[jolly jen]

thanks for your tips,we had a full afternoon done my jungle allotment yesterday,i manged to find some strawberries just coming up,so i dug up the good ones and have brought them home to pot up,keep warm,until i have finished removing all the weeds and dead grasses.Also found two rhubarb crowns just peeping through ,which were covered with weeds before,my 10 years old had great fun,making a frame with old wire he found and putting old plastic bags over the top ,to protect them from the cold.Both my boys took great delight in helping the hubby with the fire in the oil drum,but ended up putting too much damp stuff in,despite out warning not to,ending up in the fire going out.

keep the advice coming thanks. jen

[Salkeela]

On the subject of children:

Kids love little packets of seeds!  One of my daughters (13) keeps her own shoebox full of seeds and when she & I want to cheer ourselves up we get out our seed boxes and plan the year's sowings.   .  She has her own corner of the garden too & last year grew much better sweetcorn than I did.

It's great then on nice days to wander round together and imagine what might be growing where in the summer.  I like to draw out plans for beds, and so does she - so we end up with artistic coloured-in (and not quite to scale) sketches.  My eleven year old daughter likes this too - although her labels are much more  imaginative as she's very into writing her own stories and the maps get to be part of the story.

Oh and if you want to give a particularly pretty seed out to inspire - try the YinYang bean seeds!    

I admit however that I am lucky, our back garden is our "allotment" so my offspring can wander in and out as they please.  The disadvantage to this, of course, is the amount of "garden" that ends up in the house, especially on a wet day!

I've been gradually doing more & more each year in the garden, and although I do the bulk of the work, it is great to have kids who enjoy helping.  Collecting produce is also popular.  The first year is the toughest, but next year the bits you sorted this year will be easier to control so pace yourselves and don't worry if you can't do everything you want the first year.

Get the perennials sorted early I think - rhubarb takes so little effort after the initial establishment.  Likewise fruit bushes and trees.

Best wishes.

Sally

[jolly jen]

i have put some photos on of my plot,you can see its really run down ,,,phew loads of work to do,
the shed is more of a damp shack ,god the work looks never ending!!!      

[jolly jen]

The shed is the start of my plot this is the side ,,that is not my beer can in the mess,lol. :oops:


 


this is leading down top the end where the metal compost heap is,i have missed out the mass of raspberries' canes in the middles that,are a jungle nightmare