Our Allotment Journey - Day 1 !

Top_Banana_2

I'm getting my hands on my very first allotment patch soon.

What is the first thing I should be doing on the plot? It is 325 sq.yds. I'm not quite sure what state it is.

I am a complete amateur, but have been doing a lot of reading online.

Any tips would be great!

Frugaldom

Hi guys, hi TopBanana, congratulations on getting an allotment!

I skipped work today (self-employed, so not costing anyone anything) and spent all day working in the garden. It was such a glorious spring-like day that I couldn't resist it! Got loads done, including making a raised bed at the front rather than digging up the lawn. I waited until mid day to see how far around the sun got and then marked it off where it'll get sunshine all afternoon as we appear to be slightly northwesterly facing, as opposed to actual north. :j Only about 10% of the front garden doesn't get any direct sunlight, but that's where the broom and daffodils are growing.

TopBanana, my garden is being started from scratch and, boring as it may seem, digging and weeding are the 2 top jobs at the start and start planting stuff in trays or pots in the meantime.

My radishes have sprouted! :T I also managed to get some onions and potatoes planted today, plus beetroot, spinach beets, lettuce and parsley seeds. The sun shone all day, so I only came back in about 6.45 to make dinner. :rotfl:

Hope everyone else had a good day. I've made this feel like the weekend, so I'll need to remember tomorrow is Wednesday and not Sunday!

Rummer

Nykmedia I am so jealous it is the first time in ages that the weather in Scotland has been sunny and warm enough for a good days gardening and I was trapped in work gazing longingly out the window at the sunshine! Glad to hear you had a chance to make the most of it!

Catkins and Top_banana Great to hear your news, you both must be very excited and keen to get going! It really is quite addictive growing your own.

Today my OH stated that he wanted to help a lot more in the garden which was great to hear so hopefully I will not have to do all the digging alone. I was gutted today though when I went to gaze at my shallot bed only to find that half of them were either missing or disturbed! I think it must have been birds???

Planted up more seeds yesterday to start in the house so I now have the following on the go in addition to my earlier seedlings:

Sweetcorn
Courgettes
Squash (2 types)
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage

Glad to see that my basil has finally started to grow as well as my toms!

Laura_D_3

Loving this thread :j :j

I eventually got an allotment after a 3 year wait and having my name down on every allotment site in our town.... Went to see it last Saturday and haven't been able to sleep since with the excitment of it all, I'll be exhausted before I even start! I'm hoping its previous tenant is out by Saturday just waiting for the call from the chief man....

I am absurdly excited and can't stop grinning the other half is beginning to get a bit frustrated with me turning every conversation into a conversation about the allotment. Even better I already have next week booked off work with no plans and its my birthday could life get any better

I've tried to grow most things in my back garden so not to daunted by any of it, just hoping that they'll be lots of helpful advice regarding brassicas as I'm not so good at the killing catepilla thing :eek: Wanted the allotment for the tips and also to escape the chickens who insist on chewing my beautifully grown food and then spit it back out - most rude!! 7 chucks are definately a handful when they're so mischievious but I wouldnt get rid of them for anything, just want a goat now to keep them company. And they said I could keep bees at the allotment which is a plus :j :j

Has anyone got any tips on what essentials I need to take with me to the allotment, definately a camping stove for my cuppas can't garden without a tea in hand....

Fingers crossed I get some sleep tonight but I'm sure it'll be more plot designing and deciding on the essential food to grow.....

Rummer

Great news Laura!

jtb2412

Yay ! Another slightly mad/nutty gardener on board (no offence intended Laura, but you made me giggle with your excitedness - sounds just like I was ! hehe) You'll be dreaming cabbages next !

Really pleased for you :T

Will come and update tomorrow but having a bit of a chilled evening and an early night (been busy in garden today and it's made me sleepy ).

Hope the weather is good for us all tomorrow xxxx

Rummer

Good Morning and Happy Weekend! Sadly it is pouring with rain and there are howling winds here today so I doubt I will get a whole lot done today. However I have to replant a whole load of trays after my cats decided to destroy them all, going to have to buy new seeds for them too which is really annoying :mad:.

Something keeps pulling out my shallots which is getting really frustrating as I keep having to replant them on a daily basis and they are not getting a chance to start growing! That coupled with the numerous dead rats I keep finding in my garden.

