Topic: Alloment by accident

[Cinnamon]

Hiyas,

Originally I wanted to keep bees, and my housemates objected to a hive in the garden, so, I looked for an allotment and got lucky locally.  I definitly have a lot of space now, with 7x27 metres -- but I'm a little awed at what to do with it, and I only know how to mow the lawn.

So, my main problems are two-fold: growing a trellis around my apiary area to make the bees fly at a decent height (about 2 metres) and what to do with the rest of the 'field' :)

The 'flowerwall' needs to be 11 metres long in total, eg, sides of 3
metres and a width of 5 meters along -- one side already has a fence.  I also need to grow something on the ground to stop the nettles etc moving in, but it has to put up with sometimes getting stepped on.

Has anyone here made anything like that?  

Also, after partitioning off 7x5 metres like that, I still have 22x7
metres to deal with.  

This looks like a lot to me (eek), so, I'm wondering if I could build
my veggie garden slowly, and only start with 11x7 metres of veggie
patch and grow something in the half that can be rotivated in next
year to make a nice veggie patch.  

If you've any advice for me, I'd be grateful,

Cinnamon, newbiegardener by accident

[Muddy_Boots]

Cinammon, you sound as if you are starting off in exactly same way I did!  Had done an awful lot of reading before I had courage to start.  Never looked back.

Certainly, would agree with most on this site in saying tackle a little at a time and plant up, then while you get on with the next bit of clearing and digging you can see fruit of earlier labours!  If you keep bees do try to get hold of some phacelia seed and plant at bottom of trellis, bees love it and will stray to your veggies, also lovely blue!

The gardner and various others on this site will give you much better advice but, if you go onto gardners profile, you will get access to his website which is extremely good for all kinds of things, definitely worth visiting!

Good luck and keep us informed of progress!

Kate

[Dunc_n_Tricia]

I was looking for something to sow around my compost heap, to keep the weeds down. It too will need to stand the occasional walkin on.

I have decided to try Chamomile (anthemis nobilis) which is used to make chamomile lawns. I also want to attract plenty of bees to pollonate everything, and they find herbs irresistable.

:-* Tricia

[gavin]

Great - more beekeepers!

I wanted to start last year, but vandalism stopped that; so I'm looking forward to starting this year.  I'll be back to pick your brains!!!!!

Did you have any problems getting agreement to put hives on your allotment?  

On starting slowly on the rest of your plot - yes, I'd go with your idea.  Take it slowly; better to get manageable bits well cleared and working well, than to have a huge weed-infested plot not working well!  

Good luck - Gavin

PS Are there any other beekeepers amongst us?

[Mrs Ava]

Bees and me don't mix  >:(.  When we had the 'family' plot a lady decided to keep bees on the next plot to me.  This started fine, altho I have always been rather wary of bees and wasps, for obvious reasons.  Figured, if I leave them alone, they will leave me alone.  However, I used to have to walk past the 2 hives to get to the gate, and the manure pile.  Picture the scene, a hot beautiful sunny day in Surrey, me in shorts and t-shirt working the soil with my mum, when suddenly...bzzzzzzz in my ear.  I brush it away, then bbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz in my ear and hair and before I know it I had bees in my hair and my face!  ooooeeerrrrr missus was I scared or what!  Mum and another dashing Italian chap came to my rescue, the old waving arms trick certainly encouraged more bees.  And my mum and the Italian chap spoke to the lady and she took her hives away!  She did it very quickly, and we honestly didn't cause a fuss.  

There you go, nope I am not a bee keeper, and I love the bees to do their stuff with my flowers, and I adore honey, just would hate to be anywhere near a hive again!

[aquilegia]

How about growing a summer meadow - loads of pollen for the bees and it'll look lovely and be easy for you to look after. Get some meadow grass seed and a mix of wild meadow flowers (I bought mine from http://www.wildflower.org.uk ) scatter and watch grow. (you'll have to dig the soil over first to take old any weed roots). Then after the seeds have fallen in late summer, mow it and it should come back next year.

