The revenge of the stripey socks - a DFW adventure

catspaw

Fay its only 1 week compared to 5 weeks of bliss:D you can manage it.

Lemon_Tree

fay, good luck at work.
I did check at the allotment meeting and they're not an organic allotment so i'm allowed to use weedkillers, think we'll need one. I'm trying to blag the loan of a rotavator from a friends brother but i'm not sure it's that's going to make things better or worse. Any advice would be gratefully received.
I've got an allotment book, but i need to start deciding what we're going to grow, how much of it and when it needs planting or seeds need setting. Think i'll be turning your thread into the allotmenteering forum.
I've also put on the notice board at work to see if anyone has any old carpets as i know you can use them as weed supressors.
got next week off work so i'm really looking forwards to it, but we have a lot planned so we'll be back to work for a rest.

oh and if anyone's seen a random phone charger it's mine! my phone is completely dead and i can't find the charger

Pippilongstocking

new diary idea - stripey socks guide to flowers, money and how not to get ahead in academia?

ps no phone charger here, but if you see my digital camera cable - let me know its in a *safe* place

hampsterpoo

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

I've got an allotment book, but i need to start deciding what we're going to grow, how much of it and when it needs planting or seeds need setting. Think i'll be turning your thread into the allotmenteering forum.

oh and if anyone's seen a random phone charger it's mine! my phone is completely dead and i can't find the charger

Thanks for that , just reminded me my phone was about to die, but alas no random phone charger.

As to what to grow , pop over to here , http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1225019
PM mumof4 for a planting guide.
You can adapt it and add in Doctor Stripey veg,flowers & fruit guide aswell.

I wouldnt rotovate until the weeds are dead , if you have couch grass make sure its really dead before you rotovate, I did it to early and had trouble for ages. In the end I had to start again in sections over the years to get rid of it properly.

You could always grow through carpet or strong black plastic sheeting (well weighed down) in the mean time and work on clearing/spraying other sections as you go, that way your growing and clearing.

Also laying straw can supress although you may have to add something (?sulphate ammonia I think?? Fay will correct me now I'm sure, its been years since I've had an allotment so I'm rusty) once you dig it in to help it break down.

Make friends with the oldies they will tell you what you need to know, if you feed them twinks flapjacks and tea you may find they will have spare plants and seeds over the different seasons. :T

lucielle

Don#t rotavate anything with a tap root!
L

Pippilongstocking

Lots of very good advice here!

Away to fill in tax return online (I know I should have done it earlier) ....skullks off

Cheery_Daff

You can brave out a week of stupid supervisor Fay!

LT - allotment sounds HUGE! My advice (speaking as someone who had a huge one) is:

(1) rope in lots of other folk with promises of veggies later

(2) hold lots of parties and bonfires in return for work

(3) put carpet down on most of it, and just dig over and plant up a small patch at a time or it very quickly gets overwhelming!

Might be able to avoid the weedkiller that way if you want to. But I'm sure Fay knows more about it than I do!

Oh, and guess what (sorry, this has nothing to do with allotmnts, and only a tiny bit to do with moneysaving...)

After 10 weeks and 3 days of no central heating or hot water through the coldest winter in 30 years, we finally have central heating!!

And you know what was wrong with it??

Nothing. That's right, nothing. A certain major company (who shall remain nameless for the time being) came to do an annual service, informed us a part was unsafe and obsolete, sawed through the gas pipe to the boiler, and therefore we'd have to replace the entire boiler, and if we signed up today they could do us a discount, but it was only available today.

Fortunately, we're both tight enough and stubborn enough to send him away with flea in ear, search around for cheery proper gas enginneer, find obsolete part, get gas engineer to fit it, whereupon he discovered that there was actually nowt wrong with it in the first place.

If I said I was not best pleased, could you detect the note of sarcasm??



Still, nice and cosy now!

Lemon_Tree

report the first gas man, he was committing fraud!!!!

thanks for all the helpful hints re the allotment, i'm sure i'll be back and driving you all nuts with my questions and probably my complaining about aching all over.

Pips_Mum

Cheery - I work for the gas emergency service and you would probably not be surprised to find out that MANY people have the same problems with " a certain major company" I wouldnt go with them if they were the last ones on earth!

Sorry Hijack over,

Hugs for Fay and everyone else x x

P.s Wish I had an allotment.

Pippilongstocking

Argh to gas men maurading at real people Cheery

Hugs to LT - the allotment will be OK - honest

Pipsmum hope you're OK - and surviving all this overtime


I have filed my tax return - I owe NIL for this year - but not sure if I did it right

Just did my first 'upload' of photos to face book properly - I think *think* I got it right.

OH just skyped with DS tonight to go over some Maths for the prelim tomorrow - seemed to work ok

Otherwise nowt much occuring.

Away to bed methinks

Must check my small things list *ahem* see what I have forgotten