Please convince me not to give up my allotment

[Fillyjonk]

Ok here are the downsides

1. It has terrible, terrible clay soil. It is like mud, really.

1. It is utterly infested with slugs. They even eat the tomatoes.

1. It is halfway up a hillside.

1. It is 40 minutes walk away even before I go up the hillside

I am getting bugger all OFF the plot because a. I am crap at going up there with the kids (no car, 40 minute walk, nowhere to shelter apart from a small shed filled with dangerous implements ) b. slugs

Pros are-I dunno. I quite like gardening, I suppose. Ds loves it, which is the only thing that has been keeping us going.

I am feeling very despondant about the whole thing atm

Please inspire me.

I planted my first seeds last Tuesday and they are poking their little heads above the soil now I just keep looking into the seed tray and imagining DD having fun picking Veggies with me in the Summer.

Will that do?

As for slugs - go into Starbucks and get a load of coffee grounds (they give it away especially at ours), surround everything with them.

As for the Clay - well it is just hard work. Chuck a load of compost and rotted manure at it and dig it in. Do that every Autumn from now on and you may eventually get something you can step on without sticking

lovely warm days with gorgeous and healthy vegetables growing all around you

Digging up potatoes - nothing beats it

YOu can grow on a small scale - you don't have to compete withthe other allotment holders

This is the worse time of year - it's all better from now on in

ONions, leeks, raspberries, lettuce, more potatoes...mmmm

really re the coffee?

will try that

i've had the plot now for 7 years. the soil is much better - I've worked a lot into it. But the slugs are just appalling.

I have tried pretty much everything on the hdra site btw . except copper wipring the whole plot (its about 20ft x 20 ft)

the slugs eat EVERYTHING

I have these tiny nascent tomatoes and courgttes and I don't WANT to give them up to the slugs.

slugs - nematodes.

clay - keep adding manure & compost - well rotted. Also adding grit/sand would help. This costs money or takes time though.

the 40 mins thing - there's no easy answer to that. If you cant get a car, and spend some money on it you are best off giving it up. I've just acquired another (had to give up last one as got pg and couldnt do anything on it).

Let someone else have a go until you either a) get a car or b) find an allotment much more suitable/closer to home. I think that's the best option really.

can you get on a waiting list anywhere nearer? Or on a bus route?

I moved allotments because mine was 20 mins' walk away...useless with little tired kids/lugging veg back home/getting anything to the allotment etc

I got one practically opposite my house - I was told there was a 6 month list but i got mine after only 2 months because i went down there, met the 'head honcho' and charmed him with my knowledge and enthusiasm.. (oh and I begged!)

• the difference it has made is incredible. I can pop down every day for an hour now it's lighter and keep on top of things and it has gone from being a heart-sink chore to my raison d'etre during this current stressful period of my life.

no vvv can't use them, soil too clayey

I am chucking a cartload of manure on it every 6 months atm-its getting there yes but SO slowly.

It was an ornamental garden before and all gravel-yes on an allotment someone did this

It is just such hard work and it never seems to be under control-and its been 7 years fgs.

(thanks all btw-am getting all grumpiness out here)

WTF would you make an entire allotment plot an ornamental garden????

Try and get one closer to you filly - there must be some closer - you might not possibly know about.

I discovered 2 lots near me the other week when idly perusing google-earth/multimap satellite.

Worth a try?

To feel so defeated after 7 years isnt worth it, IMVHO.

thats what I need fmf, I really need something local, but sadly thats our closest plot

that would really help matters.

oh the irony that i need a car for allotmenteering

oh Are you sure there isn't one nearer??

Do you have any kind of garden space at all? Even a tiny back yard can support lots of veg/flowers. You can make a raised bed up against a wall, grow loads of stuff in pots etc. I do that as well!

Either that, or, make it an entire fruit plot - low maintenance - no digging - doesnt matter if its clay. Plus, fruit is probably the more expensive in shops. Especially plums, strawberries, raspberries, grapes, currants, figs, rhubarb, gooseberries, peaches, apricots, pears etc.

