Topic: Finally dug a bed

[Leopoldo]

The rain has allowed me to get into the ground on my new allotment, finally! I felt like all I'd been doing was tinkering at the edges, clearing off crap (broken glass, plastic, years of detritus) and fighting an unceasing fight with bindweed, brambles and nettles. So now I've got a 2m x 4m bed full of maincrop potatoes. And a pallet compost bin. And I've had two bonfires.

Digging's been a battle - having a plot that's been untouched for nearly a decade means some DEEP roots need dealing with - I'm hoping that even though I haven't got them all out (I don't want to dig a tunnel across Suffolk), they're seriously weakened. It's the brambles I'm most worried about - I've dealt with nettles and bindweed before, but those spiky buggers keep coming back...

Tomorrow i'm starting on an adjacent bed for beans and sugarsnaps (and courgettes). My problem - I have more seedlings than I can cope with and my digging speed, as always, is slower than my desire to plant will allow. I've worked out I have room for 20 beds, though half the allotment is bum high in nettles and needs strimming and covering for the rest of the year. If I get 8 beds done before midsummer, i'll be delighted.

I've also discovered the gooseberry bushes are prolific. Recipes anyone?

[saddad]

Post us a pic Leopoldo...
Nettles are a good sign... they like fertile soil!
 ;D

[MrsKP]

Leopoldo, when I arrived at this new flat about 18 months ago, my absent neighbours garden was overrun with brambles too.  In my higorance, I was going to take some cutting for my side !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How silly do I feel now lol?  Despite the fact I now have neighbours (of the ungardening variety) I have squatted in her garden and keep it reasonably tidy for her in exchange for the use of her beds.

All it took, surprisingly enough, was one LARGE chop with the shears and I got the brambles under control (when I say large, I mean took me days/hours/weeks) but this season I can't see anything visible at all (although what's creeping up behind my carrot bath I don't dare to look at).   8)

Keep going and you'll be rewarded.

 ;D

[cambourne7]

keep going, as we have had the rain its idea time to weed rather than any construction leave that to when the ground has dried back into concret.

Get some old carpet on freecycle and cover the bit you know your not going to get to for a while.

And get a large bottle of radox!!

[cornykev]

Best of luck Leo bit at a time and you will get there in the end, as Saddad says the nettles are a good sign, cut them down soak in a bucket voirla free feed, then throw them on the compost but not the roots. ;D ;D ;D

[antipodes]

er this is a bit of a silly question maybe, but actually I have a bit of blackberry growing in the corner near the rain barrels. I quite like it! and I have cut off all the offshoots and left one main plant. It fills a corner that would be bare. But is this a good idea? And do I have a hope of getting any fruit? I thought of sticking a bit of fencing around it, in a cage-like manner to make it grow upwards and not outwards.
Should I just chop it down???? it is about a foot high.

[norfolklass]

well done leopoldo!
your plot sounds exactly like mine, currently battling against nettles, thistles, ground elder, couch grass and marestail, but slowly winning [determined face]. I've got 20 plots marked out too, have now dug 4: 1st early spuds, 2nd early spuds, onions and shallots, and a roots bed that should get planted with beetroot and parsnips this weekend. a brassica bed and a legume bed to go, then I'll be happy for this year and should get the rest ready for next year's growing season ;D.
looking forward to seeing photos of your progress!

antipodes: not sure if it's a good idea or not, but I've got a couple of wild brambles growing along the boundary fence that I thought I'd leave in and train as a intruder deterrent/free crop of blackberries! I know they spread wherever the tips of new branches touch the ground, and that I'll have to keep an eye on it, but I couldn't bear the thought of trying to dig it out ::)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Brambles are extremely variable; there are tiny ones and big ones, sour ones and sweet ones. It really is a case of wait and see.

[Leopoldo]

I'll have to get round to taking photos. If you can imagine - 4-5 ft high nettles cover one side of the 10 rod length, except for the shed (currently being used by the bloke opposite me - I've cleared away his broken glass and tidied up all the stuff around the shed, but every time I see him he scarpers before I can talk to him about shedness), a couple of small beds hidden in the distance, tucked down behind more brambles and goosegrass.  The bloke on my left is lovely - a Steptoe type who'll recycle anything to make it useful (an erratic plot to look at, but full of character): elsewhere are serried ranks of veg, only broken up by occasionally bright blue heaps of slug pellets....

The worst thing about the site is the hard pan from dodgy rotovating on one or two patches of ground...