they could come and turn it over for me before I took it they said they didn't do it anymore, which is a shame as considering how many plots on the site are overgrown and just unusable, they'd probably get more people taking them up of they made them look at least semi-workable.

I when I'm digging, forking and raking the glass comes to the surface and I just pick it out then. I just presumed that any glass left in would move around the veg growing.

Arls

Topsie · « **Reply #7 on:** May 13, 2008, 21:50 »

I know I am lucky , when we went looking we had choice of two one full of brambles and oher which just had grass on it. I chose the one with brambles thinking oh well it will be alot of work but its in a better position than the other one. Then council officer said they would just get JCB in and clear it because the brambles were like 6 foot high and covered the whole allotment, it was a very nice surprise

Like I said I am not bothered about digging out the glass was only worried about little bits I may have missed. I dont wanna give people carrots or potatoes with glass in them :o On the plus side they may come out ready chopped hehe

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Glass & Manure

vegmandan