A place for newbies to introduce themselves.

[Jayb]

Hello and welcome  KingofDerby and Lottie 58. Lottie at the bottom of the garden sounds fab  ;D

[Jayb]

[lottie lou]

Oy Saddad.  I'm from Yorkshire and married to a Lancastrian.  We still have the wars of the roses.  Welcome Byron.  Have you considered digging holes and planting potatoes and/or jerusalem artichokes or pumpkins.  Not necessarily to eat but to break up the soil. 

[lottie lou]

Hi Lottie, where abouts in Sandwell are you.  I'm on the borders by the Hagley Road

[saddad]

Oy Saddad.  I'm from Yorkshire and married to a Lancastrian.  We still have the wars of the roses.  Welcome Byron.  Have you considered digging holes and planting potatoes and/or jerusalem artichokes or pumpkins.  Not necessarily to eat but to break up the soil. 

We all have our crosses to bear...  ;D

[BETTY 33]

hello again

i am near langley, oldbury

[tonybloke]

wotcha to kingofderby and lottie 58, welcome to the forum

[Lottiman]

Hi everybody and welcome

[cornykev]

Hi to all u newbies and welcome to the nut house.     :P :P :P

[Debs]

Hi Lottie 58 and welcome :)

How fantastic to have a plot at the bottom of your garden 8)

From fork to plate in under a minute ;D

Debs

[scrumpysteve]

Hi all

As a newbie I'm taking the opportunity to say hello to you all.

I'm not new to allotments; I've had 2 in the past both of them many years ago in my home town of Liverpool (Mersey Road and North Sudley Road) and I used to help my dad and granddad at the Thingwall Rd allotments as a kid. I was on the Lister Drive waiting list after moving near to them, but by the time one had come available, I'd moved away.

I'm now up in the far north just outside Inverness. I've moved to a house with 2 acres of land, half of which is covered in trees and gorse. Part of the other half has been turned into a lovely garden area with a Japanese garden and a couple of fountains with an ornamental pond by the previous occupier. To the side of the house is a very large area, about 150x60 foot which slopes slightly down to the house. It's there I'm looking to dig over a 60x20 area for vegetables. Why that size? Well, because the lower part looks as if it becomes terribly waterlogged, terribly easily and it's also the area where we've got 11 hens, 1 cockerel and 2 turkeys (Bernard & Matthew). I've dug 3 test pits where I want the plot and water looks to drain away very quickly. But it also lingers when there is a lot of rain or snow and we've had a lot of that lately. There's still a bit of snow on the ground in patches from the downfall we had last week and we had a bit today too. Sigh!  :-\

I'm itching to get stuck in, but because the ground is so wet when it gets to night-time the cold and frost turns everything hard and it doesn't thaw out until later in the following day. Because of this, I'm not really sure when I can dig land over, which also has a surfeit of moss in places, or whether I should just dig, plant and hope for the best. Anyway, I'm intending to upload some pictures before too long as I think it would be an interesting pictorial time line to show how a plot goes from naked to hopefully productive. It would be a matter of pride too.

Anyhow, that's me, briefly and the name scrumpysteve comes from the fact that I not only enjoy drinking cider, but I also enjoy making it too! Also beer and wine.  8)

Cheers

Steve  :)

[pumkinlover]

Welcome Scrumpy Steve
Your place sounds fantastic!

[Paulines7]

Welcome aboard Scrumpysteve.

Your garden sounds lovely and I can imagine how beautiful it will look in the spring and summer. 

Scotland has had more than its share of rain and snow this winter, so hopefully your garden will not be so boggy once we get some decent weather.

[scrumpysteve]

Welcome aboard Scrumpysteve.

Your garden sounds lovely and I can imagine how beautiful it will look in the spring and summer. 

Scotland has had more than its share of rain and snow this winter, so hopefully your garden will not be so boggy once we get some decent weather.

Too right we have. Rain and snow don't bother me as long as I'm able to get out and about. Can't wait to see what the garden looks like when the spring kicks in. We had a brief glimpse when we viewed last August on what must have been the best day of the month and my memory of what the garden looked like has faded a bit. Still, the snowdrops are pushing through so there must be other hidden treasures under the soil.

[Jayb]

Hi scrumpsteve, your garden sounds gorgeous and lots of fun and suprises for you, seeing what comes up  ;D

[darkbrowneggs]

Hi All - arrived on the forum looking for a way to make glass bell cloches, which I will do a search for in a minute

I am in a lovely part of the country on the Herefordshire Worcestershire borders, and have a fairly large garden, which often "gets away from me" but as I usually say there is always next year.

The veg garden has raised beds, and I have a polytunnel and am hoping to erect a greenhouse which I bought second hand a couple of years ago and haven't got round to doing anything with.

I am pretty well self sufficient in veg and have chickens - English Cuckoo Marans, a few ducks dog and a cat.

Can't really think of anything else to say other than I look forward to reading the posts and hopefully participating.  -  Am off now to check on cloches :)

Sue

[lottie lou]

Welcome darkbrowneggs.  Your garden sounds lovely.  Hope you find instructions for your cloches. 

[macmac]

welcome Sue darkbrowneggs (mm sounds lovely)
you'll find the world and his wife here it's a splendid place for info ,friendship and lot's of chuckles.
oh and the odd tiff ;)

[shirlton]

Welcome to all the newbies and get diggin ;D

[tonybloke]

welcome to all noobs!!

to darkbrowneggs

for glass cloches, take an old demi-john. ( wash thoroughly, clean glass cuts easier)
attach a glass cutter horizontally to the side of your work bench, about an inch from the surface. rotate the demijohn against the glass-cutter, ( several times if need be) to leave a 'score-line' all round the bottom of the demijohn. then the interesting bit. drop a bolt through the neck ( of the demo-john) the bottom should fall off relatively cleanly.

[Nigel B]

Oooh! Top tip Tonybloke......  :D
Why did I never think of that myself?  :-X
I'll give it a bash I reckon...

Welcome to all newcomers. 'Tis a great and friendly place...... Mostly  ;D
Enjoy!