OS gardening/allotmenteering - traditions, money saving and savvy ideas

thriftwizard

Temptation strikes! We weren't able to get to the Allotment Association's AGM, so they've just popped our new membership cards through the door, complete with a seed catalogue for the company we get a combined discount from...

We'd need several fields to grow all the plants that DD2 & I have picked out already. Not to mention some staff...

fuddle

I have decided to give up my allotment plot for a few reasons. Life tipped us up and twirled us round over the summer but what came out of it was the realisation that we can grow food on our small bit of land.

As of the weekend I have a raised bed to fill and a Potager garden to design. I already have a herb area. The front garden is also use able but more public but I am about to divide my lemon balm and camomile to grow there so I can have more to harvest nest year.

My main concern is building the organic matter in the raised bed. I'm adding as much compost able matter as I can, have rabbit litter that is being added and have access to horse manure from my daughters riding stables but I've around a tonne to find and be ready for Spring 2020 planting.

-taff

Shame you had to give it up. I had to rein in my desire for loads of growing room and cntent myself with the front garden for herbs and a bed out the back [ still waiting for the second one] and the greenhouse.

Grass cuttings layered with cardboard will work. You could also try a small version of hugelkultur where you put logs in the bed and cover those with what green waste you have. I did a version in the garden I used to garden in. I found heaping it dried out what was on top quickly because it just wasn't enough waste matter on top, but a layer of logs in the bottom would be better I think.

pollyanna_26

Sorry to read you're having to give up the allotment after all the hard work. Your health comes first though and you can do a lot in small spaces. I've done the small space beds in the past and they're pretty productive.


I remember when you moved in to your new home suggesting you went up too in the back to maximise the growing space. I've got tiered shelves for some veg and herbs.


My poor garden has had to look after itself most of the time over the past two years. Time and sometimes energy poor plus trying to pace .
Most veg and herbs have done well and like the evergreens and perennials look after themselves.


I've harvested a bumper crop of herbs, tomatoes , spinach and others. I started growing Wild Celery Leaf a couple of years ago after I was given some seeds by my organic farm friends.
I mentioned at some point on os the pot herbs my mum used to buy in paper bags. Chopped up veg and what I thought was either parsley or thyme (it varied) However at times it must have been celery leaf and they were the casseroles ans soups I enjoyed most.
Once you've grown them you can collect the seed for next time.


Re the front garden I imagine you'll need to factor in the windy hill. Geoff Hamilton did a series on the old cottage gardens also a book and dvd . If you still have a library you may be able to find or order in the book.


Most cottagers filled all their space with veg and herbs and a few flowers for the wife.


Good luck you've time to plan and dream as the nights pull in.
Only just got the internet back it's been off all over the NW and N Wales today.

Take care

pollyxxxx

thriftwizard

Ah Fuddle I'm sad you've had to give up, but glad you've found a different way of growing your own. It's amazing what you can achieve in a small space. I've got 8 tomato plants thriving inside my conservatory, still flowering & producing like mad, long after the plants at the 'Lottie keeled over with the blight.

It's been a mixed year; we did really well for runner beans & the freezer's packed with them. There are tomatoes ripening on every windowsill, harvested just before the blight hit, and we have 4 monster butternut squashes & one huge turk's turban; we thought it was a pumpkin until we harvested it & brought it home to dry & store, then saw the green frilly "bubble" underneath. But my courgettes were a dismal failure; I tried growing them in containers at home & between two plants they produced just one rather nasty courgette - too shady, wrong compost, moved too often.

But we'll be eating home-grown apples & quinces until next March - a really heavy crop on both big trees this year. The Poundland onions grew well, despite being swamped by runaway tomato plants; they're not huge, but they ARE very tasty. We're not in this to win prizes, but to produce good food, so this suits us fine. The leeks, cabbages & chard are all doing well, but I really didn't manage to get much winter veg away; must do better next year!

The plot next to ours is coming free in January. I'd like to take it on but OH is resisting; he desperately wants to move next spring, to somewhere with a bigger garden where we can do what we like. The only problem is, that's unaffordable around here! So I'm not too sure...

buildersdaughter

Fuddle, thank you for updating us. The problem with an allotment is both getting to it, and that it has to be to a certain standard. I am sure that if you look at some of the advice on here, you will be able to do very well. You will also make mistakes and try things out with only you to think about!
In my raised / deep bed at the moment:
Spinach and lettuce from the late summer sowing
Seeds of winter spinach and lambs' lettuce just sprouting
Will do another sowing of those soon, and 'winter density' and 'arctic king' lettuce for early spring.
Garlic cloves just gone in,and broad beans soon.
This year I have bottled about 2 litres of roast tomatoes in oil from the bed, to add taste and colour to winter cooking.
Please let us know how it goes.

fuddle

Thank you all for your updates our OS greenfingered bunch.

There's my health, yes, and this way I can be tending to my stuffs whenever I am going through a blip, there's also the weeds to factor in and I'm surrounded by people who weed killer (another issue) in prep for the September inspections and it was becoming difficult for me to keep on top of my whole plot. Another factor is it has been difficult exposing my lself to constant criticism from a very old fashioned/outspoken contingent that don't like change. A youngish housewife growing veg? Noooo. Only retired folk should be doing that and also their wives who come to the plots to gossip about everyone and know they're doing that about you to others as well. The whole romantic view of allotmenteering turned sour and while, really, it hasn't been the work element that was the final straw, it's been more the mental toll of listening to negativity everytime I wanted to go lose myself on my bit of land that was supposed to be a bit of a quiet sanctuary. It just hasn't worked for me but I'm so very lucking forward to gardening small scale, pottering on in my own space with my own positive outlook.

fuddle

Thrifty I'm just reading your mulching woes at the top of the page. This may help it may not. When my meat arrives (eversfield organic) it comes with Sheeps wool flats for insulation. I've stuck last months over my bay and blueberry containers and insulated the rabbit's sleeping quarters. It'll be an expensive way to get 'waste' materials but... might stir an idea in you.

[Deleted User]

I've just picked the last of the viable ripened tomatoes from the greenhouse and also a surprise late cucumber! HWK is clipping out the leaves from the remaining tomato plants and we have ripe red chillies on the plant in there that can stay and I will use them in the next month or so.

thriftwizard

Oh yes, I have chillis, both at the 'lottie & in the conservatory. And wool... far too much for me to prepare & spin in one lifetime! But sadly, that's been nixed as a potential rat attractant. I'm still not sure that the site manager believes me that it's not fibreglass...

Broad bean seeds are in under a nice blanket of chopped comfrey - another "infringement" was growing comfrey against the field boundary, which kept the nettles & brambles on the other side at bay fantastically. But apparently the flamin' rats might be hiding underneath it... Anyway, the garlic will be going in as soon as this horrible cold passes & I can bend my head downwards without swearing!

Must admit to the odd sigh... what isn't a rat attractant, or potential hiding place? We're supposed to be growing food, after all, which is what rats eat. Though come to think of it, most of our fellow plot-holders seem to be growing mostly dahlias - evidently rats don't go in for home decor...