Eeyore's Great Allotment Thread

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eeyore

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eeyore
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:banana:
Its a new year and a new allotment pitch.. its huge, this thread is a way of shaming me in to getting more work done!
So far I need to clean out all the rubbish, metal and plastic pots and other crap that on there.

Anyone else old before there time and got an alotment?

oh and yes there will be carrots growing shortly!!!
 
Looks great, congratulations, lots of potential there. Have you had one before ?
If not remember that Rome was not built in a day and you'll be amazed at what you've done in no time at all.
I found the best way for me was to make a simple plan and divide the area into beds of about 8 feet by 4 feet and prepare and plant them one at a time.
You probably wont need adding much to the soil in the first year as it hasn't been planted for ages.
Good luck and please let us know how you get on.
 
eeyore said:
:banana:
Anyone else old before there time and got an alotment?
Click to expand...
I got an allotment when I was 20, so I guess that's a yes!
We kept the plot for about 6years during which time we steadily improved it. Our approach was to take a small section at a time and get it fruitful rather than trying to tame the whole thing at once (we tried and failed at that method).
I'd echo @Mag1cp2x that separating the plot into beds is the way forward - I went with 8' x 4' raised beds just using the very cheapest timber (less than £5 per bed) which worked very well and then identifies which areas are paths (so you don't stand on the beds).

Little and often (15min/day) is much more successful than a once a week trip - especially during the growing season. And always remember that it's supposed to be fun!
 
8x4 beds are great for reach and small crops, but a very awkward width for potatoes. I prefer raised beds of 6x12 as it's a better width for rows of crops that need a bit more room between them - and it's easily laid out with no waste, no cutting using 6' boards.

I'm about to take on an extra 1/2 plot to set out a larger area of orchard, soft fruit and vineyard. Last year was my first vintage from the vines on our main plot, which we've had for three or four years now. Not just an allomenteer, I got myself roped onto the committee (self-managed site).
 
We had one, bout half the size. When we got the keys we could not walk in it due to the 6ft brambles and trees in it. It had not been used for 25 years!
We are moving all our fruit bushes and stuff to this one. I have a mini poly tunnel (if its still there!) to set up too.
Mrs Eeyore has already had the graph paper out to map out where the beds and stuff will be going.
One tip we got told which was usefull.. If you get land that has not touched for a very long was to put loads of spuds in to break it up. Worked wonders for us in our first plot.
This one should be a lot easyier to sort tho
 
The spud trick works because you have to dig 'em in and then you have to dig the buggers out again. The spuds contribute a bit of ground cover, but most of the benefit is you digging!
 
You also have to make sure that you dig up ALL the potatoes that have grown otherwise even years later you'll keep finding them sprouting up, lol.
 
What we found was the soil was very tightly packed but after we planted spuds as they grew and put roots/spuds down they were very good as breaking up the soil making it a lot less work!
 
I take all my potash to the local allotment guys, they swap it for veg throughout the season, nice bunch of guys.

Be good to see how you go on.
 
fracster said:
I take all my potash to the local allotment guys, they swap it for veg throughout the season, nice bunch of guys.

Be good to see how you go on.
Click to expand...
Do you mean from a fire/wood burner? I never know what to do with my ash as I vaguely remember something about having to leave it for a few years before digging in to the soil - but it would be really really handy if I could use it straight away!
 
You said about having carrots in the first season. I wouldn't until the ground's well broken up and without too much debris in it, the same for parsnips.
You sound experienced at the allotmenteering so you probably know this, just thought I'd mention it if any new people are interested.
We moved home four years ago and left behind a wonderful and very large allotment that we had worked for fifteen years.
Was very lucky to get a new one down here almost straight away. It wasn't in too bad a mess and last year we took on a second one with a greenhouse and cold frames.
Was hoping to have a day digging there today but the rain put paid to that, so here I am wasting my time away at ....
 
TopBanana said:
Do you mean from a fire/wood burner? I never know what to do with my ash as I vaguely remember something about having to leave it for a few years before digging in to the soil - but it would be really really handy if I could use it straight away!
Click to expand...
Yes, wood burner,I only burn natural wood, no pallet wood or treated stuff, the ash is like dust and the gardeners love it. I think they just spread it and water/dig it in, not 100% sure to be honest.

I`m sure the gardeners on here will know best.
 
fracster said:
Yes, wood burner,I only burn natural wood, no pallet wood or treated stuff, the ash is like dust and the gardeners love it. I think they just spread it and water/dig it in, not 100% sure to be honest.

