New allotments Autumn 2010 Chat

foxybabe

I think it must be as all the others are using it.

splodger_seedswapper

great news that you got an allotment :T

re the manure that is in plentiful supply - it is easy enough to tell if is well rotted or not - fresh manure will usually smell and is usually lighter in colour (if it's horse) - well rotted will not smell of much and the really well rotted stuff will be black in colour and look more like earth than muck

if it is not well rotted - it shouldn't really matter if used at this time of year - you could keep it in a heap to rot down over winter

i don't dig in manure that i put down during the winter - i leave it on top of the dug over soil - then dig it in propeerly in the spring

dogstarheaven

i know that you can use fresh manure to make a hotbed in a coldframe, but that's a bit too technical for me to sort out.. something that can be good for winter veg, but i'm sure someone on here will be able to explain it with their experience..

dogstarheaven

got two trees from the community orchard project at my lotti site today and planted them out straightaway (with FBB - fish, blood and bonemeal, and chicken pellets). without checking their labels, i know i have a heritage apple (dwarf) and a heritage eating pear (standard). the apple will take at least 3 yrs to get our first crop and the pear, well... 6yrs! at least i've got them started, and i can carry on foraging these elsewhere which we've been doing the last two years..

planted out more garlic, winter cabbage (latter should of been done at least a month ago!) and cleared out the squash/courgette bed. harvested my first oca today. tasted a little like sorrel (lemony) but i think they might taste better cooked!

ANY_CHANCE

Hi all, I have just put my name down for an allotment and have a 2 and 1/2 yr wait.
So in the meanwhile I am going to my local BTCV to pick up tips and will try and plan a few things in the garden at home.
Also I think there may be a project I could get involved with, its in the very early stages of trying to get a kitchen garden running for the local community.

dogstarheaven

ANY_CHANCE wrote: »

Hi all, I have just put my name down for an allotment and have a 2 and 1/2 yr wait.
So in the meanwhile I am going to my local BTCV to pick up tips and will try and plan a few things in the garden at home.
Also I think there may be a project I could get involved with, its in the very early stages of trying to get a kitchen garden running for the local community.

have you checked out Landshare and community gardens? For the latter, there should be at least a couple in a city (there's about 10 in Nottingham), and possible one in a town. have a google. this way you're able find other opportunities to GYO without feeling that the 2yr wait is too long. there's lots of ways to grow in a small space with containers and baskets/troughs (and vertical growing!) i had to do this for the past 15yrs in my house, till this yr when i got my allotment.

mary1

Well, after a 2 1/2 year wait last year we finally got our allotment. Plot of land. Had to put a fence around it and clear the site as someone began dumping rubbish on it as soon as the council cleared it. We have a very large plot, daunting at first. First year we harvested potatoes, carrots, beetroot, cabbage, peas, celery and strawberries. This was from a 1/4 of the allotment. This year I talked my husband into getting some ex batt hens from
https://www.facebook.com/BritishHenWelfareTrust
I must say this is the best thing we have ever done. Although we are digging it over slowly. The hens have helped eat the pests and scratch the weeds up. They have run of the allotment and have left the crops alone. I even planted garlic yesterday, expecting it to be dug up but no they watched. We went down today garlic still planted. Onion seedlings growing in our bargain greenhouse. Great characters and tell you if there is a problem AND you get free presents we have 4 hens and everyday we get 4 eggs. Since I am not blessed with being able to build stuff, I bought for £30 a shiplap playhut from B and Q, good coop for a fraction of the cost of a really coop they start at £99. :rotfl:

mary1

Our four ex batt hens from the British Hen Welfare having been laying 4 eggs a day apart from when we had that really windy weather. They have done a superb job of digging through the weed pile that we made so now we are left with beautiful soil underneath.
We have started deep digging sections of the allotment and covering with black stuff, which the hens don't mind at all. They are a great source of amusement when digging. Planted the garlic directly into the soil. Our hens don't like it so it will survive. Onion seedlings have been growing in our make shift greenhouse for a month, getting stronger by the day.Moving onto the next strip of soil to be dug over tomorrow.

We had a 2 1/2 year wait for our allotment but I would not be without it. If you can get some hens they are very economical and the rewards are free range eggs. They taste like nothing you buy in the shop, I might add not even the free or organic range eggs.

Just need to find some free wood to make a shed so we don't get wet when it rains. It may take a while but we are getting there with our allotment. Have fun if you manage to get an allotment but you do have to wait an awful long time to get one.

loucroft

fantastic, love to hear that you're enjoying it. wish we could have chickens but I'm not sure, won't be visiting for a few days though - it's very wet and muddy out there!

Be good to hear everyones news about the new year start

foxybabe

we have got loads of whitefly in the composter. Is there anything we can do to get rid of it?