Topic: 1st weekend on my lottie

[clare]

Hi Folks!

Well, it's Friday lunchtime and the weekend is fast approaching :) :) :)  Got the keys to my first ever lottie this week and am looking forward to getting up there at the weekend to make a start on it!

But ... where to start?!!!  it's all a bit daunting really. ???

loads of weeds to clear and what looks like someone's attempt at creating a compost heap... more like a heap of rubbish, so will have to get that sorted.  the ground is really dry so not sure how much I'm going to be able to do.. surely its going to be difficult to remove the weeds if their roots are welded to the soil?!  

the lottie is next to some common land which has the most enormous population of bunnies.... so I'll need to get some bunny-proof fencing put up so they can't get to my veggies so easily.  maybe I'll start sorting that out.

sorry, rambling a bit here.. just got lots and lots to do and can't decide where to start!  I can't spend all the time wandering around the site looking at everyone's lottie, even though its great fun ;)

those of you that have recently got your lotties... where did you start?!

[legless]

stood and stared at it for a bit and then started clearing the weeds. it was easier than i thought so we've done quite a lot. now organising ground cover for most of it, a mix of plastic and green manure. also tidied up fruit bushes and fruit cage.

this weekend (week 4) will be planting green manure and mulching raspberries.

onions will go in soon and then it'll be winter so time to sort out the shed, glasshouse and rubbish and reconstruct compost bins into a more practical arrangement.

will also partake of allotment_chick's method of planning with hot chocolate in front of the fire!

have fun its brilliant!

[good_life_girl]

Well, although I got mine in Feb I've still got half the plot to deal with - I've started clearing all the brambles by cutting them off at the roots, then having a bit of slash 'n burn (with hose at the ready in case it got out of control!!). I'm looking forward to having some free time to get digging - although from past experience that's going to be some task!

I must admit that the first day I got the key to the lottie I spent most of it wandering around, pacing things out to pretend to know what I was doing, trying to plan (nothing turned out to match the plan :)) and chatting to my new neighbours, so I didn't get very much done at all!

[ina]

Hi Clare. I can't share any experiences with you about starting on an overgrown lottie. Not to make you jealous but here in Holland lotties are rented out clean, at least in my area.

However, I can share our solution for rabbit proofing a veggie plot, I learned it on the BBC board and it works! Put fence poles around and get 1 meter wide chicken wire. Attach the chicken wire to the fence poles but fold 20cm on the bottom outwards, this you bury flat in a shallow trench and cover with soil. You will have an 80cm high fence, the rabbits will try to go to underneath but hit the wire under the soil. After we put it up we found many scratch places the next two mornings and none since. Other allotments still get raided by the rabbits and some allotmenteers did some back breaking work to dig the fence in deep but straight down, still the rabbits managed to go underneath.

I hope this helps and I wish you lots of luck. -Ina

[Colin_Bellamy-Wood]

Ina, in your experience, would your method of laying down the chicken wire like the way you did, keep rats out too  ???

[ina]

I don't know actually, I don't think they have been in our fenced-in parts. Our allotment is teeming with rats (since our across the path neighbor died last year, he used poison and killed everything that moved) but they don't seem to do a lot of damage. Some little nibbles on courgettes (outside the fenced in area), all the sunflower and poppy seeds gone. The only problem with rats (and probably mice) we had was in the spring after sowing beans, they got mostly dug up so we resorted to sowing in the greenhouse and planting them out later. I don't worry about the rats at all and it's fun to watch them in the evening running around, jumping up at the poppy plants till the stems brake and they can get to the seed pods to eat the contents. I have a feeling that rats may be the least of your problems. Sorry, I just don't know for sure if the fence keeps rats out.

[Doris_Pinks]

Colin I underwired my compost heap cos I was sick of the little darlings getting in, and they STILL managed to chew through 2 layers of chicken wire! Persistant little so and so's! Poison may be my next option tho I am none too happey about using it.  :'(

[Colin_Bellamy-Wood]

Thank you for your reply Ina.   Sorry though that I cannot share your enjoyment watching the little beggars playing.   If I was sat watching them, my fingers would be itching for a gun, air or shot, and which I don't possess.

[Mrs Ava]

had ours 2 weeks Thursday.  Arrived....studied the weeds for a short while, looked at eachother, and ploughed in pulling them out.  Glad to say they came out real easy, mostly annual weeds with a few nettles hidden, just to keep us on our toes!  All the weeds are heaped up now at one end so hubbys job is contruct the compost heap tomorrow whilst I carry on digging...and digging....and digging..... Never thought about rabbits...hmmm..checked out everyone elses plot and there are no signs, and I have been up there at the crack of dawn all alone and never seen any..... Thinking about broad beans and where to put them.  Don't really have a planting plan as I will see how the digging goes, need to get plenty of organic matter in as the soil is very sandy......digging....and digging......isn't it great!  I love it with a passion...bore everyone rigid!   ;D ;D

[Colin_Bellamy-Wood]

EmmaJane, I'm so pleased to hear of your passion for your lottie, and truly hope that it lasts and lasts.

[clare]

thanks for all your encouraging stories!  just got back from the lottie... did a bit of pacing around to check out the plot and tried to look as though I knew what I was doing  ;)

Put in some posts for the bunny proof fencing .. getting some chicken wire next weekend.  Thanks for the tip Ina!

Was pleased to find how easy it was to get my fork into the ground so clearing the weeds isn't going to be too much hard work  :) luckily someone worked the plot earlier this year and then gave up so its just the weeds I need to get rid of.  

Can't wait to get back up there tomorrow evening to clear some more weeds - they're not going to know what has hit them!!

[allotment_chick]

Clearing a plot is just the business isn't it - providing you do it in manageable bits.  ;)

I've arrived at the conclusion that I'm a glutton for punishment - if somebody offered me a pristine plot, I'm not sure I'd want it!    Half the pleasure is in returning to order that which is chaos!  And having the opportunity to share the pleasure (and pain!) of it...

Haven't had much time to spend on my No 2 plot this weekend.....other than doing a bit of bramble bashing on Saturday.  However did I manage before without a pair of loppers?   8 quid from Focus - one of me best buys this year!  :D
 

[LynneA]

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've tried and non-poisonous rat killer called Eradirat (available from Ascott, Suffolk Herbs, Tamar Organics and others).

Still not sure if it works, but it does seem to bring the rain!  (Which in the South East right now, can't be bad)

[Mrs Ava]

....so why do brambles grow on allotments?  Talk to any lottie holder and they complain about tackling the brambles!  Is there a secret sect that goes around in the dead of night and plants them on clear lotties?  Was Englands green and pleasant land once just a jungle of brambles until cave man invented the petrol strimmer?  Why am I rambling on about brambles?  ;D

[good_life_girl]

Well, I've been told that the reason behind us having sooooo many brambles on our allotments is that the great Ken Muir once had a plot there (could be urban myth ;D happy to hear any evidence either way) and trialled various varieties. Each plot has an organised bramble 'hedge' either between the plot and the path, or in my case down both sides of the plot - what seems to be a different variety on either side based on taste and appearance.

The plus of this is I've eaten more blackberries this summer than ever before and have loads frozen, both whole for adding to cocktails and pureed for desserts, the minus side is that any unattended patch of soil/grass sprouts bramble like nobodys business!!

[LynneA]

We have about 150ft of brambles round out plots - made two huge batches of jam, flapjacks, crumbles stc, then the pears wer ripe and I started preserving them instead.

For all the rasons we hate them, they're great for security - especially from the school field side.