I`m sure the gardeners on here will know best.
Click to expand...

They say the slugs don't like the ash and wont go near it but the only thing I know that works on slugs are slug pellets.
There are many old wives slug repellent 'recipes' of which not one works - at least not well enough to be efficient enough.
It's the only non-organic I use.
The only other reason for putting ash into the ground that I know of is that it 'breaks up' clay soil.
 
Mag1cp2x said:
They say the slugs don't like the ash and wont go near it but the only thing I know that works on slugs are slug pellets.
There are many old wives slug repellent 'recipes' of which not one works - at least not well enough to be efficient enough.
It's the only non-organic I use.
The only other reason for putting ash into the ground that I know of is that it 'breaks up' clay soil.
Click to expand...
Ah, that makes sense then, the soil is this area is very clay heavy. Thanks for the info.
 
Well we had a bit a clearing up session... I found a lot of old plastic pots. We also found the plot is about 1/3 bigger due to some really weird ramshackel sheds being made.
It looks like there is about a ton worth of scrap metal.. Loads of car parts and an old generator that sadly does not work.

Oh and lots of doors the guy or girl loved doors...
 
First task for us is moving our old alotment fruit bushes while we still have a key for it.
Spuds will be next weekend or mid week.
 
Spuds already? I was thinking mid-March. Best get digging.
 
^ what she said.

Have you seen the forecast for next week? Mid-March at the earliest for me, and I'm in East Anglia.

Hopefully I'll get a price on the vines for the vineyard extension next week, it's handy having a client that's a plant nursery ;)
 
Well a little bit of digging was done today. First bed made for the tranfer of fruit bushes... Just a shame the council changed locks on the old alotment. So we can't get them in.
 
That's a good days work. Do you think you'll get back in for the fruit bushes?
 
Yer should do, its just a PITA as we wanted to get them in tomorrow.
Gonna be working on more cleaning up instead.
 
Well we finally got in to our old allotment and got all our old fruit bushes out of what was a very boggy plot.
We have also managed to get them in to a new home.
The step daughter also got in to the cutting down mood and got in to one of the 'hidden' section.. To find out we have lots more crap to move.
 
:wideyed::wideyed: surely you're not responsible for moving all those windows/doors which the previous owner should never have dumped there. If it's a council plot then I reckon you should speak to them about it - the least they could do would be to provide a skip for you to dump it all in.
 
We have a skip... It was empty when I started today... This is a huge shipping container type skip
 
What was in it... Well today we had... Mattresses, beds, TV, radio and carpets.
 
TopBanana said:
:wideyed::wideyed: surely you're not responsible for moving all those windows/doors which the previous owner should never have dumped there. If it's a council plot then I reckon you should speak to them about it - the least they could do would be to provide a skip for you to dump it all in.
Click to expand...

There is a huge skip we can use, I half filled it today :)
We also can have to use of a gang of community service guys to do the leg work too.
I plan to strip out all the glass for recycling. There is well over a ton of it over the site. The guy stored lots of it.
We also have 3 sinks and 3 bath tubs which we can see. These will be made in to planters.
 
Yesterday we had another good clearing out session.
We got in to and cleared a brick building we have in the allotment. Amongst it all we found, 2 beds 3 mattress, a TV, a radio, a cooker
 
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Yep you guessed it. The guy before us used to live in it.
To give you an idea of how much junk we moved, there is a pic of a Industrial skip that was empty before we started..
We also moved a large amount of scrap metal from the site. Many tubes and stuff but we also dealt with a car gearbox and lots of car jacks...
 
I was starting to wonder if someone lived on site.

Hopefully you get it cleared soon.

Fingers crossed for a run of good weather too. Particularly the Easter break.
 
I had another productive weekend of clearing out more crap. Although this time we hit the jackpot in used but reusable timber! I also manage to get in to the "Bar" shed where we found an Aladdin’s cave full of well random stuff.,, Car exhaust system parts, very old sewing machine and lots of old "kerb it" recycling boxes!!
 
So there was a head-height stack of front doors on the plot, yet the door on the shed had the lower half missing - lol.

I can't believe how much stuff the previous occupant had stashed there, it's good that at least some of it is reusable for you!

Will you be able to get much growing this spring/summer or will it just all be clearing out and sorting out beds etc
 
We have spuds in and looking to get garlic and onions sorted.
Our fruit section is coming on well too. So it's not all clearing out :)
 
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