Our Allotment Journey - Day 1 !

poppet

shaz_mum_of__2 wrote: »

Anyone ever grown veg seedlings to sell?

theres a very busy carboot here i plan to sell some veg plants at (may??) i already have some spare plants but want to have a go at growing some specially for sale i was thinking pak choi ,lettuce: webbs and little gem , peppers tomatoes, cabbage, cauli , broccoli , beetroot any other suggestions i was planning on a strip of 5 for a quid which is half what the garden centres charge and peppers ant toms 75p each


What do you think ??

Shaz

Im thinking of doing the same thing.

Rummer

Hello Everyone!

I have just come in from an hour digging in the garden and I have now extended my bean bed! It was lovely being able to spend an evening in the garden!

Melonade

I have finally started on my first raised bed!! It measures 6x4 atm but OH has just marked out an extra foot for me so now it's 7x4!!! I've dug it over this afternoon and got 90% of the stones and glass out but still more to do tomorrow. Got it covered with an old carpet for now cos the cats have already been eyeing it up :rolleyes:

I will hopefully have a smaller 4x4 bed marked up tomorrow. I can't have too much space because the garden is very small... although I don't see the fuss as we haven't actually done anything in the garden since we moved in a few years ago!!

The dandelion things were a pain in the bum to get out though and the roots were HUGE... they looked like parsnips lol. The soil looks pretty good though. I thought it'd be quite hard but it's lovely and crumbly and hardly took any digging to break it up.

I've got a lot of respect for anyone with a big garden or allotment and I only had a tiny bit to do :cool: But it was still very satisfying

I hope the weather has been nice for everyone today :cool:

Top_Banana_2

Hi everyone!



I have weeded and dug it over, but there are still quite a few big lumps. I've tried to bash it up as much as possible.
I have also put fertilizer on the top and watered it in lightly.

What else should I do?

I plan to dig a hole for the spuds, put in a little compost, place the spud on it, then fill the hole up with compost. Is that ok?

Should I put some more fertilizer at the bottom of the hole, too?

Thanks......again!

jtb2412

Morning everyone

TopBanana that bed looks just fine for spuds. Don't worry about the big lumps, we all get them :rolleyes: . You can put compost in the potato holes but if nothing has been grown on it for a while, then you'll probably be just fine popping them in the dirt. We dug trenches and planted them in the trenches, only to make it easier for us to mound up when they start to grow. I'm not sure how long they take to sprout - keep meaning to check that one out !

Melonade well done on your first bed ! You've still got lots of time to get things in - we didn't start 'properly' until May last year. Had to laugh at your dock/dandilion weeds, the roots do go rather deep don't they? :rotfl: I think our record is 5ft long, it took 2 of us to pull it out ! :eek:

Rummer it's nice to enjoy the evenings now. We've been down the lotty 2 nights running (mainly because we need to water, the ground is so dry ! :eek: )

Shaz we planned to sell some of our excess at car boots too, although now we've got the other side i'm not so sure i'll have anything spare to sell :rolleyes: . DH will still sell his chilli plants though so we might be able to make a little bit.

Laura great news about your parents' allotment too ! Are you going to help them dig? lol

Nyk lol@ playing in the garden, I shall have to remember that one !

We've been busy this week (away next visiting my parents so need to get organised!) Have put in all my peas (could find nothing that said they couldn't go in now so have bunged them in and will see what happens. I started them off in the greenhouse so they should be ok.) I've also put in some cos lettuces that I started off but have fleeced these for the moment. Will have to keep popping up there to take off the fleece during the day (any excuse ). I also weeded the last of the raised beds and 2 small planters that were round by the shed - have popped salad in those.

My radishes and spinach that I planted 'in situ' have come up so i'm pleased the dry, lumpy soil hasn't stopped them from germinating :T .

I popped over to pick up a 'few' garden things from a nice freecycler last night. Only a 'few' turned into a car full :eek: :j . I have about 5 bread crates (going to use them for salad), about 10 other white bread crates, not as deep but will do for something, just not sure yet - any ideas? Also 5 large black crates ideal for carting stuff down the lotty from the greenhouse here in the garden, about 30 plant pots of various sizes and a water carrier which will be great in the summer as it's a bit of a walk to the water trough (our plot is slap bang in the middle of two :rolleyes: :rotfl: ).

Plans for today - pop to the garden centre as we need some capillary matting for when we go away (have tried other things but nothing really works as well), go down the lotty to water and maybe pop in my parsnips (germinated in the greenhouse in modules).

