Our Allotment Journey - Day 1 !

Frugaldom

Yeah! Congratulations on the new shed, Shaz! It looks great for growing tomatoes and I love the half doors.

My outdoor frugal projects got rained off today, so I'm planning on how best to maximize growing space without having to keep the feathered livestock penned in all the time. I think I'm going to concentrate mostly on eggs, fruit, veg in pots, herbs in pots and the couple of raised beds we have already started. These won't produce anywhere near enough veggies to last us throughout the year, but if I can source cheap carrots & potatoes then I won't need to worry about growing so much this year. I still don't know where I am going to grow the tomatoes or peppers, although I do have several glass panels that could be recycled from a salvaged conservatory... possibly as a small lean-to attached to the back of the garage... hmm...

I was reading about how much land is needed for self-sufficiency. I'm guessing that it will depend on whether or not you include meat in the diet, but several sources claimed one acre of land per person. But then I read this site about 'urban homesteading' and a family in USA who are managing to produce 3 tons of fruit & veg from one tenth of an acre garden. :eek: I've roughly calculated the area I have to 'play with' and it's a mere 0.065 acres, so 65% of what they had. That means I SHOULD be capable of growing almost 2 tons of fruit & veg in my tiny garden each year. If I deduct half of that for egg production, that's still about a ton of fresh produce and that, in my opinion, is utterly amazing. :T It gives me a whole new set of goals for the long term. :T Have a go and find out how productive your 'patch' could be

Rummer

Shaz how exciting about your shed, when we got out greenhouse I spent hours in it, I strongly recommend a portable radio so you can sing while your potting!

Nykmedia I can totally sympathise with your projects being rained off, so were mine and I am so frustrated that after a day of rain yesterday I am now sitting looking out at heavy snow showers! So much for digging the beds and planting my new trees! Think I will use your link to calculate the area I have to grow fruit and veg too!

After my long and heated debates with my OH about raised beds we managed to get a pile of pallets and we are going to make temp ones for this year and if I like them and they work well in the garden then we are going to save up and buy/build nicer ones for next year (hopefully in the xmas sales!)

Today I am going to hide from the snow in the greenhouse and plant up my March seeds that I can start off indoors. My toms finally started to poke through but nothing else is showing its face yet. I thikn the few things I started in the greenhouse have decided it is just too cold to come out!

shaz_mum_of__2

Rummer wrote: »

Shaz how exciting about your shed, when we got out greenhouse I spent hours in it, I strongly recommend a portable radio so you can sing while your potting!

Thats a great idea i bought a wind up one a while ago.........................now where did i put it ??

Nyk thats amazing although if all my tomatoes grow i think i will have 4 tons of just tomatoes

planted another of the raised beds out front today with assorted root(beet,turnip,swede,carrots,radish) and a row of rocket all tucked up under a fleecy blanket now

Off out for lunch so not much else will get done today

hope you all have a great day


Shaz

Rummer

Although we had sun, rain, hail, sleet and snow over the course of the day my OH and I managed to race out during the dry patches and get most of our fruit bushes in! Still not planted the trees and I didn't get round to the seeds either but I have the seed trays in the kitchen ready to organise when I get home tmrw!

Sadly though it looks as if our back bed is going to remain waterlogged and I may have to just let it return to grass and place beds somewhere else. The front garden floods badly too so we have done nothing except smother it is weed control fabric. Other than installing drainage pipes is there anything we can do to make these areas not flood??

Frugaldom

Rummer wrote: »

Other than installing drainage pipes is there anything we can do to make these areas not flood??

Have you space for a small pond or water feature?

On Tuesday 3rd March, I set out a few peas and beans on soaked cotton wool to help get them started, so I'm really pleased to see how much progress they have made in the space of one week. :j The soaked pepper seeds are also beginning to break through the compost in their trays on the kitchen window sill. Still bitterly cold here but there are plenty of buds beginning to show on many of the bushes, including the blackcurrants and redcurrants. Still haven't started planting my marigold seeds but I'll get around to that soon.

OK, here's the latest piccie of frugal chick, now 4 days old. I couldn't resist it! It would probably love to get at the pea shoots and seedlings!

catkins

Hi, got an allotment on Saturday - only waited a month! I am so excited it's really quite sad.

Me and OH have a huge list of veggies we want to grow (we are both vegetarians so eat masses of veg). The plot is going to be cleared in the next week or so and then we hope to start planting.

I have a couple of questions (they are probably silly ones but I hope you don't mind). Firstly if we want to grow from seed is it already too late for some veg? Also do we need a greenhouse to grow from seed as obviously it is still pretty cold at night.