They are easier to protect from slugs too.

no really not vvv, our council has a list with maps

i would love to campaign for one ex that they all have free plots atms, so no demand iyswim

god i've been there 7 years, I've put a shed up and everything

i do love it but feel defeated by the slugs. I honestly think I've tred everything. I don't want to use slug pellets.

aargh

Filly - where are you?

ah but depends where you live in the country. Can't see many apricots/peaches etc oop north where I am. gooseberries, blackcurrants, apples, straws, rasps and rhubarb though

that is actually a good idea

theres a lot of fruit there now-i put it in before dd2 was born so i wouldn't get a cultivation order if i was a bit rubbish after the birth (we get them v quickly round here). Its in a huge fruit cage, ex the trees.

maybe I could copper tape small areas and plant tomatoes etc in them...or dig compost into small areas to get around the crappy soil

its actually in a lovely area if the weather is good, as there is a huge park with a playground, boating lake & cafe practically opposite (and down the hill .

fills

1. clay soil is v v fertile and good for growing. mucky sure, but good. you just need some sand or grit to dig into it...

1. get nemaslug drench the area with it, but do it just before a few days rain for maximum effect (or youll have to go up and water every day for 3 days) BUT will clear all the slugs for months

1. cant helkp with that

1. um, its good exercise?

1. a beach tent? or wigwam? or take an old sheet up and make a shelter for the dc out of it and some bamboo canes?

cardiff

not peach county

a bit wet at times

hence slugs and crappy soil

Have you got raised beds on there filly?

i have spend all morning sowing my asparagus beds (permanent beds i wont get anything out of for a year or two but hey, theyre permanent = no more work!)

and my strawberry beds, which will stay as they are for a few years yet.

oh yes, 6ft bamboo canes and some plastic sheeting/sheets and clothes pegs are in my shed expressly for summer shade tipi!

raised beds rock. imporve drainage, warm up quicker, easy to mx up with whatever (sand/manure)

oooh i dunno. Look at Peach "Peregrine".

But plums, damsons, greengages, figs etc.

Also globe artichokes, asparagus, yakon, jerusalem artichokes - all permanent (ish) and dont require digging. (much)

build raised beds, even a couple of small ones if you don't have much money or time. You can buy "kits" now in plastic or wood.
Fill them with nice topsoil and compost.
Nematode it.
Put copper bands all the way round the beds.
Buy lots of those tub trugs as they are fairly cheap and fill with compost to grow crops, put copper bands and strips of sandpaper all the way round them, it's decorative and stops slugs.
Plant some "sacrifice" crops to attract slugs with a lot of half grapefruits in, they love the grapefruit and will curl up in it...then you can squish them the next morning.
Go daily and kill slugs, it is therapeutic.
DD and I go round at night with a torch chucking the bastards in her small bucket then fill the bucket with water and salt.

Bring on a few veggies at home in pots and seed trays.
Plant out when they are good and strong into the raised beds. Surround them with slug stoppa and those new "friendly to wildlife" slug pellets the organic gardening catalogue has.
Bait all round the plants with beer traps and rejoice when the little bastards drown.
Buy a load of comfrey plants for the bits you are not planting out, slugs hate it, cos the leaves are rough. It can be used as fertiliser for the rest of the garden.
Buy green manure (mustard) as well and plant.
Increase the number of raised beds when time and money allow. Raised beds are wonderful, I would not be without mine.
Plant fruit bushes, slugs won't go for currants, blackberries, raspberries or gooseberries (ditto rhubarb) and these bushes also need sod all day to day care.
Blueberries are good but they need acid soil so you will need to grow them in pots.
Hope this helps.

I actually had plans for a willow sculpture as shelter

but that was before the slugs ate all my seedlings

its just suchhard work. I've been there SEVEN YEARS and its like taking over a new plot atm. AGAIN.

I mean I've had allotments before, this one is pretty duff tbh, with little going for it-its just the best I'm likely to get really.