How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

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redlady_1 wrote: »

I am looking for a thread on vegetarian food...I am sure there is one somewhere except I cant find it! Is anyone able to help please?

Hi redlady,

There are lots of vegetarian threads on Old Style, these are some of the most popular:

Easy, cheap Vegetarian recipes?

Gingham's Vegetarian Meal Planner

Gingham's vegetarian meal planner - SUMMER

Gingham's vegetarian menu planner SPRING

Vegan and vegetarian food on the cheap

A vegetarian meal planner, please

Vegetarian OSers

Cooking for the freezer - vegetarian

Give me a shout if you are looking for anything in particular.

Pink

PepPop

Hi there. I've just stumbled upon your thread, I normally hang about the craft threads, but as I've just worked out our monthly budget for May I think your thread might be what I need. I'm off to read back from the start - it may take a while but I thought I'd say hello first :wave:

purpleheather2810

PepPop wrote: »

Hi there. I've just stumbled upon your thread, I normally hang about the craft threads, but as I've just worked out our monthly budget for May I think your thread might be what I need. I'm off to read back from the start - it may take a while but I thought I'd say hello first :wave:

Welcome peppop, and see you in a about, erm, 3 weeks?! :rotfl:

PepPop

I'm on page 8 :rotfl: but I'm a determined soul :rotfl: Thanks for the welcome purpleheather2810

GreyQueen

charlies-aunt wrote: »

The plot next to ours is not being worked and the weeds are taking hold with dramatic speed - what is allotment etiquette in this situation? - is it strictly hands off? or would we be allowed to keep it topped to prevent the spread of weed seed??

Hi, charlies-aunt, I have had a similar problem for the past 3 years. According to our site's rules, you're not supposed to go onto other people's plots but the one alongside mine was 4 feet tall in grass, full of docks and creeping thistles setting seeds and completely and utterly uncultivated (but tenanted LOL). I snuck on there with a back rubbish sack and a pair of scissors and dead-headed the things setting seed into the sack and disposed of it. Figured I was saving myself time in the long run.

Things are a little better this year as one side is being cultivated properly but the other side (which is actually 2 lotties) is a mess of couch grass (aka twitch) and general carp which will invade mine. It really annoys me as I don't have as much time to garden as I'd like, my energy isn't all it should be thanks to the ME, and I get to spend some of both fighting with the neighbour's weeds as well as my own.

ceridwen

I've got a little something nagging at my memory re uncultivated allotments - as I did wonder some years back whether it would be worth my while to get hold of an allotment before the current fashion for them started up (ie I would have been able to get one easily at that point in history - whereas now people are often finding that the waiting lists are being manipulated by not letting people put their name on them in the first place:cool:).

My idea was to leave the allotment be until the (many) years hence when I would finally have the time to deal with it (ie because of being retired) or if I became unemployed before that point. At that point - I was going to start work on it at last...but would have just made sure I had it before everyone else was asking for one too (as they have been for the last few years - because it has now become fashionable).

I did wonder how the other allotment holders would react to an allotment being just left - whilst I waited for more free time.

Subsequently - I heard somewhere or other something about Councils now having powers to take allotments back off people who arent actually working them (as I remember thinking "How do I explain to the Council that I really DO intend to work it - but am waiting for unemployment or retirement to give me more free time?").

So - it may differ in different parts of the country and the Council taking the allotment back again because its uncultivated may only happen in parts of the country like mine (ie where they are gold dust) or it may be something that can happen anywhere in the country. Worth looking into....

grandma247

Our allotments are inspected from the gate once a month and if any are in a mess people are warned verbally and after that if work is not started the person gets at least one letter warning them to do something or loose their allotment. People can be turned off immediately if they do certain serious things that are against the rules too. Animal cruelty and neglect is top of the list.

Greyqueen have you talked to anyone on the comittee? They will be able to tell you more about the neighbouring allotments as to wether anyone has them or not.
You could also ask if you can temporarily do something about the weeds such as putting down wet newspaper and covering it with black plastic,carpet or straw. The weeds will die down and will take a while to come through the rotted paper.
We have started putting down paper and covering it in compost to grow in. I am slowly convincing dh it is a good idea and he is going to build me a couple more large compost bins from old doors.

redlady_1

or weed killer! "Nothing to do with me, honest guv" :lipsrseal

GreyQueen

Grandma247, thanks for that. Out lottie site is owned and administered by the Council and I know the two alongside mine are tenanted (it's one full plot divided into two half way up) as I've met the couple who have the top since last autumn. The bottom half is, as far as I know, still tenanted by the lady who made a decent hash of it last year but who hasn't done a stroke since last August or so. At least, I assume it's still hers, as no one else is working it.

Top Couple seem to be very very clueless, to watch them garden and to overhear what they say to each other. They don't talk to me or to the nice people on the other side of them, and have just scrabbled a bit in the middle, leaving about 3 metres of uneven ground covered with couch grass on either side. I have a path along my side of the shared fence which acts as a cordon sanitaire to keep the worst of the weeds out. I can't see Top Couple making a go of it; another neighbour has heard them talking to each other and saying that they can keep an allotment with one hour's work on a Saturday......Yeah, we had a chuckle about that, too!

The allotment officer does do inspections and I think the not-worked ones get a letter with a time limit to improve or they'll have it taken off them. There's an enormous demand for them (I was years on the waiting list myself) so I feel a bit cross when I see ones which are derelict but tenanted (I complained long and hard about the one on my other side in previous years) but the new people there are a lovely couple and very keen and I'm chuffed to have them there, so that's half my problem solved.

Sadly, I have docks and thistles come up on mine like cress from previous years' neglect, but that's gardening for you; it's character forming. (And back-deforming, but that's another story).

grandma247

That is why I started putting down paper last Autumn. I can not dig much now so this saves me all that effort and the soil does benefit.The worms love it.
Dh has just about finished rebuilding the shed and says he will make me a box in there especially for storing papers.
I am trying to find a source of weedkiller free straw at the moment. I got some from a pet shop over the weekend but it was very expensive. Our allotment shop has stopped buying it,not sure why but I think it was a storage problem. Unfortunate a lot of straw comes from fields that are treated with weedkiller this is a link to what it does. I find it appalling that our food is contaminated so much by these awful chemicals it is no wonder health problems and birth defects are so common.
I have just re read and spotted this "A National Farmers Union spokesperson said: “Because Forefront is very effective, it's grown in popularity since it was introduced in 2006 — as you don't have to respray.”
Doesn't that tell 'em something?:(