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Raised Beds - Part 1

Kirsten

24 Jun 2025 • 3 min read

Three baby voles

A short but productive trip to the allotment today. I finally lifted the tarp and I am very happy that I put it down when I did. There were so few weeds and I just needed to flatten out the area a little and move a little soil and gravel around.

The corner of the plot covered in a green tarp which is held down with blocks and bricks. A black composter at the back.

I realised that I needed to make room for the beds by moving the compost Dalek, from that point on things got a little more eventful than I had planned, and lead to me cutting the day short. I lifted the Dalek of from around the heaped compost, and relocated it to an area now known as compost corner.

Tarp now lifted and the area flattened - composter still in situ, weeds cleared and the soil has some gravel through it. This used to be the base of a greenhouse.

There was already quite a clear distinction between rotted and fresh material. I loaded the fresh green stuff into the wheelbarrow and put it straight back into the composter. The next part of the plan was to put a layer of the partially composted stuff into the bottom of the new raised beds.

Making progress placing the beds into the space and moving the composter.

After moving a few loads from the pile to the nearest bed I heard some loud squeaks. I could not work out where it coat coming from. It was not in the main compost pile, it was coming from the bed and a clump of hay-like material which now I looked at it more closely appeared to be a nest of dried grass and 4 small babies (which I believe are voles).

Little vole trying to escape the big human that just destroyed his bed.

As their original nest was now destroyed I transferred their little hay ball into a small cardboard box, placing it around a meter from the spot their nest had been, I protected the box from the elements with some paving slabs and added some extra straw. I then backed away and it didn't take too long before mummy vole popped her head out of the top of the compost heap looking for her little ones. I was very happy to see her about. The babies had made good amount of noise and despite still being blind one of them had tried its best to escape once disturbed. I decided that that was a good time to bring the allotmenting to the end for the day. Hopefully that would give mum the chance to evacuate and relocate her little ones. I will return tomorrow to sort out the raised beds and the remaining compost pile. I will leave the little vole home (Votel??) in place for a while and not disturb it. It is not an ideal vole house, but I don't want to cause any alarm if mum has moved in with the small ones rather than moving them all out.

Also .... Yip'pea' we have sugar-peas!! I added spare plants to the sharing table and I will go back tomorrow mostly to buy compost and fill the beds.

What time of year is best to move compost?

Does regularly turning the compost avoid it becoming home to creatures?