Allotmenteers ?

[Fibilou]

Does anyone else have an allotment and would like to chat ?
It's our 3rd year this year, didn't do very much this year due to pregnancy and very hectic schedule but can't wait to get back into it this year. Got big plans !
We've got 2 greenhouses on our plot and I'm planning on planting a grape vine this year and we're going to be investing in a fruit cage.
There's an empty plot next to us which can't be cultivated (apparently) so we are contemplating writing to the committee to see if we can rent it and plant a proper little orchard with a couple of apples, pears, plums and a cherry.

Lovely day here, have done a couple of hours of digging out couch grass. DH and DD are out walking the dog but DH is hoping to get down for an hour later. Had a compliment on our progress from Bert this morning which was nice. He reckons we're going to be having late frosts this year so to delay planting spuds until later into April this year.

Guess we should take children and dog down there but being a half plot it is narrow and I have visions of them causing chaos, so DH and I are taking it in turns to use it as an escape.

The plot next door has a lovely new shed appear this week, I have shed envy.

What a gorgeous day.

I've planted my rhubarb, fertilized the existing rhubarb and done some weeding.
I am plagued by creeping buttercups and I am trying to blitz them early in the season.

I repotted my peppers and some of my tomato plants. They are living on the bedroom window sill.

I've also disinfected my greenhouse and tidied the shed.

lovely day here aswell got down to the allotment and before we knew it 6 hours had past. im i the only one who finds that time flies down the allotment?.

Mind you we managed to get the trench dug ready to reposition the greenhouse. I got about 10 ft of brambles cleared and managed to get where potatoes are going dug.

The best part was both dcs and the dogs were shattered and been asleep all evening. Can't wait till me and dp go up on weds when both dcs are in school.

WynkenBlynken - I reckon you can still put spuds in before then - its only the green tops that are not frost-hardy, so if you are down south, you might be ok.

Self-setters seem to be able to tell themselves when to come up!

Later on if you have lots of green showing and there is a late frost threatening, you can throw a piece of plastic sheeting or a blanket over the tops for the night. And frost only sets the growth back ten days or so.

Hasn't it been lovely, starting to feel like spring. We did get down on Thursday, and now have a huge rhubarb patch instead of 3 small ones.

Also planted various seeds, and cleared some more rubbish.

Was also given two wooden chairs so no longer have to perch on our pallet pile.

I need something to sit on, though I think if I have something, I might spend too much time sitting down admiring my patches of bare earth as they are at the moment. We have an old bench here that I've been meaning to replace for ages so that's going down.

Melted, I won't be able to get down and cover them so I think I might go for a compromise of planting mid April which hopefully will get me over April frosts. I have rocket which I think are pretty quick.Mind you I say that but I might get all impatient!

Does anyone have no water supply on site and no shed/greenhouse to collect it off ?

wynkenblyn weve got no water supply at our allotments and no where to collect it at the moment.

All we do is fill up loads of bottles of water and fill the boot of the car with them and do it that way.

Oh dear, I had a feeling that might be the answer There isn't any parking and it will be a bit of a nightmare lugging water filled cannisters. I might needs to get on with sorting a shed or we do have a green house in bits that was going to be put up at home but I guess maybe that would be more sensible in the plot, to get the water butts filled.

Oh, wasn't it a great weekend for allotments?! The sun shone and we managed to do loads. Lost our momentum a bit on Sunday - think we were just a bit too knackered from our efforts on Saturday.

Sounds like everyone had a productive weekend - what a difference a bit of sunshine makes

We discovered some rhubarb and what I think might be some alpine strawberries. Then a lovely, lovely man that helped us clear the plot initially gave us another rhubarb crown and a climbing rose as a welcome to the allotments present! So sweet and so very welcome. Now we just need a shed to train the rose up! Anyone seen any cheap sheds recently?

[quote]By the way - does anyone have trouble with rabbits - they are a menace on our plot and have just had all my kale.
I put up a chicken wire fence at the weekend, but whether it will do anything.
They also chopped the tops off all my garlic and last year had my runner beans - v dis heartening... [/quote]

Buy rabbit snares. Rabbits are vermin and you can legally trap and kill them. Rabbit stew is very nice.....

The bizarre part about this is because there vermin, once you have caught one its illegal to release it (counts as releasing back into the wild - not allowed to do that with vermin).

Following on from Wynken, we got our water back on from 1st March, which makes it so much easier (we had been scrounging water off the lovely couple who have a house next to the site)

Down side is no more bonfires allowed until 1st November. I have liked being able to have a small fire when we stop for a break.

lincstash - ummm thanks but don't think i'll be trying that one - might frighten the kids!

