[thunderflorrie]

Hi everyone,
Yesterday I collected the keys to my first allotment. It has not been loved for about 5 yrs so you can imagine what it looks like. I have it for free until next yr so that I can hopefully get some control of the plot.
I plan to do little and often for now and just keep tackling those stinging nettles. It has a dried up river around three sides of the site with only 5 plots and it is also enclosed with a 6ft high fence. No other water supply but I dug a whole today and it seemed very moist to me, I suspect the water table isn't too deep.
I have been growing veg in pots in my garden for the last few years but this can be a bit boring and lonesome.
So that is me, looking for a new challenge and new friends and new growing opportunities.

[Tensing]

No real advice as I am new to all this also.

Just wanted to say hi.

[John]

Welcome Thunderflorrie - so you're now a pioneer.
If you have a high water table (the river rings bells, what will it be like come winter?)  You may like to think about some deep beds.
Having said that, my plot is pretty damp - just a couple of weeks ago I dug a hole and it filled with water. Been a wet old year up here until now.

[noshed]

Nettles are good to compost - just get some good gloves!

[John]

I read that a good way to deal with big patches of nettles is a scythe. Cut them down and compost, repeat about 5 times and the nettles die after giving you their stolen hoard of minerals for your heap.

[thunderflorrie]

Well hello to you all. Thank you for the replies.
I woke up about 1.30 am worried that I had taken on too much and never realy got anymore sleep. I am alone in this hobby and won't get any help from Hubby or the kids so its all up to me.
I  spent a few hours down there today, I roughly staked out the site and then cut away a few overhanging tree branches.
I bought some of that weed membrane and layed that down at one end so in a few weeks I can hopefully dig it easily.
At the other end there is a thriving colony of iris plants that look as tough as old boots. Oh yes  and a current bush of some sorts, will have to wait and see with that. The other plots all seem to be doing ok, I had a nosey today, and as there is no other water supply other than the river which has been dried up for a good few months they all look in prety good shape.

Oh yes and those stingers, blasted blue barnicles, I got got even through my gloves, nasty little beggers, any how I'm a tough old bird so I will win in the end. I have an area set aside for a compost heap so will try and make a back and sides out of palletts next week.
We Have a family engagement in Kent on Sunday so won't be able to get digging until Monday now and I'm missing it already. Is that enough from me now, I could go on and on and on.
Happy weekend to you all

[John]

You feel free to go on as long as you like!
Good luck with it all.

[noshed]

Don't worry all my friends thought I was a bit mad, now they argue over what few crops I've managed to produce so far. And at least two of them have started making compost for their gardens.

[GrannieAnnie]

yeah, some people take the mick when you talk about growing your own etc, but they never say no to the produce do they??? lol

[nitiram]

Morning 'thunder florrie'


Like you I grew veg in pots at home before taking on my lottie last July. I had naively thought that growing veg on a lottie would be like growing veg at home but in the ground and on a larger scale...WRONG!!!!

Be warned..it is a totally different ball game entirely, it is more like land management than gardening. I am still learning and like you am going it alone. On my site I am the only female plot holder and the only one under 60 (just)   My OH will come on a Saturday morning to do a  bit of weeding if I point him in the right direction and says that i am groing all the vegg that he can't stand...which is quite a lot of them. he isn't big on veg!


This site is brilliant for encouragement and for answering, very patiently , my daft quetsions.

So welcome to the world of lottie- ing. It is great, disheartening, frustrating, rewarding, back breaking etc etc etc...but boy the veg taste good!

[thunderflorrie]

Hi all
I'm not a very secretive person but my friends don't know about it yet, only a nieghbour who has inherited his dads allotment.
My hubby isn't keen on veg either and I have promised to grow fruit next year but for now I have the terribly daunting task of clearence.
In the middle of the plot is a huge grass thing which has taken hold and I've called it the triffid, it's about 6ft tall and the ground level width is about 3ft, any ideas anyone as to how I'm going to get rid of it without being eaten alive. (do trifids eat people?) Yesterday I cut off all the seed heads .
All replys gratefully recieved.
I have to get ready to visit family in Kent so bye bye for now.

[milkman]

Hallo thunderflorrie, congratulations on getting your plot.  I too manage my plots single-handedly with the competing demands of a full time job, husband and now a 7/11 shop to worry about.  Husbands can sometimes be persuaded to be roped in for "serious hard-landscaping tasks" such as putting up sheds/greenhouses or making wooden compost bins, but as you say, the rest will probably be down to you.  The way I tackled my plot was to draw up a plan which divided the plot into a series of fixed beds 4ft wide and about 3m long with 2ft wide paths in between.  Then I proceeded to dig my overgrown plot bed by bed, which made it feel like progress was being made much more quickly (also easier for maintenance and for setting up a crop rotation).  In terms of wooden edging for the beds, I found ferreting through skips on business parks on quiet Sunday mornings quite a productive exercise.  As for tackling your triffid, throw everything at it - hack away at the top growth with shears, secateurs, scythe, sickel or saw, then attempt to dig the underground part out by jumping on your spade to try and chop it up a bit...though maybe cover it for a while first to weaken it.  Good luck!

[basketcase]

Hi Thunderflorrie!

I'm a fairly new lottie-person myself. At the stage where, if I forget to put in markers, I look at the stuff coming up and think "Am I supposed to be growing that?!"

I'm currently struggling a bit.  Seem to have a touch of bronchitis, so spent the beautiful weekend weather gasping and fretting at missing the sunshine and digging time.  Dragged out yesterday and laid weed suppressing fabric on a bed.  Got back today to discover that something had dug it away.  :cry:  Rabbits had also been at my daughter's flower bed.  Must have been ill - don't usually brust into tears and use obscenities!

Must get a fence!

[noshed]

We have problems with foxes on our site - they seem to love playing on freshly-dug ground and they do dig up plastic mulches etc. There's not a lot you can do other than protect the actual crops with things like old metal basket-type fridge drawers, bits of netting wire etc. Gives you an excuse to rifle through skips!
Looks terrible but seems to work.

[Ian_P]

Keys! Such luxury. The rabbits would copy the in Hampshire.  
Seriously welcome. I took my allotment on last April and had a three year neglected site. I covered it all up with black polythene I happened to have around and then just rolled it back a yard at a time clearing and planting as I went.

This year it is pretty much clear except for bindweed. Some parts I covered with 3-4 inches of used mushroom compost in April and those bits have very few weds and what there is grows in the surface so its easy to remove.

Hope this helps.

Watch the Big Dig Sundays BBC2 10:00am, its good and you get lots of tips.

Have fun