THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

[Deleted User]

DigForVictory wrote: »

Got to love Auntie Beeb.

Not me. I hate it.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

My existing allotment has passed inspection this week, being officially deemed 'in very good condition' and I am allowed to take on the half plot alongside it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm curious. How big is half an allotment?

ancientofdays

Lots of places have half size allotments Bob.

Congratulations GQ

jk0

kittie wrote: »

jko, I know you had a rodent problem but sluggish fat flies make me think cluster flies. They hibernate anywhere cosy and dark

Thanks Kittie. Oh, they aren't that fat. Just slow enough that I can hit them.

I've not seen a single fly today. I've only killed about forty in all, which is presumably one mother fly's litter. Will there be further clutches, or is that it?

Karmacat

When I've had cluster flies, they've gone on for days, and come in waves, I'm afraid On and off, it lasted about two weeks.

And I guarantee you a mummy fly has more babies than that ... they don't survive, they get eaten, some of them *do* manage to fly out of the eaves space, all sorts of things. I really, really hate them. I have a new loft hatch now, much tighter fitting, so hopefully even if I do have another infestation, there won't be as many. Plus there's been a lot of poison laid down up there for the rats, and that might have caught some of the cluster flies ... sounds lovely, doesn't it!

Sorry, jk0

[Deleted User]

ancientofdays wrote: »

Lots of places have half size allotments Bob.

OK, so how big is an allotment?

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

OK, so how big is an allotment?

That's like saying How big is a shirt?

It depends on the how the provider (in this case, the council) divides up the site and varies wildly. The plot next to mine was 20 sq smaller than mine before it was split into two. I have a total area of 450 sq m with the original plot and the extra half-plot, counted together.

I've known single plots as big as 400 sq m and as small as 150 sq m.

You get billed per sq m, so you only pay for what you have, however large or small it may be. HTH.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

I have a total area of 450 sq m with the original plot and the extra half-plot, counted together.

So just over 1/0th of an acre.

I was imagining something like a football pitch in size.

westcoastscot

congrats GQ, will be thinking of you when I get to my tiny veg and fruit plots :-)
We used to have a rotavator - think "Good Life" - the kids loved it, but we gifted it to a neighbouring crofter when we left. Every year as we're digging we recall how great it was and such a lot of fun!

GreyQueen

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

So just over 1/0th of an acre.

I was imagining something like a football pitch in size.

Nah, what would I do with that amount of veggies?!

westcoastscot wrote: »

congrats GQ, will be thinking of you when I get to my tiny veg and fruit plots :-)
We used to have a rotavator - think "Good Life" - the kids loved it, but we gifted it to a neighbouring crofter when we left. Every year as we're digging we recall how great it was and such a lot of fun!

My grandad had a rotovator to use on his allotment-sized veggie garden in his later years. Very noisy but great fun.

I have horsetails on the plots so rotovating is like that part of the Sorcerer's Apprentice when Mickey Mouse chops the broom up into splinters and they each become their own water-carrying magic broom...... :rotfl:Or like chucking petrol at a bonfire - you could do it but it'd be dangerous and foolish.

My new plot has been tenanted by the same person (nice person, hopelessly incompetant gardener) for the past 6 years and they'd allowed any number of badnesses, inc greater bindweed, to take hold. And then they were growing into mine.

I have had to have an area about 18 inches at the end of each veggie row where they join the border fence with the other plot as a cordon sanitaire (or Demilitarized Zone) to enable me to get at the carp growing thru from The Far Side.

I detest greater bindweed aka 'granny-pop-out-of-bed' more than just about anything else that grows up there. It's pretty but such a thug, riots over everything like something native to the tropics.

Any week now, I shall be on the Far Side and digging it up root and branch. My new compost Dalek can live over there, too. I might be tempted to put up a sign saying Under New Management, but I suspect that will be blinding obvious very quickly.:rotfl: