Author Topic: Damage Limitation advice needed (Read 1717 times)

nitiram · « **on:** July 06, 2007, 14:23:26 »

I am on a lottie site in North East... the allotment site mostly flooded in unused areas apart from two sites, mine being one of them. OK, it's not my house or business and it will right itself in time but as seven eighths of my crops are either washed away, drowned or like the onions just rotting in the ground has any one got any suggestion about what i can do now?...no funnies please about water cress as am not in the mood today after sitting in the middle of my plot having a good cry.

I have no seeds left, and anyway it is still too wet and too late to sow them. So, do i wait till autumn when i can plant the usual broad beans, garlic onions to over winter and just cover everything over with black plastic to keep the weeds down and accept that is what I have to do for now?

Are there any others in similar situations?

debster · « **Reply #1 on:** July 06, 2007, 14:28:42 »

Hi I am pretty new here so dont know very much however many of us are still planting seeds now courgettes, french beans etc so dont feel it is too late for everything although someone with far more experience will probably be along shortly to verify. As for having no seeds I could send you a few of some of the ones still being sown now if you like and im pretty certain others will be willing to do so too. just pm me your name and address and ill pop some in the post for you

Doris_Pinks · « **Reply #2 on:** July 06, 2007, 14:36:15 »

Nitiram I too would have wept.
you can still sow loads, and I too have plenty of seeds I would be willing to pop some in the post to you. (PM me your addy)
If it were me I would start in pots, hoping the warm weather will arrive, then plant on the lottie.
Beans, fennel, beetroot,lettuce, courgettes, radish, Purple sprouting etc. etc.
With the awful weather we have been having a lot of us are miles behind anyway, nothing to loose.
Also if you can afford it, scour the local nurseries for started plants, lots of peeps on our plots do this, and they are all ready to bung in.
And don't forget the generosity of others on your site, I bet there are a few there with spare brassicas and leeks just desperate to give them away!
Chin up and good luck, take some pics now and in a few months time! ;)

nitiram · « **Reply #3 on:** July 06, 2007, 14:41:29 »

Many thanks to you both, especially the offers of seeds as there is none left in B and Q or Wilko's . I did think of going to the others on site and asking for any extras but think that thye will have got rid of their excess by now as they were asking a several weeks ago now if any one wanted them.

I think the best thing for me to do is buy a big bag of compost and strat out in pots at home , have a mini greenhouse there so will do that...you have cheered me up. (It is still raining)

froglets · « **Reply #4 on:** July 06, 2007, 14:49:05 »

For different reasons, I have stuff growing in rubble sacks from B&Q, if you can't use the ground, pick the ground up into (sort of) raised beds ( bags) & do a few things that way - good for the spirit to see stuff growing again.

I've got newly sown peas doing a treat, fennel, carrots, squash, courgettes, & salad crops in tubs & bags.

Good luck

manicscousers · « **Reply #5 on:** July 06, 2007, 14:53:09 »

we even shoved a couple of our first early spuds into a bag, the sort for putting leaves in in autumn, they're all up, hoping for late season potatoes, don't despair..the weather has to change soon...please :)

norfolklass · « **Reply #6 on:** July 06, 2007, 15:04:21 »

I'm still sowing into pots because I don't have beds ready yet: runner beans, peas, courgettes, beetroot...
I've also got seed to spare so please PM me if you'd like some :)

nitiram · « **Reply #7 on:** July 06, 2007, 20:04:26 »

Pots it is then, am going tot ry tomorrow if it is dry...haha to dig some raised beds by digging a spit deep all round aan area , pile all the soil from the trench and pile it in the middle...sort of a raised bed. Have two of these and they survived , so have some sweetcorn at least...lol. The rest is very, very soggy. still standing water in some places...it will dry with this gale force wind am sure.

saddad · « **Reply #8 on:** July 07, 2007, 09:30:14 »

I'm still sowing stuff so if you want anything just ask..
PM me of course..

Mouseski · « **Reply #9 on:** July 08, 2007, 09:46:50 »

Huge SYmpathy nitiram. Similar boat ourselves.
We lost our crops and alot of our top soil to boot. We are a small site with only six plots and with our fellow lottie holders we have spent the last week diggin trenches putting in perforated pipe and saving hedgehogs who were floating away. I am unable to get the smell of rotting potatos out of my system.
Yesterday we cleared the plot. BArrowed back the top soil and rotavated. It's clean and brown and only slightly damp. I am going out today with a bag of beans (only seeds I've got left! Other lottie holders are bringing what hey've got and we're having a swap) I will get crops, even if its beans for the rest of the year! :) I will not be defeated. The lovely A4a team seem to have found you some seeds. It's not all over yet. Best digging foot forward, thinking of you.
Hope you get lots of seeds and success in the long late summer we will be having!

nitiram · « **Reply #10 on:** July 08, 2007, 14:44:46 »

hello Mouseski...I'm with you...beans it is this summer. And , yes, rotten potataoes are absolutley gross aren't they? They stink and are slimy, yuck. Carrots don't smell as bad but are just as slimy.We didn't see any hedgehogs as we have foxes living on site but was chasing tadpoles down the path.

The support has been brilliant, thank you one and all. Was just feeling so downhearted by the vastness of it all, the seeds didn't matter but a big thank you to those who have sent me some, a great help and will be passed around too to my fellow flooded out person.

Apparently, according to our 'head man' on site, because we all pay into a site insurance to safeguard against accident claims and the like , he thinks that we may be entitled to some sort of compensation. he is looking into it.

Do you have site insurance Mouseski?

keyhole-kate · « **Reply #11 on:** July 08, 2007, 15:09:14 »

i'. in Hull and our lottie was under 3' of water, still not dried out fully behind the shed is still ankle deep. i went down there on monday and couldn't even get to the shed. it was heart breaking, all that hard work for nothing.
i have planted loads of alsorts into seed trays even if they don't grow i've not lost anything.
there's always the autumn sowings!

Jeannine · « **Reply #12 on:** July 08, 2007, 15:36:52 »

Hi Niitiram, they have been a great many of us. I have been under water in Hull for three weeks, today was the first day it had gone down, I waded in at the beginning to rescue a couple of special toms and it was at thigh level lapping my underwear,today we could walk on the paths, but not on the soil, but we got some stuff out of the high raised beds.

My biggest problem is that I have transplants waiting to go out that are now overgrown and the water has not gone down .

The A4A lovely gang have started to get seeds together for those who have lost a lot, look in the swap shop and find the thread. I think it is called rally call.

If there was something specific you are sad about and there is time, please let us know, One of us will have it if it is not in the freebie list.

I am past the crying stage now,and you will get there.I promise.

Try some runner beans in big pots, you have time to put some courgettes in big pots too, in fact quite a lot. I think the ground will start to dry out now, so if you start some stuff to put out in a couple of weeks you might be OK.

Good Luck, please let me know if I can help in any way.

If you had any seeds from me earlier, let me know I will replace them.

XX Jeannine

nitiram · « **Reply #13 on:** July 09, 2007, 06:33:33 »

Morning to Jeannine and keyhole-kate...and all others in Hull.....my small floood is nothing compared to yours, so i apologies for my moaning...are your houses flooded too? Looks like being dry again today, the wind is drying the soil off slowly but still too soggy to plant out in.

Another question, may sound daft...because of all the woaterlogging odf the soil, will all the 'goodness'...nutrients etc have been leeched out? So do we need to replace them with some extra fertiliser etc? Need to make my beans grow fast...lol

Jeannine · « **Reply #14 on:** July 09, 2007, 07:51:48 »

Don't you worry sweetie, you have a good moan, we all have, My house was OK we were one of just 5 streets in a big u curve that were not flooded but all around me was, and the school that I work at has had to close for months as everything has gone, but we will re build.I don't know about your ground, it might even be more fertile I just don't know but somebody will, good luck XX Jeannine

debster · « **Reply #15 on:** July 09, 2007, 14:03:20 »

Nitiram have popped the seeds in the post first class for you today, they are only basic vegetables nothing fancy in my collection but you are very welcome to them good luck and keep smiling :)

keyhole-kate · « **Reply #16 on:** July 09, 2007, 17:00:47 »

We were fortunate too, we didn't loose anything in the house.

as jeannine has said your ground may be more fertile, i'm sure ours will be as there were many plots that had big piles of manure delivered shortly before the rains came.
what we ended up with is a manure soup covering all the plots, smells lovely! i found several clumps of manure scattered around the plot.

Amazin · « **Reply #17 on:** July 09, 2007, 19:41:17 »

nitiram, see the links below:

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,33549.0.html

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php?board=10.0

;D

nitiram · « **Reply #18 on:** July 10, 2007, 06:17:07 »

Hadn't seen these links Amazin, what a great bunch of folk you all are.

Jeannine, my neighbours 7 month pregnant daughter is still flooded out in Hull, she had to wade through the torrents unaided..they have been given a house for 6months in Beverley by the insurance till while theirs is being sorted out.

I ike the idea of manure soup Kate...lol

News:

Author Topic: Damage Limitation advice needed (Read 1717 times)