A place for newbies to introduce themselves.

[darkbrowneggs]

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.

That sounds the way forward.  :D  I shall have a go as soon as I can lay my hands on wherever I last put the glass cutter

Sue

[darkbrowneggs]

[saddad]

I have a friend who can do it by burning a ring of string soaked in parrafin... but I'm far too much of a wimp to try it...  :-X

[annielou35]

Hi
I am a newbie to fruit and veg growing. I live in Swansea and have a small garden and patio where I grow mostly in pots. I have had an allotment for a year and grew spuds, runner beans, sweetcorn amd courgettes last year all which did great but am looking forward to growing lots more this year especially as I've now cleared the whole plot, (40' by 40'). Unfortunately it is quite shaded as there's a couple of large Oak trees at the bottom boundary, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to chatting to you all

[manicscousers]

Hiya to annielou and anyone I've missed , welcome to the mad house  ;D

[caroline7758]

You might find this thread useful, annielou.

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,39355.0.html and there are some others if you do a search (within A4A) for shade.

[Jayb]

Hi to darkbrowneggs, love your avatar, those eggs look stunning!

Hi annielou, I'm not far from Swansea  ;D Sounds like you had a good first year on the lottie, look forward to seeing more of your posts  :)

[tina]

Hi all, I'm not 'new', but I'm back ;D. I used to be an active member of A4A, but kind of drifted away (mainly because we lost our allotment, the local council took them all back for an 'archaeological dig :-X', just prior to using the land to extend the local cemetary :o.

Anyway, several years on, and we have moved 300 miles, to sunny West Wales, and now have a garden big enough to have a reasonable veggie plot at the end ;D. DH has spent the last nine months preparing and fencing off the area, building raised beds, and digging, and we are now ready for our first full season of growing!

Looking forward to geeting to know you all again.

[goodlife]

Welcome back Tina!...new garden, new adventures ;D ..and I hopefully plenty of energy left to chat about your garden.. ;)

[tina]

Welcome back Tina!...new garden, new adventures ;D ..and I hopefully plenty of energy left to chat about your garden.. ;)

Thank you!  The lottie was 'mine' really, as DH worked very long hours where we used to live, and I worked nights, so could go up there a lot during the day (just as well, it was 10 pole!). Here we work for ourselves, and have more leisure time, so it will be much more of a shared thing, which I'm looking forward to. Mind you, so far that means he has done all the work, and I have paid for all the bits and seeds  ::).

[Black-ops Dave]

Hi, I'm Dave, I'm 34 and I live in Northampton.

My above intro is better if you say it in an up-beat Blind Date style. If you still think its rubbish let me know and I will get my coat now.

I got my plot on Sunday (yesterday), 50m x 5m, £7 a year. Never had an allotment before, I've been growing in containers for the last 4-5 years with reasonable success, but after having 38 pots in the (small) back garden last year it was good luck that I got to the top of the list now!

Here she is:



So I've got some hard work to do..... Think I'm going to start small and get a little bit dug and planted for this year, then sort the rest out.

Dave.

[saddad]

Welcome to A4A Dave, Site looks a bit exposed...  :)

[Black-ops Dave]

Yeah, it is a bit. Its not as bad as the picture portrays though. There is certainly no shade. There are factories and the rest of the village to the south and south west and some treeage to the East and Northeast breaking up the wind a bit.

Water is the main obstacle. There is none. I need a water butt/ipc tank sharpish!

[chickenmad]

Hi there!  from Wales
have been lurking for a while. Keep a few chickens in our garden & grow our own, but need more space  ;D Have been trying to get allotments set up in our village for ages now but the council can be erm,  quite obstructive. Look forward to gaining more info from here - looks fun!!

[pumkinlover]

Welcome chickenmad!

(you are an earlybird) have you looked at the Allotments Regeneration Initiative) and the NSALG web sites? for help/info on  starting up a site?

[Lottiman]

Welcome Black-ops Dave she looks like a real beauty(well maybe after a bit of toil) your plan of attack sounds pretty much as mine did. Good luck ; :)

Hi Chickenmad and welcome good luck with the setting up of your lotties i hope you reach your goal :)

[manicscousers]

Hiya, Black-ops Dave, that looks like the new plot we took over in November, plus we had 6' tall brambles all over the place, it now looks 'summat like' and we've started planting the spuds  ;D
Hiya, chickenmad, welcome to the nut house  ;D

[shirlton]

A warm welcome to the folks who have recently joined  :)

[Jayb]

Hi to Black-ops Dave, can't wait to hear your updates, good luck with your plottie.

Hi to Chickenmad, I've got a few chooks in the garden too. Hope you get the council in gear, what area of Wales are you in?

[tonybloke]

Hi to Dave and chickenmad, welcome to the forum.

[galina]

Hi, I'm Dave, I'm 34 and I live in Northampton.

My above intro is better if you say it in an up-beat Blind Date style. If you still think its rubbish let me know and I will get my coat now.

I got my plot on Sunday (yesterday), 50m x 5m, £7 a year. Never had an allotment before, I've been growing in containers for the last 4-5 years with reasonable success, but after having 38 pots in the (small) back garden last year it was good luck that I got to the top of the list now!

Here she is:



So I've got some hard work to do..... Think I'm going to start small and get a little bit dug and planted for this year, then sort the rest out.

Dave.

Welcome Black-ops Dave.  Looks a bit grim at the moment, but this will soon be your 'before' photo with a much more impressive 'after' to follow.  Where abouts in Northampton is the lottie?  I live in East Northants, at the Beds border. 

Hope you can tame a bit ok for this year.  Cover the rest you can't cultivate with big cardboard to get an easier job clearing the weeds when you do the rest.  Good luck.

And welcome to the other new members too.  Looking forward to reading everybody's posts.