Topic: New Allotment Holder's queries

[amphibian]

Right I've just got a new allotment, a big one too (17 perch), which is being shared between my family and a friend of mine.

Anyway I'll be sowing my first crops in a fortnight and wanted to know if I could get away with popping some carrots in, I am in Kent so well south?

[Derekthefox]

yes amphibian, welcome of course!, you will have excellent baby carrots by October !

[amphibian]

yes amphibian, welcome of course!, you will have excellent baby carrots by October !

Thank you very kindly.

I warn you all, I am not scared of asking stupid questions (it is through asking questions, however silly, that we all extend our knowledge), so over the next few months I will probably ask quite a few. :)

[westsussexlottie]

the only silly questions are the ones you don't ask...

[wardy]

I've got some Autumn King free with a mag and I shall be putting them in shortly.  Not sure where yet as I have nowhere prepared as usual  :)


Welcome to the mysterious world of A4A  ;D  Good luck with your plot  :)

[amphibian]

Right I've just been down to my allotment and marked out where I am going to put my beds down, while there I noticed a few things that I had queries about.

Firstly, I found a blackberry briar growing, but unlike normal blackberries the bramble had large parsley shaped dark green leaves, that splayed out with their faces towards the sky. I am vaguely aware of a similar variety (I think) that is thornless, but this had thorns. Does anyone know what vareity this might be?

Secondly; two plots down from me, at the very bottom of the allotments, is a large apple tree that is heavy with fruit. On returning home I found on the allotment map, that it is not marked as being on any particular plot, instead it is marked as a separate area without plot number, the area is infilled with dots. Would you think that this is indicative of the tree not belonging to anyone in particular, would it be wrong for me to scramble through the brambles and take some of the apples come autumn? 

Thirdly; I noticed a few deer scrabbling about in the bushes that back onto the allotments, I am sure these are likely to prove a problem, especially for my brassicas, does anyone have any advise on how to keep them off my patch?

[wardy]

Blackberry maybe wild but will taste ok so leave it til you get something better  :)
Apple tree - windfalls! Finders keepers  ;D
Deer - they are lovely in red wine  ;D   Nah, seriously if you maintain your hedges then the deer shouldn't be able to get in but they can jump high  :o  I think others folks on here have deer probs so they'll reply to this bit for you

Hope you have lots of fun with your plot and you'll have lots of lovely veggies this time next year  :)  Don't work too hard.  Remember IT IS FUN  ;D

[supersprout]

I got an overgrown plot in late May in Peterborough. This month I'll be planting purple sprouting broccoli & leeks, and sowing red chicory, lamb's lettuce and kale, all for winter/Spring eating. Plus 'early' carrots (as per other postings) ; for baby roots in October.
My neighbours are planting parsnips, Autumn King carrots and Spring cabbage.
The 'old boys' said they were putting in potatoes now (!!) for Christmas, and there are rows of baby spud plants everywhere.
So it looks like anything goes! ;D

[Mrs Ava]

No idea on the fruit, or deer, but I would say regarding the apple tree, talk to other plot holders and see what the score is, and if noone uses the fruit, then why not help yourself!  The hedgrows around our plot are full of plums, bullace, rosehips, sloes, elderberries and apples, and noone wants them at all, so, come late summer, I can be found, covered in scratches, scrambling through trees and bushes, scrumping! (with permission of course!)  ;D

[Svea]

welcome amphibian and super sprout.

take Ej's advice - we are all scared of her and you dont know what she will do if you dont :o ;D
(only joking of course -  good advice on the tree though - ask your lottie neighbours)

as to deer - not having personal experience, but i second the 'they can jump high' - my work collegue who has a big garden and grows veg and fruit has enclosed his whole patch in a fruit cage!!! because they used to jump over the 4 ft fence.

again, maybe the older folks on nyour site will be able to tell me if it's a probelm and what can be done about it

svea

[amphibian]

I've only met one of my neighbours. Of the 33 plots by me, only 11 are occupied, and most of them look a wee bit overgrown. The one next to me is just a massive tangle of wild brambles.

By the way, I have solved the blackberry mystery, it is a variety called Rubus laciniatus (Evergreen Blackberry).