Hopefully if the rain hold off later or tmrw I can get my trees planted and get the pea/bean bed dug over. I want to grow loads of these over the summer so I can freeze some to see us over the winter. Need to get the potatoes in too but I am unsure where to put them in the garden, the bed I had planned for them keeps flooding and I think it would ruin the crop.

I have another dilemma you could all help me with, at the moment I have a bed that in teh summer/autumn becomes full of brambles. They were handy to have but we can source them wild close by and I am wondering if that bed could be put to better use growing other fruit or veg?? What do you think .

Next month I think we are going to finish off our pond, I dug the hole last year so now all we need to do is line and edge it then we can plant our wild flowers round it. The bottom of our garden behind the greenhouse is a wildlife area with a log pile and a rock pile. The pond and flowers should finish it unless you have any other ideas?

Anyway I seem to have written a novel so I should go and do something productive! Hope you all have a great garden day

jtb2412

Morning all !

Hi Rummer, another early riser I see.

Weather isn't too bad here today, I've got my fingers crossed it will stay that way as my grass needs a cut badly ! It's grown so much this week so plans for today are to stay here at home, get the potato bags ready to put my 2nd earlies in, dig over the rest of the bed where the cabbages were (all gone now ), cut the grass and pot up some seeds that have outgrown their little cardboard starter pots . We'll be up the lotty tomorrow :j

Sorry to hear the weather isn't good Rummer, tis a gardeners achillies heel ! Also bad about your cats and the seeds. Don't have a cat here but have a dog who loves to pick off my green dwarf beans from my plants and eat them :eek: Wondered where they were going last year, kept going out to pick only to find none on there :rotfl: Little monkey ! I'll watch him this year

None of our shallots have popped up yet, not sure if they're going to (DH planted them so not sure if he's done it right :rolleyes: ). It is a bit early still so hopefully we might see something soon. Going to have a bit of a dig around later I think to make sure they haven't rotted off.

Personally I'd pull up the brambles and grow something else in there, especially if you can source them wild locally.

Potatoes = not sure about the bed flooding. I think you're right and they might rot off. We're using those garden rubbish bags this year for our potatoes here at home. They did cost me money (about a fiver each) so if you want to be really frugal then not a good idea. Have you got any old big buckets or bins you could use? Either that or have a look at how to get extra drainage in the bed - maybe adding something to the soil. I'll have a look in my gardening books later and see if I can find anything for you Rummer.

Right I have to go get dressed, got a REALLY busy weekend here and if I sit here much longer then I shall get nothing done .

Have a good day - I hope the weather clears up for you Rummer xx

Frugaldom

Hi happy gardeners and hello/welcome/congratulations getting your allotment, Laura Just a quick cautionary word on the goat front, though - don't forget to register and apply for your CPH / herd number before getting one, as it's illegal to keep a goat (or cow, pig etc) without it, even just for a single animal. I used to keep goats and bottle rear lambs (many) years ago but legislation has long since been tightened up, especially in the wake of the devastation caused by Foot & Mouth. The ministry need every single animal accountable to them at all times.

Rummer, do we stay near one another? It's lashing rain & blowing a gale here, too! I'm in the southwest corner and have opted for rasps, blackcurrants, redcurrants and Tayberries but there are still a few brambles creeping through into the hedging in our garden. :eek: Are you my next door neighbour? :rotfl:

JTB, hope you get loads done this weekend. I had a laugh at your dog eating the beans! He sounds like he'd fit right into my Frugaldom Gardens :rotfl:

Laura_D_3

Thanks all, was awake at 4.30 this morning unable to sleep but still haven't heard from the man who can so am trying my hand at being ultra patient - not so easy though :cool:

JTB no offence taken whatsoever when you have a mum like mine you get used to being known as slightly odd (hopefully in a good way), fortunately all of her craziness got passed to me so I'm very easily excited :j

NYK thanks for the note about the goats, I didn't know that but based on the other half needing three-five years to get used to my harebrained ideas I'm sure they'll be some new legislation in by then.. either ways I'll make a mental note :T

Right off to plant some seeds in eager anticipation that I'm actually allowed to start allotmenterring this weekend :j :j :j :j

Yeah I get my key at 2.30 tomorrow :j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j