Or plant a green manure - clover, trefoil, there are loads. Although I'm not sure they can take much walking on.

And then you can use the rest of the plot as a small veggie patch which can be expanded in future years.

I started mine off two years ago (garden, though, haven't got a lottie) with tomatoes, courgettes and runner beans. All dead easy really. This year I'm growing all the above plus potatoes, carrots, parsnips, squash, radish, broad beans, peppers, and more I can't think of just now. So watch out - it is addictive!

[gavin]

Ouch, EJ - that was a bit naughty of her?

First thing I did was ask all (not just next-door) the other plot-holders how they felt about it.  Fortunately, all were keen to have the bees around, but NOT keep them themselves, but wary about the possibility of vandals knocking over a hive.  And of course?  We had the vandals last year!!!!!!!

I suspect the council might be a bit trickier though.

And for ccinnamon - there's a wonderful couple of pages of bee plants in Bob Flowerdew's "The Companion Garden";  at least, it looks good - but I know next to nothing about plants I can't eat!  If you can't get a hold of it (or something similar) let me know, and I'll post bits of it here.  

He suggests surrounding a bee-garden with an ivy wind-break - for late autumn flowers to help weak colonies build up stores to over-winter.

Would raspberries, blackberries or currants work for your "flower-wall" - flowers for the bees, and fruit for you?  Haven't a clue!!!!

All best - Gavin

[Cinnamon]

Heyas all :)

EJ -- I suspect that walking past the guard bees all the time freaked them out only a little bit, but when you got a bit sweaty from working (even if its not bad to us) the bees will have picked up on that and so.... buzzed you to make you go away :(

Gavin -- I had NO problem getting my allotment.  As soon as I said:  'I want to keep bees' I was almost frogmarched to the plot!  

About Ivy -- how long does it take to grow and how heavy is it?  I'm kinda leaning towards a permant fence with 2.4m posts and wire running along it to support the plants.  Reason for that is that the allotment is on a plain so it'll be windy, and building an 11 metres long bamboo structure that will stand the winds a bit will cost just as much, but can fall over, collapse etc, and I'll be back to square one.  Would such a structure cause problems for other people?

Cinnmaon

Ps.: @ Gavin, Re starting a hive:

Look here: http://www.gsu.edu/~biojdsx/main.htm -- thats the hives I'll build, and I hope they are well suited to an allotment, since the bees have a better temperament in one of them when you work the hives (you don't lift the roof, just lift out an long, thin individual frame of 3.5x40 cm, brush em off and they scramble for the darkness) .  The bees design their own comb always  -- there no foundation frames, just a top bar, with a small strip of wax as a hint where to start building -- so  you don't have supers and frames to store -- you use scissors to cut off the ripe comb and pop the bar back in -- all you bring home is a bucket of combs to process as the bees get them ready.  I like the entire concept a lot.  Let me know what your think!    

[allotment_chick]

Hi Cinnamon
How about growing some comfrey - mine is always covered in honey bees (much to the glee of our lottie site 'bee man' (select Bocking 14 from a reliable source or it will take over your whole allotment and the site and probably, eventually, the world!).   Its leaves are great as a compost activator and organic tomato feed.

Be sure to get some marjoram in too which the bees adore and is fantastic ground cover (and can't be beat added to home-grown courgettes oven-baked in olive oil with a couple of home grown tomatoes.....)  

I love having hives on the site - helps with pollination of the beans.....and our bee man doesn't have any trellis - is this because the site is so open do you suppose?

AC

[gavin]

Hi ccinnamon - I like the looks of that!  I was going to start with the standard hive - at least to begin with; but this looks a lot better bet with the risks I run.  Yup, like it!

But on ivy, sorry, I haven't a clue - can't eat it it myself  ;D ;D ;D  I've just heard that it was a good reservoir of food for bees when nothing else is flowering.

Keep us posted on progress?  I (at least) would love to know how you're gettiing on.  

All best - Gavin