New allotments Autumn 2010 Chat

dogstarheaven

it's really warming to hear how well you've got on with your neighbours. since we've been down (7 times since 24th Jan), we've only met one of our neighbours, the others we've not seen yet. the 'ole fella' was the person who informed us about the Jap. Knotweed and how it wasn't cultivated in the last 4yrs. when we were invited in his plot last time, it suddenly made us feel sad for him as he's had to raise his veg to pots and compost bags as he's hurt his back some yrs ago. this made us realise that we could help him out if he wanted such as carrying his heavy loads or building things. another thing that touched us is that he had two feral cats who he feeds and they stay in his shed... however much i love cats (am mad about them! and other animals!), i wouldn't want them to notice my nicely-tilled beds to do their business in!

yesterday, i was busy so i had planned to go today (altho' yesterday was such a lovely sunny day) but it had rained a lot overnight and this morning that i've decided to work again, and then go tomorrow. BUT, i feel v guilty to not have gone yesterday when the weather was perfect, and today it isn't. do you get like this? i suppose i ought to rationalise this and just work when i want to, but if the plot has so much work to do on it, it just burdens me to see it looking like that. there's the border fence that is the perimeter wall to a housing estate (worried about this) with about 6ft inwards from top to bottom of the plot that's full of thrown-over rubbish. it's unslightly and a horrible job to clear this, but we've not prioritised this due to the plot being rid of the invasive weeds first and beds made. i'd rather pick up the zillions shards of glass then the nasty litter. eventually this will be done some day...

scotsaver

Made it up to the Plot yesterday, was a bit chilly to start off with but the Sun came out before 11am and it was lovely then. I took a rough sketch up with me of my Plot to decide where I'm going to plant everything this year. So pleased I got that done, came home and did a proper Plan so that I can see for next year where to rotate Crops.

Also got a huge Red Hot poker dug out that was taking up space that I would rather grow veg in!

Won't make it up there today but plan to go up there again tomorrow and get some more digging over done. Also want to buy some Manure at the weekend and get that dug in next week.

Synonymous

Hi Guys,

Very excited to have got a share in an allotment and have been planning my three beds in preparation. I'm a bit stumped on a few things if anyone can help?

I want to grow Calabrese but am unsure how much space to allow in my planning, I'm going to follow a suggestion to plant every fortnight from late spring, and the size of my plot means they will thin out to rows of seven, but how much broccoli will I get per plant and how much is too much!! I know this depends on me, I live on my own and don't want to have to eat broccoli everyday so if anyone can advise on a good amount that would be great. I'm limited for space so although too much is not the end of the world, it would be good to put something else in that space.

Also, how many butternut squash would you get per plant? As they take up a metre squared, I wont bother if it will be quite a small return.

Thanks for your help guys, no doubt many more questions to follow!

radiohelen

I'm really struggling with my plot. I got it last year with two other couples who proved less than enthusiastic about the actual hard work bit of allotment ownership. Now one couple has moved away and the others are pregnant so won't be much help. I've borrowed an automatic spade and I'm making my way down the plot but I've only got about 20 feet dug and it just seems to go on for ever. It takes forever because there is so much twitch in the soil and I dig and then pull it out but I've got no incinerator to burn it in so it's just piling up. There's another 50 feet to go and I actually stood there and cried today cos it's such a huge job. I've got a toddler so I can only do an hour here and there as when he gets bored he runs off and last year we had a weed with loads of black berry fruits on it (nightshade?) so I couldn't take him at all! The rules say you must dig your plot end to end each year and I haven't managed it this year. Sorry to dump this here but I'm just feeling a bit down about it all at the moment. I have made a plan for it this year and bought some seed and stuff but the digging is all a bit much.

smithyjules

Radio Helen - Sending a muddy hug!We got a half plot last eyar and i was heavily pregnant with our second child at the time so not an awful lot got done last year. We decided this year is the year we will really give it our all but to make it more acheivable (what with 2 children a husband at uni and me working part-time) we have given half back to the association that run the whole show. There are so many people on the waiting list that someone else can have a go too and no extra work if they don't pull their weight.

Our smaller plot is now perfectly ample for us and we can get small beds into some kind of order and make little achievements along the way.

I don't know if this would be applicable to you at all but wondered if it might help. Best of luck this year with it all!

nodwah

radiohelen wrote: »

I'm really struggling with my plot. I got it last year with two other couples who proved less than enthusiastic about the actual hard work bit of allotment ownership. Now one couple has moved away and the others are pregnant so won't be much help. I've borrowed an automatic spade and I'm making my way down the plot but I've only got about 20 feet dug and it just seems to go on for ever. It takes forever because there is so much twitch in the soil and I dig and then pull it out but I've got no incinerator to burn it in so it's just piling up. There's another 50 feet to go and I actually stood there and cried today cos it's such a huge job. I've got a toddler so I can only do an hour here and there as when he gets bored he runs off and last year we had a weed with loads of black berry fruits on it (nightshade?) so I couldn't take him at all! The rules say you must dig your plot end to end each year and I haven't managed it this year. Sorry to dump this here but I'm just feeling a bit down about it all at the moment. I have made a plan for it this year and bought some seed and stuff but the digging is all a bit much.

Shame :hugs:

Try not to let it get to you, would any of the committee or neighbours help with the digging?

