Topic: Day 1 (More questions have arisen!)

[jemmachan]

Finally took tenancy of the allotment today.  ;D Went down there this morning and met the Town Keeper. He told me that the plot is good because it's near the river. Took Husband Who Digs with me. After all of your previous encouragement, I felt ready to have a go. We spent three hours marking out, weeding and then digging over 2 beds. Now I can't wait to go back and plant something in the lovely clean soil. 3 questions arose:

1) What do I do with the path I created in between the 2 beds? Won't it just grow back all weedy again?

2) What do I do with nettles? They're not in the beds, but surround the plot. Cutting them is hard because it's so painful. I don't have a strimmer. Is it worth hiring one?

3) How do I get rid of the weeds that are around my raspberries and blackcurrants? If I dig them, will it hurt them? Can I cut them down to the ground and then cover them up with cardboard or something?

I'm totally addicted already.

Jem xxx

[manicscousers]

hiya, jemmachan..this is what we did
we covered the paths with old compost bags, cut in half and covered with wood chippings (free from our local recycling center, just bag your own)
nettles, get a good pair of gloves, cut them down, either compost them or put in a bucket with some water (watch for the smell), for about 3 weeks, I think..the liquid can be used as a plant food if you dilute it to eak tae colour, the remains can be composted
we cover the spaces between our fruit with cardboard, after cutting the weeds as far as we can, lots of soft fruit have shallow rots so, be careful not t catch them if you dig, mulch up with the wood chips
hope this helps  :)
and have fun, you're hooked now  ;D

[jemmachan]

Thanks MS. After one of your messages last week I did go and see if our recycle centre has woodchips. They don't, but they have something called Green Top. Do you know it? I'm just trying to find out how they make it. Sounds like they might shred up all of the green garden waste they get. But if that were to include couch grass etc, it may do more harm than good. I'll get going with the compost bags on the paths. Jem xxx

[froglets]

Our allotments buy the produce of the garden waste bin recycled material.  It gets delivered by skip £35 a time.  The stuff we get has gone through some kind of high temperature curing to make it safe to handle ( since no-one is ever totally sure what goes into it) & there are no weed seeds or roots left alive in it.

It's pretty good stuff although it dries out really fast, but is great for amending clay soils.  If you're unsure, ask the council about it.  I work on the basis that there's no point in the council providing the service if there's no market for the output & as it's so cheap compared to "shop bought " compost, why not.

[manicscousers]

never heard of that one, jemma..just be careful if you've got bags down with nothing on them , they get mighty slippy in the rain..hope you can find something to put on them..
another thing we've used for some paths..
our local hospital still uses coke I think it is, for the heating..if we go and ask, they let us have the ash, mind you, we've melted a few bags when the ash is so hot , just have to take the cold stuff  ;D
also, weed control doesn't get wet the same and you can keep the stuff down with bags of weeds, one use for them..have a good weekend  :)

[quizzical1]

The best course of action with nettles, after destroying the tops, is to dig out all the roots, as they will just keep coming back otherwise.

[Si D]

And remember witht he nettles - assuming they've not been killed chemically, after you pull them up, use the leafs for nettle tea or use them in soups.

[gruesome]

i gotta agree with quizical dig them out and burn them.