[Peas let my pumpkins grow]

Well I only got my plot in November, it had been pretty much doing what it liked for what looks like quite a while    so I was basically digging and clearing all day. The weathers been really mild too so it's fairly dry. I chatted with a few other site holders and was very jealous that they were harvesting and pulling a stray weed or 2. But then I moved a big pile of planks and other bits of rubbish and I found some rhubarb already popping up!! wahey!!  That perked me up a bit! And THEN I realised after a bit more investigation that I have a strip of rhubarb about a metre wide and running the entire length of my plot  :blink:
Wish I liked eating rhubarb...

[Ema]

Peas that's brilliant a good freebie on your new plot! I'm sure you can give loads of it away and earn some brownie points! I made a rhubarb strawberry and vanilla jam (shops brought ingrediants) last year it was amazing!

Yesterday I remembered I brought some autumn onion sets when I pulled them out the cupboard they had started to sprout so I poped them into modules, in the hope they'll be ok for when I get my plot shortly.

It's quite warm here about 8C at night and I am having to resist sowing there's just bound to be another bitterly cold spell.

[sunshineband]

You are so right Ema -- no outdoor sowing yet 

Sit on those hands!!!!

[Peas let my pumpkins grow]

I have to admit I struggling not to sew! I'm just desperate to get started on the real stuff rather than weeding and waiting. My windowsill is all propagater 

Ema I like the sound of that jam, I've got all the stuff - I tried to copy pumpkin jam that my gran makes once...it went pretty badly and only my dad would eat it, but hey new year new challenge !  :blink:

[angelavdavis]

Not strictly speaking on the plot today but:

Christmas Eve - Harvesting of leeks for Christmas lunch and discovery of large scale flooding on site, but thankfully not our plot.

NYE - Hubby, children and friend went along to harvest more leeks plus purple carrots

Today - ventured to the GC with my vouchers and bought some compost, plus some first early and salad potatoes (I don't grow anything else as we are very prone to blight at our site).

Am going to kick off the indoor sowing with onions, chillis and garlic in modules (which will go outside after planting).

I was hoping to get more of hubby's labour during his "holiday" by asking him to help me build the raised beds, etc but with the rain, I haven't dared ask!! I know I have asparagus plants coming soon and need to have prepared a raised bed for them!

We were promised a few dry days but it is still raining here!

[Paul Plots]

We were promised a few dry days but it is still *raining here!

Noah had the same problem!

Sounds as if you've been and are going to be busy 

[Sweetpea C]

Greenhouse swept and tidied, sowed some rocket on a tray, have got some cuttings looking healthy (roses and fushias) and the sweetpeas are taking over. The garlic planted in pots a week ago needs to go out but I haven't managed that yet, maybe today wll be the day. Already the greenhouse is becoming full! I am going to measure and order some extra shelving. 

The 2 beds ready for veg are not going to be anywhere near big enough for everything I want to grow. I need an allotment. I'm going to keep popping to my local one to see if anyone wants to share a bit of theirs with me!

What are my chances?!

[snowdrops]

Which one is local to you? Did you know there are some private ones around. There's poors plots on Kirkby Rd in Barwell,some on the Northern Perimeter Rd just down from the Ashby Rd crossroad. There's some at Breach Lane in Earl Shilton, that's where my first one was. There's also some on Heath Lane Earl Shilton.

[Sweetpea C]

I live next to Hollycroft Park so the Ashby Road ones would be ideal. The ones I know about are on Langdale Road on the Hollycroft estate. Do I just go down and express an interest on the private ones? Thanks, C

[jmc1949]

Spent a couple of hours on a very wet plot moving the final raised bed into position on plot 1. The soil was sticking to the spade and very heavy but at least it's done. Just the paths to do and plot 1 is (more or less) ready for action.

[richy]

picked some vegies and me and my son sieved through the homemade compost and added some sand to it ready to use for sowing, then we dug through and turned the new compost heap.

[Lottiman]

Still far to wet to do anything although I have loads to do, dropped off some stuff for the compost heap, one of my plot neighbours stopped off for some veg, so we had a good old chat 

[allot2learn]

Tried digging a few rows but it's too sticky and gave that up. Built some slatted staging for my existing 8 x 6 greenhouse, then started to prepare the base for my "new" 10 x 15 greenhouse which should start to be assembled next week from recycled/scrounged/skip diving, double glazed windows. (Skip diving with permission of course).  :blink:
The expensive bit is going to be the polycarbonate roof.

[Yana]

Delivery of manure so decided to top up raised beds on plot 1 and clear old brussel plants and dig the bed over ready for compost to be added. Doing nicely and was going to move onto second half plot to begin clearing (only got this a couple of weeks ago) when...... saw two guys digging the raspberry bushes out from my new half plot!
Seems that the previous tenant had said that these guys could 'help themselves' to the rapsberry bushes and strawberry plants. I politely said that I was now the tenant and this sparked a torrent of abuse aimed mostly at the lottie committee.
To cut a long story short, I felt somewhat threatened by this behaviour and wonder what I will find (if anything) when I go up tomorrow?

[Paul Plots]

Delivery of manure so decided to top up raised beds on plot 1 and clear old brussel plants and dig the bed over ready for compost to be added. Doing nicely and was going to move onto second half plot to begin clearing (only got this a couple of weeks ago) when...... saw two guys digging the raspberry bushes out from my new half plot!
Seems that the previous tenant had said that these guys could 'help themselves' to the rapsberry bushes and strawberry plants. I politely said that I was now the tenant and this sparked a torrent of abuse aimed mostly at the lottie committee.
To cut a long story short, I felt somewhat threatened by this behaviour and wonder what I will find (if anything) when I go up tomorrow?

That's a miserable start for you.... and a difficult situation. I guess technically everything left on the plot should now be yours and anything given away by the previous tenant should have been removed before the plot was handed on.

Similar thing happened to me: "New" half plot - previous tenants on the plot along side. Many weeks after me taking over they asked if they could collect their raspberry plants. I said of course they could... as they weren't mine although I was disappointed.

Two months later it was me who eventually dug them up and transported them to the previous tenants plot... but I kept a few  After that period of time I felt I had a right to do so.

Perhaps you could negotiate and a few could be left behind for you?

(And…. I know I’m off topic but it did happen down on the plot)