Our Allotment Journey - Day 1 !

Frugaldom

It's looking great, JTB, well done!

But first, I need to point out something to others When JTB said:

Our ultimate aim? To be like you nyk [bows down in admiration] and more or less totally self sufficient with a nice cottage somewhere in the country and an acre (or ten :rotfl: ) of land :T

She means that we both have similar hopes/ambitions, not that I am already totally self-sufficient or have land. (I wish!) I only moved out into the country in November, so my garden project has had to start again, from scratch.

Pity about not being allowed the chickens, JTB, that's the one thing I am looking forward to getting organised asap. But look at all the space you have for those raised beds! They really do look great and it was a stroke of luck finding a building site that would part with pallet and having a good Freecycle group. I've just joined LETS and plan on exchanging extra veg, plants and eggs in future. Maybe there's one near you as well?

Keep up all the good work, live the good frugal life and maybe, one day, you'll save enough for your land, even if it isn't on your exact doorstep

jtb2412

Hey miggy, your plans sound great :T ! You're so lucky with a greengage tree - my favourite ! MIL occasionally gets them from her fellow allotmenteers (not sure if there's such a word but I like it ) and she makes greengage jam which is devine ! What other fruit bushes have you got? Don't say an apple tree or i'll cry - I want one !

How did you grow your tomatoes? The only reason I ask is because the ones that we grew in builders buckets outside did 10 times better than the ones we grew in grow bags in the greenhouse .

Looking forward to doing cauli and brocolli here too (failed miserably last year because I didn't catch the cabbage white floaty things that kept laying their eggs on my ikkle plants :mad: and the caterpillars munched their way through everything within 24 hours of hatching!) Far too many to pick off so I've learnt my lesson and going to pollytunnel them all this year with the breathable mesh - going to cost a bit but once bought then it's there and I can use it year after year. We'll be able to compare our first year notes together on these :beer: .

NYK - sorry, I didn't make it very clear when I said about our aims did I? Typical of me, fingers type faster than I think most of the time. Need to learn to think before I type I'm going to have a read of your blog/webpage later tonight - been meaning to do it for ages but haven't had the time. I'm really looking forward to seeing all your efforts :j ! Will sit down with a nice hot choc and get stuck in once kids are in bed

Re: chickens - there is something in the pipeline but I need to speak to a certain person on MSE about that. Don't want to say too much atm until I've spoken to her - it's only polite .

I'm keen to hear more about the LETS thing - will have to google it and see what comes up ! I do jams/chutneys etc too so have plenty to barter with (if that's the gist of it?? ). I'll have a look tonight too and see what comes up.

Right i'm off for a bath before I bore you all to sleep . Then i'm going to have an evening nosing around NYK's webby .

TC xxx

Rummer

Hello!

I have been away for a while and I was glad to see this thread was back too! Thanks to your inspiration I have just come in from sorting out the greenhouse, only half way through as I got tired out (lack of exercise over the winter!). After lunch I am going to make a note of all the tubs and things that we have so I can organise the planting! Ooooohhh the excitement of it all!!

jtb2412

Hi Rummer, thanks for joining us (again !) lol - good to see you. :beer:

What have you got planned for this year? The greenhouse is my bug-bear too - ours was in quite a state after last year ! I'm going to make the effort to clean it properly at the end of the season, rather than wait until next Spring.

Got outside yesterday afternoon and potted up some more seeds. Lots have come inside on the windowsills (beefsteak tomato, chillis, peppers, basil and some plants/flower seeds). I've also started off my parsnips in 3 different ways (having a bit of an experiment here as we've never grown them before). MIL says they are notoriously hard to germinate so ........ one lot we've potted up (compost) in modules and left in the greenhouse, another lot are in modules and on windowsill in house and the last lot of seeds are sat on wet tissue in a warm light room (which is the way MIL say to do it). So I shall report back as soon as we have any movement on them !

Going to get outside this PM and dig over our beds in the garden while i'm here on half-term break with the kids.

The weather is looking OK for the weekend (cloudy but dry) so we're going to hopefully get all the digging and edging finished :T .

Will make sure I take the camera . Would love to see other's pics too !

Have a good weekend everyone xx

Rummer

I am planning greatness this year! This weekend I am going to finish the greenhouse and get all my tubs filled with compost and ready to be planted up later. Still need to make a list of all the tubs and pots that I have so I can decide what is going where.

There is still loads of space in the garden so going to expand the beds, although I am not a fan of digging lol. Got some new trees coming soon, mini ones, which I will plant out and I bought a load of fruit bushes that will need planted. Do you know if you can plant fruit bushes into lawns or along the edge of hedges or do they need beds??

Looked out all of the cheap seeds I bought over the winter so I am going to organise a planting calendar because last year I didn't do well with the planting every few weeks thing so I had loads of veg at one time and then nothing for ages!

Learned last year that I am not using seed trays again as they were too fiddly to replant I am going to get some of those modular ones or use cut up toilet roll tubes. This should make it less fiddly and will encourage me to waste less.

Phew I have written a lot!

shaz_mum_of__2

Hi guys some familiar faces here i see

I have planted onions and shallots and will do the potatoes in buckets soon they have chitted nicely already i think they will stay in the coldframe for now though

I have sown kohl rabi,shallot seeds,aubergines ,summer savory ,fennel,parsley, basil and oregano too

we still have leeks chard cavolo nero and 2 types of cabbage in the ground

Also got purple and white sprouting broccoli which is just starting to produce tiny buds on the stems ,anyone know how long it will be before i can harvest them they went in the groung end of august? not grown these before

I am so excited at the thought of spring and planting but wary of losing too much to the weather


Shaz

jtb2412

Gooooooooooooood evening !