What's everyone planning to do at the allotment this weekend then? Any exciting plans?

I'm hoping to get the greenhouse we bought from Aldi's last weekend sorted out and do a bit more digging, weather permitting

Also, wondering if anyone has any advice for us. At the moment we're trying to prepare the beds that were already in existence (albeit beneath brambles and couch grass but still easy to see where they were). The trouble is, the paths between the beds are also riddled with couch grass. Eventually (in about 50 years time going by current work rate!) I'd like to have lovely grass or shingle paths but will all the couch grass we're currently walking on just make our lives difficult? I know we need to just take it one step at a time, but just wondering really...

SO cold AGAIN her today.

Soil temperature is still only 5 degrees, far too cold to plant up.

Ive so frustrating. Ive got 250 seed tates chitting and 15 large trays of other stuff, the plots all dug and fed, just waiting for this bloody eternal cold spell to end. Im 55 and ive never known it be so cold for so long without a break.

(and before anyone shouts, i do remember the winter of 63 and the winter of 84).

Lincstash, you are so right, it is freezing here, so I've wimped out and DH has gone on his own. We don't have a good forecast for the weekend, so I think my next visit will be next week.
I've got some bargain black eyed susan, chocolate holyhock and lupins for out flower bed. Guess I'll have to put them in a pot as they're growing in the bags.

Hello,
May I join you all please? We got a one-pole allotment in October (previously had a bigger one but a month or so after we got it they announced the land was going to be built on ). What with the dreadful dreadful weather, a full time job, a toddler and an ever-expanding tummy (36 weeks pg) I haven't actually done anything to it. I'm hoping that I can get down there once I've had the baby and do a bit with the baby asleep in the pram so that I can get some crops this year! Reading what everyone else has done I think I'm running a bit late...no greenhouse or anywhere to start things off here and a fair bit of digging to be done at the allotment, although as it is a new site there are no big nasty weeds, just lots of little ones.

one pole?

You sure? A pole is 5.25 yards linear or 31.5 square yards area.

Most allotments are 17 poles.

Yes, just one weeny little pole .
Due to demand, our local council decided that it would be better to give lots of people a little land, rather than a few people a lot of land. So there are 24 of us behind some retirement flats with a pole each.
We are the lucky ones, the council is still trying to negotiate another plot for more allotments but it's going nowhere fast.
Anyway, considering how much veg we used to get out of just four 1-metre square beds in our old house, it seems like acres! I'm sure it won't once I get planting...

You'll not be needing a Rotavator to dig it then ?

Good job there wasnt 744 of you, you would have got 1 sq metre each :S

Hello Bettymum, you may have a small plot but I'm sure you'll be able to cram a lot in.

Wondered how everyone got on this weekend. DH has been pottering down there since Thursday (I did let him come home in the evenings )and I managed yesterday afternoon with DD. Would have liked to gone again today but we've had hail this afternoon!

We found ANOTHER patch of rhubarb! But they are now moved with the others.
We planted some garlic, some onion sets which should have been planted in autumn, (see if anything happens there) and shallots.
Have cleared some more brambles and are ready to rotovate.

can i join you,am next on list for allotment, the council has told me i will have one by next month, it will be 90m2 ,is this a good size for a beginner,? am rubbish with sizes etc.my aunty has offered me a chicken coop and some chickens to keep on the allotment (later when established the growing a bit), will this size allotment be too small to get carried away with chickens?

Ooh, how exciting, an allotment thread!
We chose our plot last week and its all ours from 1st of April. (waited for 2 years) And we are so excited!
It has a large shed and 2 greenhouses, but one needs to be used to patch the other one up.
I am so looking forward to it, but its a total mess and hasn't been touched for a while so I think we are going to be in for a shock to begin with.

Have any of you grown khol-rabi before?
Our neighbour grew it last year and kept giving me excess veg that he wasn't going to eat. Its lovely, and supposedly easily grown.

I had no luck with Kohl rabi last year - I tried several sowings but nothing came up. Maybe it was a duff packet, my friend grows it no problem.

I planted my tomatoes on the windowsil today .

90m2 is 3.6 poles, the standard size of an allotment is 17 poles (425m2)

17 poles still isnt big enough to plant enough spuds for all year, for me, cos i use a 4 plot +1 fallow rotation system, ie pots,legs,roots, bras, fallow, so i only have 85m3 per subplot, which is only enough room to plant about 80 earlies and 50 maincrop. To keep us in potatoes all year i need about 150m2 just for them