My other main question is actually the one that is bothering me the most and it is to do with watering. Firstly at the moment the site has no water. It is going to be put on this year but not sure when. Apart from a water butt which unless we get tons of rain is never going to be enough how do we manage? The other question about watering is with us both working how do we get the plants watered in the mornings? We grew veg in pots last year in our garden and they had to be watered morning and evening. Obviously one of us could nip into the garden before work to do this but the allotment is about a 15 minute drive away. I don't drive which makes it more difficult and OH has to leave home for work at 6am. I really cannot see him at 5.30 in the morning watering our veg!!!

ixwood

Rummer wrote: »

..

Sadly though it looks as if our back bed is going to remain waterlogged and I may have to just let it return to grass and place beds somewhere else. The front garden floods badly too so we have done nothing except smother it is weed control fabric. Other than installing drainage pipes is there anything we can do to make these areas not flood??

Just use raised beds instead. Google square foot gardening (there's a thread on here too).

jtb2412

Hi everyone, am still here (just !)

Had MIL and FIL staying this weekend so again, not much done on the allotment or in the garden. We have just started to pick the first of the spring cabbages in the garden and they were wonderful ! I only managed to keep about 6 as the cabbage whites destroyed most of them so I will learn from my mistakes this year .

We all went shopping to the garden centre (which is fatal :rolleyes: ). I did need some more compost though and bought a few extra bits ..... a seed sprouter being one thing Looking forward to getting that started tonight :j .

We're going great guns with all the seedlings. Everything is doing really well and growing nicely. DH now has 96 chilli seedlings :eek: .

My aims for this week:

• Get more seedlings started off
• Get seed sprouter started
• Compost the potato bed down the lotty and get covered to warm soil before planting spuds
• Get DH to start on the bean structure and trenches (lotty)
• Mow the lawn and pathways of lotty if weather stays dry :rolleyes:

Shaz am soooooooooo jealous about your potting shed! I'm sure you'll have many happy hours pottering about . Agree with the radio being a must have - just make sure you sing quietly so the neighbours can't hear you and giggle :rotfl: .

Rummer bit of a nuisance when you're so keen to get organised and the weather keeps holding you back. Can see that happening here this week too :rolleyes: Don't lose hope with the greenhouse, things will soon start to appear. It's still a bit cold but now the light levels have increased, it will help. Also, if you grow in the greenhouse and it is a bit cold, it's not a bad thing - will stop things going leggy and the cold slows them down a bit and makes them a stronger plant in the long run. Spring is just around the corner, i'm sure of it

Nyk sooooooo loving frugal chick - making me broody ! :rotfl: (For chickens of course !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Catkins - congratulations on the allotment ! You're extremely lucky only having to wait a month ! It's not too late to get started on veg, just check the back of the seed packets (presuming you're buying seeds?) to see when is ideal to plant. Now is the best time for most things (early spring). If you don't have a greenhouse, you can start things off on your windowsills inside the house and then pop outside when the weather warms up a bit. If you can afford it, it's worth investing in a greenhouse. Otherwise, maybe one of the portable ones with plastic over them? Just to protect your little seeds while they get strong.

Regarding watering, do you have a shed on your allotment plot? If so a bit of drainpipe from the roof to the water butt will soon fill it up. If not then I would just put lots of smaller buckets around your plot and hope it rains (but not too much of course !) to fill them up for watering. It's a bit awkward that you don't have water on the site yet. Also mulching is a good way of keeping moisture in. Either use straw or wood chippings. This will keep the moisture in the soil for longer.

I'd also invest in some good books to help you get going - I did and they've been a godsend ! Can pick them up relatively cheap from carboot sales.

Good luck with it all and feel free to post some pics if you get a spare 5 mins !

Right I have to go get organised (am at work at the moment :shhh: so ought to do something constructive) - have a great week everyone ! xx

Frugaldom

Congratulations getting your allotment, Catkins! You must be really excited about getting started. :j Re the watering and rainwater collecting, I saw a great idea utilising old hosepipe and plastic bottles! The hosepipe was drilled out with holes all along the length and then laid up and down between the rows of plants. every so often, there was a plastic, 2l drinks bottle attached, it's end cut off for rain collection. It also meant that when watering, they simply poured the water into the upturned bottles and it ran through the hosepipe, watering via the holes. I thought it was a brilliant idea! Even sinking open ended, upturned bottles about the place helps (cut the bases off for rain collection. I've become an avid plastic bottle saver and even went beachcombing for extras last year, as I also use them as mini cloches.

This picture's from last year's garden, I used the bottles for seedlings - these are sweetpeas that added a bit of colour at the bottom of the potato patch.



Going to try getting a few new photographs today, as there seems to be quite a few seeds germinated over the past few days. It's sunny here at the moment but it was pouring and then sleat & hail earlier. :rolleyes:

shaz_mum_of__2

Just a quickie

Catkins well done on the lottie and dont worry to much about watering an old boy on the local allotments told me most people overwater he only watered seedlings newly planted baby plants and fruiting stuff like tomatoes ,most plants send out roots and find water in the soil which makes them stronger in the long run

otherwise utilise as many water barrels or buckets etc as possible to make the most of the rain

Shaz