A place for newbies to introduce themselves.

[Digeroo]

Welcome toA4A Handsfull and Wye not.  Congratulations on getting your allotment or growing space.  This is my fifth great allotment year and I hope you enjoy the challenges as much as I do.   I found the space rather daunting to start with but it soon filled up.

My best advice is keep on top of the weeds.

[Digeroo]

[Annemieke]

Welcome all you newbies, if you'll enjoy it as much as I do, you won't be a newbie for long!
With love, Annemieke. 

[wilber]

Hello
Thought I should really introduce myself since I have been a member on here for a lot of years and this is my first post (apart from the compost bin swap I have just put up!)
I think I joined up late one night when the twins were six months old and haven't had the time to do much in the garden / greenhouse let alone join in a forum
Now we have the time to do more in the garden I am hoping to make more of a contribution, we have really enjoyed looking at some people hen house piccies and took a bit of inspiration when we were making our own a couple of years ago (girls wanted pet rabbits but we got them hen's instead as they were more useful)!  Need to go and give goodnight kisses so will pop back later and have a moochy around . . .

[Jayb]

Welcome to all our new members and those lurking in the background, hope you are finding your way around 

[patchworkperson]

After 2 weeks on the waiting list, I officially took over the tenancy of plot 22 today - eeek! My experience of fruit & veg growing has been containers, pots & hanging baskets in our tiny garden which has been quite successful. Now I think I need all the help I can get. It's a full size plot already laid out in beds. There are currant bushes, what I think are 4 small apple trees, 3 rhubarb crowns, one of which is about to bloom. One the beds is laid out with strawberry plants & another with onions (or garlic). The rest appear to be empty apart from a glorious crop of dandelions! There is a small shed complete with an array of tools & a wheelbarrow but it looks like it may disappear in a strong breeze. There is also a compost bin & a teeny tiny pond which I assume is to encourage frogs for slug/snail munching. And we're right next to the water supply. I think we've been very lucky! My current plan is to tidy up the beds that already seem to have fruit or veg growing & try to stop the dandelions taking over completely. Geri

[tricia]

Welcome Geri - Wow! it sounds like you've won the lottery with your new lottie. Hope you have a lot of fun in the growing season just starting. There a lots of people here who are only too happy to help with advice if you need it.

Tricia

[Jayb]

Hi  Geri and Welcome to A4A 
I agree with Tricia, what a lovely sounding lottie  Still plenty of time to get things growing, good luck 

[clumsy]

I think I should apologise for not having  introduced myself before posting in the main forum. My name is Ali, I look after my parents allotment since they are getting bit to old for all the hard work required on an allotment. We as a family love growing vegetables. Plus my parents coming from Asia we also try to grow vegetables that they grew up eating, Sometimes we have success sometimes we have failures all depends on the Great British weather.

[caroline7758]

Welcome, Clumsy. No problem posting elsewhere, but this is a good place for people to see who's new! Are you on the same site in Derby as Deb and Saddad?

Hope you enjoy the forum!

[patchworkperson]

Hi Clumsy from another newbie. Geri

[clumsy]

Hi  caroline7758 and  patchworkperson thank you for the warm welcome. caroline7758 I'm not on the same site as Deb and Saddad but not to far from there.

[Mrs_m]

Evening all,
Thought I'd introduce myself... I'm Mrs M a "lotty" widow. My hubby has had his plot in Hull for around 13 years. I don't partake as such, but I'm responsible for the cooking of all his produce, so I thought I'd join up for some tips and ideas.
I look forward to chatting with you all
Mrs M x

[Jayb]

Hello and welcome to the forum Mrs_M 

There are some cracking recipes already posted but if you are looking for ideas for something in particular post away in Recipes. Gazza160 is pretty hot on recipes as are quite a few, his pictures are great too.  A bit further back Tim used to post some stunning pictures of meals he'd cooked, no real recipes but fab for inspiration.

[lady_bug]

Hello. My name is Fiona (although everyone calls me Fi). We got our allotment at the end of January.. just before all that snow dumped on us. We're growing weeds, especially nettles and bindweed :( We have managed to clear some space to plant some fruit and potatoes and also put a polytunnel up for tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. We have planted shallots and onions, but I think they might be a bit late..
I'm looking forward to meeting new people and getting hints and tips to help with the battle of the weeds.
So glad I found this site 

[ACE]

Hi Fi, welcome to the mad house, sounds like you are off to a good start. Watch out for the mods, they might make you get a note from your mum if you want to use the Shed.

[rosebud]

 Hi Fi, as ACE, said welcome to the madhouse of fun.
Ask away all you like we all help each other on here great bunch of folks
on A4A.

[Digeroo]

Hi Fi and welcome. I think many of us are all struggling with weeds.  Bindweed is rather a pain, and I  find very difficult to shift as I do not like using weedkiller.   

Nettles are not so bad, and make great nettle tea which the plants love.  They are supposed to be a sign that the soil is fertile.   I had a rather overgrown patch this time last year, I simply chopped off the nettles just below soil level, and planted winter cabbages and everytime a nettle appeared I hoed its head off asap.  Now the patch has courgettes, and there are still a few signs of nettles but they are finally giving up.  Next year I might put potatoes there, I am hoping that will finally finish off the nettle roots.

Keep battling I am sure you will win.

[galina]

Welcome to all new members, welcome Mrs M and Fi.  Bindweed spoken here too.  I live with it.  However carefully I dig, there are some roots left in the soil which grow very well.  It is my worst weed here.  Can't eradicate them, but you can avoid that they strangle other plants.  Give them a bean stick and they grow to the sky!  That means around the beans I weed them carefully.  Nettles go into a barrel together with comfrey and rot down to produce an organic liquid fertiliser for tomatoes.

Hope you will get some good crops this year.  This blend of sun and rain is certainly doing the plot here a lot of good at the moment.

Looking forward to reading your posts and hearing how you and all new members get on.

Welcome to the madhouse!

[Jayb]

Hi Fi, Welcome to A4A from me too 
Congratulations on getting your lottie 

[lady_bug]

Thank you all for the lovely welcomes  xx