Been a busy day today again, weather has been glorious ! Was there in T-shirts today and was even hot then :eek: . Must have been all that exersion (sp?), if I haven't lost 2lb next week then i'll be :mad: :rotfl: .

Rummer - greatness looks like it will be achieved ! The beauty of pots and tubs is that you can move them around so they get the best of the sun/shelter so you've made a wise move there You made me giggle when you said about expanding your beds, they'll get so big you'll have no lawn left, you watch . I'm pretty sure the fruit bushes will be ok just dug into the lawn but i'm not an expert. I can't see any problems with doing that. However, things that 'sprout' up everywhere, like raspberries, may come out over the other side of your lawn so you might like to keep an eye on them - what fruit bushes have you got?

Planting calendar is a great idea, we did that this year too and it makes life so much easier to just look down the list and see when you need to do things. We also made the mistake with the modules last year, now use the cardboard ones that disintegrate in the earth - again makes life much easier !

You sound like a pro Rummer - I'm sure you'll have lots of success ! :j

Shaz - hello fellow £4K challenger ! Glad you've pulled up a (virtual) chair. I'm afraid I ramble on a bit on here so you'll have to forgive me - the novelty of gardening may wear off in a year or seven :rotfl: .

You've got lots started already - I need to make some hours in the day so I can do more. I plan to set the alarm tomorrow (yeah, yeah I know, it's Sunday ! lol) I want to get some more sweet peas on the go and a couple of other things.

We lose a weekend next week as mum and dad are coming down to see us (which is great btw !) Really miss them since we moved down here and always look forward to their visits. So, not much being done next weekend so want to get a bit ahead if we can before then.

Todays antics were:

Dug out some more of the potato bed (good job really as they arrive in the 'hut' tomorrow :T Hut = little building on the allotment site run by lotty association and we order seeds from and get stuff like chicken pellets really cheap ). So I can start chitting them from tomorow. Been saving my egg boxes for the last few weeks so have somewhere to pop them (MIL told me that trick).

DH edged another couple of beds (before his drill ran out :rolleyes: ).

DD2 and DS kind of helped :rotfl: but refused to go to the manure heap :rotfl: .

Started on the second compost heap and spread some of that on the beds.

Was only there a couple of hours today as we tackled some of the front garden here at home this morning (remember I was saying need to make more hours in the day !)

Plans for tomorrow:

Finish digging potato bed.
Finish edging beds.
Put more compost on beds.

Then we should more or less be finished and I can concentrate on getting my little seedlings sprouting nicely .

I'll pop up some pics tomorrow. And i've rambled on for far too long now (as usual ) so apologies if I've sent anyone to sleep (nearly nodding off here myself :rotfl: ).

Take care and have a happy Sunday everyone xx

Frugaldom

jtb, you sound as though you are doing really well, but have I missed something? Cheap chicken pellets would be needed for, umm.... chickens?

My little garden is going to end up looking like an orchard at the rate I'm going! Why did Ald! open a store a few miles away and have fruit trees for under £5? I HAD to have another 2 to add to the 5 we planted here Boxing Day!

Weather has been not too bad here, either, so the potato bed has been dug and I've now planted the first earlies in a raised bed with a couple of extras into buckets. The recently planted rhubarb crown is sprouting and my garlic seems to be growing alright - it's up about 6" in a tub. Seeds sown to date include (more) lettuce, tomato, chilli, sweet pepper, artichoke, cabbage, spring onion, cauliflower, coriander and cherry tomato. The latter are now about 2" high and starting to sprout true leaves. :j
My first tray of lettuces/salad leaves will need thinning very soon, as they are growing rapidly under their polythene [strike]bag[/strike] 'cloche'. Everything is either in pots on the windowsill or in coldframes (the raised beds with glass over the top). I've also now got about 30 fruit bushes (22 rasps, 4 blackcurrant, 2 redcurrant and 2 tayberry) and the majority of the strawberry plants (runners potted from 4 plants grown last year) seem to have survived the winter so far.

This week, weather permitting, I'm going to make a start on digging out a small pond. My veggie area is tiny compared to your allotment, but I'm considering putting another raised bed out the front. I'll need to check with landlord on this first, though, as it will mean digging up part of what was originally a lawn. Any suggestions for what best to grow in a corner that's in shade until almost midday?

Rummer

Morning

I am just in from a couple of hours in the garden. Finally finished organising the greenhouse so now I have lots of pots filled with compost and just ready to be planted!

Sadly now I have to face digging the beds and I really don't want to. The ones we used last year are reasonably clear but the two we didn't use are really overgrown and it is going to take ages :eek:. Going to rope my OH into helping although he doesn't know it yet:rotfl:.

So keen to just get planting but I am going to wait until I have all the areas prepared first, much as I hate being that sensible! Think I am going to add a couple of raised beds to the garden although I am debating at the moment whether to build them or just buy them ready made. Does anyone recommend a cheap supplier?

Hope you are all getting somewhere with your gardens/allotments!

shaz_mum_of__2

Has anyone seen these
http://www.pottyinnovations.com/

expensive but got me thinking we were at a fish shop(tropical not chips) yesterday and they had lidded polystyrene boxes of a similair size and wondered if these would work ?? well insulated too, i know the chip shops get wet fish in similair boxes but don't think you would ever get rid of the smell

Nyk i think JTB means chook manure pellets not feed ...:rotfl:


Had a good tidy up outside and priming the greenhouse heater also been to look at potting sheds at a local woodyard (not very mse but less than half the price of this one at bandq)



£350 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am torn i can afford it but i don't Need it but it would make life simpler?


happy digging evreyone(and dreaming:D)

Shaz