Right I have to go get the kids up ........ have a good day everyone, hope the weather is good to you ! xx

Rummer

Just checked the peas I planted outside a few weeks ago and they have rotted away instead of growing so I am going to plant up a few more things in the greenhouse and see how they get on. Do you think it is too early to move my seedlings out into the greenhouse to harden them off a bit before planting them into the garden or should I keep them in a bit longer?

Melonade

I have put my name down for an allotment :eek: It's a 20 second walk from my house and I always thought it was owned by one person as a business. I saw a few people going in and out this afternoon with wheel barrows and tools.

The council told me theres a 2 year waiting list, which I'm quite thankful for really... firstly I haven't got a clue about growing and secondly I've started digging my garden up to start at home :rotfl:

I'm really excited even though it's only having my name down.

Rummer - sorry your peas have rotted I don't even know when to plant them outside... so far mine are only just peaking through the compost. It's still quite cold here at night (cheshire, north west) Hopefully your new peas will be ok

Frugaldom

Bad luck with the peas, Rummer I suspect a few of mine have done the same, but most have come up and are about 2cm high now, so here's hoping they don't get swamped. No signs of any beans, yet, but they were later sown. I have moved the first of my seedlngs from the kitchen windowsill to the greenhouse, but I have very little heating in my kitchen, so the temperature difference won't be that much. :rotfl:

Melonade, that's a huge step to take putting your name down for the allotment, well done You'll be quite glad that you have plenty of time for practicing on a smaller scale in the garden and who knows? You could get yours much sooner as there are bound to be loads of people put there names down and then change their minds or move but don't remove their names from the list

JTB, my garden is supposed to become part of my work, as a fulltime frugalite in search of self-sufficientish lifestyle, but it does feel more like playing than working, especially when comparing it to sitting here at the computer waiting for files to upload or download and looking at figures that make me wonder if I'll ever afford a house of my own. :rotfl:

I've ordered more wire netting so we can complete the poultry runs and fence off the raised beds - it seems easier to let the birds roam free and fence in the food rather than the other way around, especially as there are so many uninvited feathery, furry and prickly visitors to the garden.

I have applied for some free veg seeds courtesy of the BBC website. Someone kindly provided the link on my 4k challenge thread. The first load of woodchips arrived yesterday, so we've got 2 of the poultry runs done so far and the hens love it. Still no eggs being produced by them so far but the longer daylight hours should soon solve that problem.
Now for my big question - should I pick the rhubarb? I'm already harvesting bowlfuls of salad leaves, which is great as I won't need to buy a lettuce this year, so it would be even better being able to pinch a few stalks of rhubarb so I'm getting even more from the garden this early. My main concern is - what harm will it do the plant, as it's the first year of it growing here since moving it in winter? Perhaps if I cut the stalks rather than pulling them then this would be better? It just seems such a shame to not use it when it has grown big enough to bake into a crumble.

jtb2412

Nyk we picked off our plants the first year but only about 5 stalks. We left it after that but it's done it no damage this year, it's all coming up a treat !

We moved 3 crowns into the lotty last November and I'll be picking off those this year too, although not as much as the established plant over on the other side.

I've applied for the free seeds although i've applied for some before (can't remember if it was the BBC one) and they never turned up .

On another note, I rang our Town Council earlier to see where I was on the waiting list - we're 47th :eek: :eek: :eek: . She reckoned it would be about 2 years before we were offered one of our own so I'm just going to have to ask our 'sharer' if we can keep it in her name and pay the rent for her next year I think. I really don't think they will let us 'transfer' it so I just hope she's in agreement - I'm a bit sad really, thinking about all the hard work we're doing and possibly not being able to work the plot next year . I don't know why I get so worried about it all, I should be thankful we've got somewhere .

Sorry guys n gals, whinge over

Weather pretty miserable here today and it's soooooooo cold ! We've not planned to go down the plot today as I've got Guides tonight and I need to do some ironing before we go away on Sunday. We've found someone to water for us which is good as I think the plot is going to need it ! Ground is still very dry here. I think we're forecast a bit of rain tonight/tomorrow morning so from a gardening point of view, that's good !

Right off to lunch with DD1, TTFN xx

Rummer

Hey Everyone, the forums are going to be closed over the weekend so I will have no excuse for not getting the seeds planted! I will actually garden instead of talking about it :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Hope you all have a productive weekend and I look forward to hearing about all your work next week