I can only manage an hour at a time before my kids get too restless, mind you i get so tired I can't manage more than that anyway, must be my age

TooDee

Hi Radiohelen, would you be able to hire or borrow a rotovator? Its a shame that the rules there that you have to dig the lot!? If you spoke to them do you think they might let you tackle just half?

When we got our allotment last year one of the best bits of advice my Dad gave me was to do a little at a time and only what we could manage. I know if he hadn't have said that i'd have tried to plant the lot in a day. :P
We've been diging over our beds as and when we want to plant them as the soil was well worked before we took it over. Its no point digging over something we are not going to plant up for a few months as it will only be covered in weeds again.

This may not be the ideal way to work it but when we both work full time its whats going to happen!:)

scotsaver

Made it up to the Allotment again on Wednesday, put my Onions in so now have Garlic, white onions and red onions in so far, also got some shallots to put in that bed - hoping to get up there today to do that. Dug in 4 bags of Manure to another Bed that didn't have any added last year. Bought some more Seeds yesterday, don't seem to be able to resist the temptation, I think I have an addiction. My list now consists of 60 packets of Seeds.:eek:

I have 4 different varities of Tomatoes to sow this year but we do use a lot in Cooking so nothing will go to waste. Going to the Garden Centre tomorrow to get my Compost and then I can start sowing.

Weather Forecast not good for the weekend but I shall shelter in the Greenhouse.;)

radiohelen

Hiya - thanks for all the good wishes. Much better now. Still not got it all dug but I'm about half way there. They don't do half plots on our site. Not sure why but that's just the way they roll! I hardly ever see anyone up at the allotment. I'm actually starting to worry about when I'll get to give the automatic spade back to the bloke I borrowed it from. He was up there at the weekend recently but it was the first time I'd seen anyone. I can't use a rotavator because of all the twitch growing on the plot. If I rotavate it every little piece of root will form a new plant. I don't think I could face that! It would be almost as distressing as the ground elder at home (although I found out the other day you can eat it which maight make me feel better!).
Anyway there are things happening that are good. I got excited to find some of the broad beans I planted last autumn have actually started to come up and the rhubarb is showing itself. I also got some fruit bushes from lidl, gooseberry and raspberry which are in. Not long to crumble now! Oh and I've got spuds chitting and chillis, peppers and tomatillos in two propagators.
Weather forecast foul for the weekend though so I'm guessing it's going to be next week before I get digging again. Pass the hand cream!

dogstarheaven

radiohelen wrote: »

last year we had a weed with loads of black berry fruits on it (nightshade?).

are you quite sure it could be a member of the nightshade family. send us a pic for us to ID the plant, ok so that way you'll have some peace of mind whether it is a toxic plant or not.

really sorry about the stress that you're having. i can't believe that your agreement states that it needs to be 100% cultivated. ring up the office and let them know how you're struggling and find out if they have any volunteers who could help you. on my site, there are several charitable orgs with vols who do gardening projects, and i'm wondering if there are such orgs at yours where you could approach them if they could help you out. worth a try, radiohelen;);)

in re. to my own lottie, we've been digging and expanding our existing beds. some of the weeds are showing up and it's adding pressure on us to get the whole lot dug. i know that's an impossible task but that's the kinda vision i'd like, but in reality, we'll only manage whatever we can, and the rest of the undug/weedy-riddled parts will have to be kept in check over the growing months. some 'ole fellas' recommended using glysophate on it, but am a bit dubious about doing so. today, we've noticed that some kind of weed is growing bigger. could be rosebay willowherb, but not sure if the shoots are reddish/green in appearance with a brownish/orangey tap root. can someone verify this?

bought some 'Sturon' onion sets and shallot sets the other day but not had time to put them in yet. OH prevented me from doing so, as the bed i was going to put them in hasn't been re-dug to check over any stray roots we've missed out. it's hard to resist planting stuff esp. all we've been doing is dig all the time. the peach and apricot went in this week (see 'where to find cheapest peach/apricot/almond tree' thread) and also, i put in today a 'red canadian' Rhubarb (had to find the biggest one in wilko's with the least sprouted shoots on it, out of 8 packets!). on Sunday, i've planted out our first Soft Fruit Bed with 10 summer-fruited Raspberry Canes (no need to prune to after harvesting) and a gooseberry and blackcurrant from Aldi's 3-pack offer (£2.50, i think). i don't i shall be cropping any of these as i think it'll be best for them to estabish themselves in their first yr.

do you think that it's possible if the Council can help me with all the rubbish we've found on the plot as ours is on the perimeter fence next to a housing estate, we've got a lot of rubbish that's been slung all along the boundary wall, and it's about 7ft wide from top to bottom. bags and bags of really old clothes (v. retro), car reg. plates, rusty metal, bikes, cutlery.. all sorts of crxx really. as we don't drive, it's very hard for us to take this home. do you think they have a duty to supply us with a skip as the plot hadn't been cultivated for about 5 yrs. btw, found out today, that the plot was meant to have been sprayed with Roundup in the last 3 yrs, but found out from 2 plotters that they'd only started it last yr, so the thought of the Japanese Knotweed coming back is terrifying. Do you think we've got a right to complain about them lying to us. It just doesn't seem v. fair that we've taken on a v. overgrown plot with so much work on it, that they haven't given us the truth about it's 'history' with JK, and that our suggestion for a reduction in the rent was rejected. what do you think?