Allottment anyone?

[Holly]

Today Will and I got our new allottment plot - after being on the waiting list for about 14 months!

We've spent about 3 hours today clearing as much of it as we could (about a third - unfortunately the easiest third, I think :? ). We've still got a lot to do and not a huge amount of time before it will be too late to plant a lot of things so we've got our work cut out for us. Still it's been brilliant today and I have a feeling we are going to love it!


It's a really nice site, just a few minutes walk from our house. Our plot has a huge well rotted compost heap which is fantastic - plus space for a shed which I'd like to get if we can. There's water nearby and everyone we met today was friendly and nice - one man even gave us some rasperry canes :)

Soo....does anyone else have and allottment? Any pictures to spur us on? And any ideas what to grow? I've lots of plans (and some plants started already) but any new ideas welcomed - especially easy to grow stuff :)

[Jane]

Well I've already told you but thought I'd post here anyway :P

We have two allotments (next to eachother) We started with one, but then decided to get the one nextdoor because no one did anything with it. We have two greenhouses (one aluminium, one homemade) on the allotments, and two greenhouses on the garden here too (both aluminium).

On our allotments there are quite a few cats too - one imparticular basically lives on our allotment. We made a cat flap for her (well, it's a hole without a flap, she wasn't too keen on the flap idea), she has a comfy bed, food and water (never seen her drink - but it's there anyway ::)) She is lovely - lived under one of the portacabins for years but fell in love with us (and the other way round) so we started feeding her ;) She is soo loving though to say she was a feral/stray who had never (or not for a long time) been fed or cared for.

We grow;
potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, sweetcorn, garlic, cauliflower, beetroot, spinach, kale, parsley, landcress, pumpkin, caugette, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, radish, chives, mint, grapes, blackberries, strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries, raspberries...think that's it, probably not though haha :P

Salad stuff is usually really easy to grow..especially lettuce..

No pics of the allotment but these were our greenhouses on the garden a month or so ago;
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117 ... CN1226.jpg (http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/rainbow-twist/DSCN1226.jpg)
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117 ... ist/64.jpg (http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n117/rainbow-twist/64.jpg)

Will try and get more pics of the greenhouses and allotments soon for you ;)

[BubblesandSqueak]

Congrats, for finally moving in. I don't have an allotment... YET. We grow Purple Sprouting Brocolli, Courgettes, Swtrawberries, Potatos, Beans (these are sooo easy AND you get hundereds!) Cucumber, Marrow, and beetroot.

P.S The marrows were the courgettes... but bigger!

[Holly]

Crikey - your greenhouses are MASSIVE Jane - and you have two more at the allotment as well????? I'm jealous :P

I'd love to see some allotment pics if you have the time

[souffle]

Wow that is so exiting Holly and Will. It will be great to grow your own organic fresh veg and fruit and I am sure you hammies will love it. We had one at the school which pophammy and I used to help with and we grew tomatoes, beans, potatoes, lettuce and all the usual stuff. Everything tastes so different from shop bought stuff. Why not reserve a 'wildlife corner ' too where you can let the weeds grow which are home to so many of our struggling butterfly and moth larvae, also a ladybird box which will encourage ladybirds to lay their larvae which eat loads of greenfly. Marigolds planted between veg are good natural insect repellers. A large tub sunk and filled with water will soon establish as a mini pond and attract frogs and toads which can eat loards of slugs a night! Sprinkle meadow flower seeds in your wildlife area to provide bird food in winter. There things will all help your main crop and the wildlife in one. Don't forget your herb garden and invite us for dinner when its ready. Why not have an allotment barbecue party and get all your friend round for a great day of helping you get the initial clearing done then a nice bar -be and drink afterwards as thanks!

[Basia]

Well done Holly. I'm sure you will have a lot of fun (and exercise) with it. We used to have a vegetable garden at our last house which had a huge garden but with 3 dogs the garden here isn't big enough. I walk past the allotments near us every day with the dogs and have absoute admiration for everyones hard work there.

[Holly]

Well, we've been down there this afternoon and have now managed to clear four beds and get then just about ready for planting! I'm hoping to do two more before the weekend and get as much of the stuff that should already be in as I can on Saturday. Then I'll start organising the herbs - wild "medicinal types" at the bottom and the kitchen herbs at the top near what will soon (I hope) be the shed. Once the shed is up I'll be able to leave the tools/equipment there so we can cycle rather than taking the car which I definitely don't want to be doing. I've got an old bench I'm going to take down there as well so we can sit and admire our work (when we've done it!).

The "rasberry man" gave us four more canes today so we've actually got something in and growing already :)


Everything tastes so different from shop bought stuff.
I agree - I find shop bought tomatoes, for example, very bland and tasteless compared to those I grew myself last year - there's nothing like picking them off the plant and eating them there and then!

Why not reserve a 'wildlife corner ' too where you can let the weeds grow which are home to so many of our struggling butterfly and moth larvae, also a ladybird box which will encourage ladybirds to lay their larvae which eat loads of greenfly. Marigolds planted between veg are good natural insect repellers.

I've got this in the pipeline - I'm a big herb gardener already (just desperate for more space, which we now have) and I'm planning a "medicinal herb corner" - which will actually incorporate a large proportion of wild plants, many that are considered weeds. There are already quite a few nettles down one side which I'm leaving and at the bottom of our plot there are wild blackberry bushes growing into our side - they'll be staying as well 8)

A large tub sunk and filled with water will soon establish as a mini pond and attract frogs and toads which can eat loards of slugs a night!

We have done this in our garden - and we have eleven tadpoles who are growing by the day! I think some of them might be happier on the allotment, perhaps.....

I walk past the allotments near us every day with the dogs and have absoute admiration for everyones hard work there

I used to do exactly the same and now it's me there!

[suga]

that is such a great effort! I considered an allotment once but decided it was too much to take on and then kinda remembered that I actually can't grown anything except weeds. Even cutting the grass fills me with horror - so I definitely take my hat off to you and will...

[Jane]

Crikey - your greenhouses are MASSIVE Jane - and you have two more at the allotment as well????? I'm jealous :P

I'd love to see some allotment pics if you have the time

They're not really that big actually. ;) The greenhouses that you see in the pic, we have three of those then the homemade one is about 3 or 4 times that size. Will get some pics tomorrow night hopefully, havn't been today because I've been busy (dads been though :P)

[Holly]

Update on the allotment :)

Two weeks exactly after getting it - and despite a short stay in hospital and almost constant rain - we now have rasberries, gooseberries, strawberries, runner beans, onions, potatoes and courgettes growing on our allotment. I also have summer squash and pumkins ready to go in and sweetcorn nearly ready.

There is still a fair bit to clear and I have lots of plans but we are really enjoying it. The boys made some bird scarers today and tomorrow I'm waging war on the slugs (organically, of course :roll: )

My garden tomatoes, chillies, garlic and various herbs are also doing ok despite the rubbish weather - phew.

[Jane]

Sounds great...I got you photos of ours like last week or something but never got round to sending them, will send them to you when I've finished my room and cleaned out the pigs :roll: