Topic: Hi from a newbie!

[loopyloulou]

Hi everyone! wanted to say hi im louise ive got a nearly 4yr old and a 2yr old and weve signed an allotment agreement 2day and are off digging tomorrow (omg i must be mad!) any advice in any way shape or form as to where to start would be ace!!!!
if anybody knows of any cheap but v easy guaranteed to grow edibles thats be brill, the kids are raring 2 get going and i havent a clue! ive seen the seed potatoes shallots and onions in the 99p store by me so were going to start with those, but advice on what toools well need what seeds to get and from where (were open to anything really, and will dig a space as and when we need it i suspect! ) what will come up quick with a result would be fab too as im not sure how long the kids would wait for things to grow, even just a green spike is better than peering at aparently bare earth for weeks, rotfl, anyhoo as u can guess were clueless!!!
im in birmingham, erdington, is anybody on here local??? im sure im going 2 make a pest of myself with the other allotment owners over the coming weeks and months, lol, but whats everyone growing or getting ready to grown now? many thanx in advance for reading my waffle and hope 2 get to know everyone soon! lou xx  ;D

[jockomorrocco]

for quick growth when it has warmed up  a bit  i would  do some radish,loose leaf lettuce,maybe a novelty sunflower competition amongst your family.

[manicscousers]

and little pumpkins, they can cut their name in the fruit and watch it grow..mind you, that's not now.. carrots and  peas keep my grandson happy 'cos he likes to eat them both  ;D

[loopyloulou]

thanx, will try and persuade the monkeys to wait until its late enough to plant the sunflowers, hes already been thru the seedbox and found the giant sunflower seeds, they got eaten by slugs all last yr so we didnt actually get any flowers! but theyre a definate can i plant carrots and peas now then manicscousers? is there a particular variety i need to hunt down (in wilkos or woolies, were skint as anything so we do cheap and cheerfull!!!) they love both of those and i have visions of hours spent shelling peas and eating them b4 we even get them home, lol, so if we could start them off now...

[Thegoodlife]

Welcome to the mad house!!! i agree with jacko on the seeds also try some spinach feed the kids with it & hey the garden is dug over in no time ;D glad to see the return of child labour (only joking!!) at least the kids can see where there food really comes from & they will love getting involved ive been growing now for 25 years started when i was only 12 years old with me dad & grandad(rip 1995).

As being from yorkshire i went on a day trip down to that village of london many years ago & i can remeber reading a paper on the train & they did a survey on some london children & they asked where does milk come from? 70% of the children said a carton from tesco,s!!!.

No offence to the southern part of the uk only told what i saw in the paper.

any advice you need just ask & welcome again ;D

[manicscousers]

we get some of our seeds from netto, lidl and aldi, range from 19p to 25p per packet..only early peas at the mo, unless you have some cloche cover or can grow the peas in guttering under cover..I'd wait a little while for carrots, your kids might like the round type, they take less time to grow, bit like the size of a radish..wilkinsons and woolies are another cheap place to get stuff
get your paths down so's the kids know where to walk, if you haven't got any already
take some pics so's us nosey beggars can have a look  ;D
and have fun  ;D

[loopyloulou]

rotfl!  ;D  bless ya im not a southerner! i proudly sit on the fence im a midlander! we regularily take the sprogs up to the farm in the countryside in the posher parts, sutton coldfield lichfield that sort of way, so my 2 at least are fairly clued up, tho he does constantly like to ask where EVERYTHING comes from and i do often give in and say "iceland" or wherever, lol!!  :P
thanx for the welcome tho and yes spinach growing permitted im hoping to turn my child labourers into mini popeyes! they loved helping to dig the borders last yr ready for the strawberrys we were given, weve got a few pots of naughty stones (!) and a compost bin full of worms, cos each new one needed to go see its friend in the compo bin and have some lunch etc, rotfl, i felt sorry for the worms!!! many thanx for the welcomes tho guys :D and you might regrett offering me to come bk and ask for help again... and again... lol! ;D

manics, i didnt know liddl and aldi etc did seeds! and so cheap! omg! theres one near to me and another where were going saturday! are they in stock now??? will have to take a wander and try not to go mad!! lol! round carrots sound like fun tho, esp of theyre quick growing, and i will get the kids to start finding stones 2morrow n put them down the middle to make a path i think, itll keep em busy! and theyll have lots of tests of the new path made by themselves too im sure! and will deffo take some pics, tho as it was only partly cultivated last yr and the rest is grass with a muck heap of some description, and the "cultivated " (cant see it myself, lol!) part has unknown plants in it and some sticks, theres nowt much to peruse just now, but hopefully as time goes on... spose i should start 2morrow and have mini progress reports... and u can all tell me where im going wrong!!! rotfl!!! might take me a while to work out how to upload tho.... am regular on other forums but each is different...

[manicscousers]

keep an eye open in the bargains section, loopyloulou, usually someone posts all the stuff coming in the cheaper shops for us  :)

[flowerofshona2007]

Welcome on board and enjoy your lottie, get a good book and it will give you a good basic knowlage and others up the lottie will help you out as most sites are very friendly  :D

[Amazin]

usually someone posts all the stuff coming in the cheaper shops for us

Guilty as charged, m'lud...

...and I'd like several other bargains to be taken into account.

 ;D

Welcome Loops! When you say the cultivated part has some sticks in it, could they be dormant fruit bushes, e.g. raspberry canes.

[Robert_Brenchley]

See what state the soil's in before you start any serious digging; if it's clay, you could do more harm than good. I'm not far from you, near Five Ways.

[twinkletoes]

Welcome Loopyloulou.  And don't forget to check out your local Freecycle for tools.
Twinkletoes

[Emagggie]

Welcome from deepest Essex Loopy. Also if it's tools you need, don't forget the local tip. Ours has a bin of them and they usually charge £1. Worth a visit  if you don't get any joy on freecycle. Good luck with your lottie.

[Hyacinth]

Hiya Loops! I'm in S. Birmingham with a 'plottie' in my garden (we've got big gardens here 8)), but Shirltone's got a lottie (or is it 2 lotties now, praps?) in Erdington, and so has Bunjie, her daughter, so look out for them here when they post & introduce yourself. Shirl's also got another lottie in Sutton Coldfield....eat lots of veggies, Shirl and Tone do ;D  She'll tell you about the great bargains she gets at Wilko's in Sutton too...we suspect she's got shares in it...

Lishka

[Tee Gee]

but advice on what tools

I go along with what most people say but no one has mentioned tools!!.

My advice is don't skimp when buying your garden spade.

You get what you buys with these.

My advice is buy a stainless steel spade from a reliable source, e.g Bulldog, Spear & Jackson, Wilkinson Sword, Wolf.

OK you might think they are a bit expensive compared to some, but you will find them comfortable to use (saves the back muscles) but they will last for years as opposed to those cheap ones that are done for after a couple of seasons (or less).

My first spade (which my daughter now uses) lasted me over twenty years and is still going strong although a bit worn.

As far as what to grow I would suggest grow what you like to eat then progress to the more exotic once you have mastered growing these.

Plus don't be frightened to ask your questions here, no matter how trivial they might appear to you, afteralll we all started in the same way at some time, trouble with me is ........I can't remember when that was! :-\

Best of luck with your sowing & growing.

[Barnowl]

I've broken Wilkinson Sword tools but haven't yet managed to do so to the Spear & Jackson the shop recommended I replace them with.

On the other hand I'm pretty portly these days so probably apply more leverage than most :-[

[mikey]

LouLou,

welcome to A4A, with Loopy as part of your 'handle' you will fit in here no bother at all........  ;D

There are lots of very helpful (and funny) folks on A4A ....  ;)

Anything you need, seeds, advice or just a shoulder to cry on after Gales / Storms / Pigeons / Slugs   ;D  just Post

cheers
Mikey (and Little Jack)

[loopyloulou]

cheers guys :D have to admit tho, weve broken a wilkinson sword fork... it was one of the fancy ones with shock absorbing stuff, and it snapped byt the metal... doh! and the spade has had most of the protective coating come off it too, im hoping the 99p shop gets some bits in as then i wont mid so much if the spades get broken/stolen or dissapear into the weeds!!
tis amazing what were finding!!! we went up- today and aside from the rubbish (!) we found the canes had some beans (white, like baked beans? not big enough for broad beans, or maybe they shrunk??)growing up them(or were, dry n crispy now!) but if the kids havent scattered them i shall be growing them out of sheer curiosity, we also found some small spring onions that had a red colour to part of them (and a label i promptly lost, that told me what sort they were!!!) some weeny potatoes were found during a mad digging session sparked by the oh (is it a stone? oh no its a potatoe! wow look a potatoe!! rotfl!  ;D ) and some weeny turnips? im not sure that the sticks are fruit canes they have leaves sprouting down the bottom that look more like dock leaves and no matter how many i pulled up there was nowt much under ground save a tube type root with offshoots, so i guess it may be passed it dock, tho it did look to be deliberately planted so who knows??  looks like it all needs uprooting tho but if it was raspberry canes or similar idve hugged it, rotfl! we all adore our berries!!
in theyre haste the oh and kids planted the red onion sets that id got from the 99p shop, but i guess i cant begrudge them really, the oh is already impatiently asking how long they take to grow, i said a few months? maybe??? i really dont know and being from the 99p shop the packets not that helpfull (tho i dont think he read beyond the name...)
i do however have some dead looking canes, some dead looking fruit plants i got from the 99p shop and planted in (hides in shame) the terracotta pots, so i guess at some point (warmer day after weve dug dug and dug some more) theyll get moved to a better spot on the lottie and might recover! they all had leaves b4 xmas and now they have none, save the blueberry, which is and has only ever been a green twig  ??? oh well, however i will deffo be off to wilkos in sutton next week, and will be raiding the woolies on the high st tomorrow, hope the local peeps say hi too! is asparagus easy/hard 2 grow btw? seems cheap and when u think a bunch is normally 50p less than what the root ball is it seems aa bargain? even if its a long wait? and itd be nice 2 try the kids on it again, i begrudge them turning theyre noses up at expensive veg!!
oh and will most likely be on grumbling about slugs, deffo need that shoulder, we tried to grow beans sunflowers all manner of flowers herbs etc last yr in the back garden (postage stamp sized bog), and if the cats didnt squish the seedlings we started in the conservatory, if they made it outside, even before they were planted the slugs had a field day, i mustve stabbed chopped stomped flung and salted a few hundred big fat slugs! and despite the numbers of seeds i planted and germinated they still won! save for the ahntirrium?? they look like snapdragons? they suirvided if the back garden ones havent flowered, maybe this yr??
and ARGH!!!!! we only had tomatoe plants as we bough 2 from church and pinched one of my mums, but i didnt stop them and ended up with lots of small green tomatoes, that by the time id ripened them i didnt fancy eating and gave some 2 a neighbour with the rest making for the compost bin, siiigh, confessions of a newbie!!! but i didnt actually fancy toms all yr, perhaps becuase i fekt bad about not tying them up till too late either... oops! anyhooo hope we have better luck this yr!! (and a better summer?) oh and the soil seems pretty good, well the cultivated bit anyway, soft and easy 2 dig but not cold or sodden, so i think were ok, dont know what the rest thats under the crouch grass is like, guess ill find out when i get to it :D
oops i do like to chat... essays usually... guess its better you all find out now!!! lou xx

[Robert_Brenchley]

I have a steel fork which I got for a fiver in the Rag Market years ago. It's about as breakable as a crowbar, and gets used like one regularly. Expensive isn't always the best.

[Mr Smith]

Hi Louise,
                 I hope you and your kids have many happy hours of digging and growing, :)