[wardy]

Amphib     Careful how you handle that bramble.  I once got a really bad reaction to a "blackberry" I started grazing on whilst waiting for a cable car in Matlock.  During the night I began to itch like crazy and had to get out of bed and turn the light on.  I looked the same colour as a blackberry  :o  Horrible raised purple rash all over me - really!  I worked for a pathologist at the time and didn't dare go to work in case I was infectious.  Anyway he said I was to go in and he'd tell me what it was.  It was the "blackberries" and he told me that often dogs get these reactions (usually springers funnily enough) as they charge about in undergrowth.  I was in agony for days as it was extremely itchy.  Piriton sorted it but it was horrible so now I don't eat anything unless I know it's ok.  Sorry to be a prophet of doom - I'm usually the opposite  ;D

[amphibian]

Amphib     Careful how you handle that bramble.  I once got a really bad reaction to a "blackberry" I started grazing on whilst waiting for a cable car in Matlock.  During the night I began to itch like crazy and had to get out of bed and turn the light on.  I looked the same colour as a blackberry  :o  Horrible raised purple rash all over me - really!  I worked for a pathologist at the time and didn't dare go to work in case I was infectious.  Anyway he said I was to go in and he'd tell me what it was.  It was the "blackberries" and he told me that often dogs get these reactions (usually springers funnily enough) as they charge about in undergrowth.  I was in agony for days as it was extremely itchy.  Piriton sorted it but it was horrible so now I don't eat anything unless I know it's ok.  Sorry to be a prophet of doom - I'm usually the opposite  ;D

Thanks for the words of caution, but I am fairly sure I have made the correct identification. If I have then this specimen is a blackberry, a less common vareity; but a garden one none-the-less.

I will get someone to verify it for me though.

[amphibian]

A rather strange query, but I take my three year old daughter to the allotment with me, and obviously I want to keep her occupied. Is it okay to put a swing, slide or sand pit on my plot. To keep her from wandering about too much? She's going to have her own seedbed, but that won't occupy her the whole time I am up there.

There is nothing in my contract to suggest I can't.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Anything which isn't forbidden is permitted! Do it, and don't let anyone tell you you can't.

[jennym]

I have a blackberry with leaves a bit like that. It started off as Oregon Thornless, but over the years has become thorny. The leaves have a redddish tinge to them as they get older in autumn, just before you cut the fruited ones down. I find that any scratches I get do tend to become a little irritated, and I get plenty from my bush.
The fruits aren't tart at all (some may say a little bland) but they are to my taste. Good to eat as a desert blackberry. The fruit ripens from end August/early September - mine is covered in green fruit now.

[wardy]

Amphib     Someone on here has a small touring caravan on the plot so the kids can go in there if they get bored on the plot.  Do colouring and stuff  :)  So I thought this would be a great idea for me to put the dog in (who is a pain in the ar*e) and it would be somewhere to mash the tea etc.  Anyway I looked on Ebay and there were loads.  There was a little beauty which caught my eye.  All reupholstered and a new kitchen in it with a current bid of £30!  I thought I want that.  I rang the council who said I couldn't have one in case it got squatters in it  :o  I think they make the rules up as they go along.  They have always said that folks can't keep chickens.  It's totally untrue!  My mate has just got elected to the parish council and she read through the lotty bylaws and found there's nothing to stop me having chooks or a caravan.  I think I'll get the caravan and keep the chickens in it  ;D  I suggested I'd taking the wheel off the caravan and call it a shed but they didn't buy it   :(

[Robert_Brenchley]

You shouldn't ask just in case you do get some officious so-and-so who likes inventing rules. Just do it! Then if they don't like it, they have to quote chapter and verse to justify asking you to remove whatever it is. Sometimes if you're obstinate you can get the rules changed. I'm told that they once had a rule stipulating glass greenhouses in Birmingham, till some guy went to his local MP to stop them making him remove a plastic one.

[waggi]

on our lottie we have fensed a area off as a garden for our son
we will take a slideand sand pit next year when he is a bit bigger

[wardy]

That sounds lovely Waggi.  Here' s my recreational bit which is just weeds mowed  ;D   We tether the dog on it, have the family round for food and drinks, well mostly drinks  ;D  We have the cooking area by the shed and it's just a lovely relaxing bit where we can put our sun chairs, listen to the radio and fall asleep if we want.  We did get some funny looks from fellow plotters who urged us to weedkill it then dig it up and plant spuds.  The plot is massive so we thought the best thing would be to have a garden space to relax.  I think we've done right.  We love it and have been planting round the edges today.  Comfrey plants right up to the hedge and we hope to have some fruit trees on it.  :)