dumpy bags!!!

valk_scot

I've got some of these. I use a couple to compost leaves and another couple to use as composters. When they're full I cap them off with a bit of old carpet then leave till the level has reduced to about half, then add about six inches of topsoil and grow the pumpkins in them. The following year the residue gets spread onto the main growing beds.

Only one thing about these bags...it requires a LOT of topsoil/compost to even half fill one. That's a lot of digging. If your beds aren't edged, just mark the area out with string and pegs and grow in that for this season. When I took over my allotment I did just that...marked off three or four beds, dug them, planted them and moved on. As scrap timber became availible I edged them. I have an 80' x 40' allotment with 26 beds, 4' wide and varying lengths up to 20' and it took me four years to get them all set up, but I was growing crops in some of them from Day 1.

mambury

valk_scot wrote: »

I've got some of these. I use a couple to compost leaves and another couple to use as composters. When they're full I cap them off with a bit of old carpet then leave till the level has reduced to about half, then add about six inches of topsoil and grow the pumpkins in them. The following year the residue gets spread onto the main growing beds.

Only one thing about these bags...it requires a LOT of topsoil/compost to even half fill one. That's a lot of digging. If your beds aren't edged, just mark the area out with string and pegs and grow in that for this season. When I took over my allotment I did just that...marked off three or four beds, dug them, planted them and moved on. As scrap timber became availible I edged them. I have an 80' x 40' allotment with 26 beds, 4' wide and varying lengths up to 20' and it took me four years to get them all set up, but I was growing crops in some of them from Day 1.

great idea, but the land I am going to grow on is subsoil as all the top soil had been dug away when we had to have the soakaway re dug. The new soakaway is about 15 foot deep and 10 x 10 square and is still boggy on top! So I need to put my beds on top of that. I realise that the dumpy's will need a lot of filling but my idea was to use the topsoil/compost from each one to fill a bed as I
a- build a bed
b- the veggies in the dumpy are coming to an end.

I think the idea of filling them with leaves to compost down and then planting pumpkins is great. I guess it would work quite well with other squashes and melons too???

wssla00

saw these on my way round the garden websites http://www.capitalgardens.co.uk/v3/grow-your-own-home-allotment-vegetable-planting-bag-p-19932.html not sure what they would be like? I only have a small amount of space and was going to build up raised beds along my garden wall but wonder if these will do the job?

valk_scot

mambury wrote: »

I think the idea of filling them with leaves to compost down and then planting pumpkins is great. I guess it would work quite well with other squashes and melons too???

I didn't use the ones with leaves for the pumpkins. I had two just for leaves, which take at least a couple of years to break down. I had two other bags which I used for compost bins...usual mix of soft and rough materials like weeds, grass clippings, shredded paper and ripped up cardboard etc, left to rot down a bit.

These would be fine for squash, courgettes and pumpkins but melons need a bit of heat unless you live in a really tropical bit of the UK. The old Victorian gardeners used to build hot beds from fresh, fermenting manure and straw with a cold frame on top but this is a bit outwith the scope of most gardeners nowadays, unless you own a stable?

choille

Hi - they are strong but they do degrade in sunlight.
I was using one down the croft to gather up brambles that I was hoiking out, left one down there & went to drag it back & it literally disintegrated - mind you it was a couple of years old.
I found the same with some woven coal sacks I was given -used them on the paths as a weed suppressant, covered them with gravel - these too have broken down & disintegrated.
Probably take a couple of years to do so, but they will break down.

Whistling_Gypsy

Hi

We successfully used these bags for taters last year - highly recommended!! .My first attempt - used 9 seed potatoes in each and they came up fab. Did use a lot of soil - I mixed overflow soil from digging out the garden and topped up with compost

Hve a few of them that OH has 'rescued' - using them as storage for compost, wood etc over the winter but they will be brought back into use as tater sacks for the spring.

mambury

valk_scot wrote: »

I didn't use the ones with leaves for the pumpkins. I had two just for leaves, which take at least a couple of years to break down. I had two other bags which I used for compost bins...usual mix of soft and rough materials like weeds, grass clippings, shredded paper and ripped up cardboard etc, left to rot down a bit.

These would be fine for squash, courgettes and pumpkins but melons need a bit of heat unless you live in a really tropical bit of the UK. The old Victorian gardeners used to build hot beds from fresh, fermenting manure and straw with a cold frame on top but this is a bit outwith the scope of most gardeners nowadays, unless you own a stable?

no stable, but I live in the middle of three farms and SIL has a few horses!! Access to fresh poo is NOT an issue here!


Potatoes are a fab idea too!! I could then use the left over soil in the proper beds after its all nice and broken down!

valk_scot

mambury wrote: »

no stable, but I live in the middle of three farms and SIL has a few horses!! Access to fresh poo is NOT an issue here!

If you've got access to fresh manure in quantity then I think you'd be onto a real winner making a hot bed in a dumpy bag. As a bonus, by the end of the growing season the manure would be well rotted enough to put on your main vegetable beds. If you Google for "Victorian hot bed straw" you'll find a lot of links, a good one being here.

(Do not, for heaven's sake, just Google for "hot bed". You'll get a lot of links for sure but none of them will be gardening ones....)

I have this vision of how to use dumpy bags effectively on a future raised bed system, you know. Put three or more in a row where you intend a bed to be, fill with composting material/manute/layer of topsoil, grow veg, whatever. In the meantime put the edging round the bed....dumpy bags are one metre square at the base, yes? So 39 inches, and the standard for raised bed width is four feet or 48 inches, so you'll have space to work. Give yourself a bit of extra space at the ends. At the end of the season when the compost levels are lower and the vegetables have been harvested slit the bags in situ and remove...the beds will then be full of your ready to use manure and compost to a very good level. (The extra space at the ends of the bed is stop the bed overflowing.)

Actually I may try this one myself! I'm getting a bit creaky in my old age and dislike the work involved in turning compost bins and barrowing compost around my quite large allotment. It would be an interesting experiment to make compost in situ at the end of a couple of my present beds.

I'll get back to you on this one in 12 months.....

mambury

valk_scot wrote: »

If you've got access to fresh manure in quantity then I think you'd be onto a real winner making a hot bed in a dumpy bag. As a bonus, by the end of the growing season the manure would be well rotted enough to put on your main vegetable beds. If you Google for "Victorian hot bed straw" you'll find a lot of links, a good one being here.

(Do not, for heaven's sake, just Google for "hot bed". You'll get a lot of links for sure but none of them will be gardening ones....)

I have this vision of how to use dumpy bags effectively on a future raised bed system, you know. Put three or more in a row where you intend a bed to be, fill with composting material/manute/layer of topsoil, grow veg, whatever. In the meantime put the edging round the bed....dumpy bags are one metre square at the base, yes? So 39 inches, and the standard for raised bed width is four feet or 48 inches, so you'll have space to work. Give yourself a bit of extra space at the ends. At the end of the season when the compost levels are lower and the vegetables have been harvested slit the bags in situ and remove...the beds will then be full of your ready to use manure and compost to a very good level. (The extra space at the ends of the bed is stop the bed overflowing.)

Actually I may try this one myself! I'm getting a bit creaky in my old age and dislike the work involved in turning compost bins and barrowing compost around my quite large allotment. It would be an interesting experiment to make compost in situ at the end of a couple of my present beds.

I'll get back to you on this one in 12 months.....

I can only imagine the sites that will come up on google of hot beds!! Might brighten up a dreary monday morning! LOL!

Valk.... you are a genius that will save me knackering my back (only 32 but two BIG babies and back is ruined!)

I LOVE YOU!!!

Hot beds are a fab idea.... I think I will have to experiment this summer with that!

Ta
Mambury

Zazen999

If you haven't got space for dumpy bags to compost material - try this.

Get 4 canes and some chicken wire; and make a 4 walled cage with the wire using the canes threaded through the wire - vertically to support the cage corners. The canes are stuck into the soil for stability.

Then just pop some cardboard around the edges to keep the air in.

You can then fill with compostables, and pop a sheet of card on the top with a brick to weigh it down and leave to break down. When ready, just take the canes out and the chicken wire off and spread the newly composted mulch over your bed.

Anything not broken down properly can be used to start off the next small compost pile in the next position.

If you have a decent size allotment, this can help to mulch with no wheelbarrowing; you can have a smallish one in each area/bed and remove each autumn.