Topic: fallen on feet with new allotment!

[legless]

I picked up the keys to my new (first!) plot today and i have been so lucky! the person who had it before has been chucked off for growing cannabis so he has kept the plot reasonably well!! what weeds (of the invasive type - all illegal stuff has been removed!) there were have been strimmed back for me by the club secretary (there are advantages to being a young woman wanting to get an allotment!). my next door neighbour put in a good word for me i think so i've only been on the list for a year.

there are some excellent fruit bushes in a (somewhat overgrown) cage and some good strawberries and rhubarb. the bloke from the next allotment filled me in on the planting and rotavating history of it and i've got a shed and greenhouse and waterbutts and compost bins!!!

now to an autumn and winter of weeding and bed creation (i can't believe it, there's a pile of bricks just waiting to be made into paths!). sorry i've rambled on here but my husband is refusing to listen to me anymore!! Now i can really start asking you all for advice!!!

[LynneA]

You should be pretty much OK - C. sativa growers are usually pretty diligent about their crops.  Find out what other weeds were there - it'll give you an idea of the amount of work you're giong to need controlling them.

You'll have a head start with the fruit already on site, just prune it back into shape, but I'd be inclined to take runners from the strawberries and lift the existing plants.

[legless]

the weeds seem to be mainly couch grass and dandelions, got all winter to sort it out i suppose! the fruit cage is full of thistles etc but i can see some good heavy fruiting bushes in there. i am going to weed it on wednesday. thought i'd start with what i already have and get that in order. the strawberries can stay this year and see what they do i think as there is no way i'll fill the whole plot this year, plus a friend has given me a dozen new plants which i shall put in as well....

thsi afternoon i have discovered a sunken bathtub filled with water with a frog ramp, which is excellent and some artichokes!

[legless]

well, you can now see through the fruit cage and all the thistles are gone. my arms are looking a bit worse for wear though, takes me back to my younger days working on a fruit farm  ;D

one bad point, i was chatting to my lovely next door neighbour (who pestered and pestered until i got a plot!) and he insists that the only way forward is to use round-up on the whole thing and anihilate any weeds that are there! He keeps trying to lend me his sprayer! I'm not going strictly organic with the plot yet, until i know what i'm doing, but i definitely don't want to cover the whole thing in round-up before i start! he thinks i'm a bit odd saying i'll dig it over by hand!

I can't imagine his reaction if I cleared it and then planted a load of green manure  :D

[legless]

i thought he must have relished a challenge as i'm pretty sure relying on natural daylight in an unheated glasshouse in the north east of england was very optimistic!! :D

hope you get your plot soon, the waiting is so frustrating! now i'm just frustrated waiting for the rain so i can actually get a fork in the ground!!!

keep smiling

Jo

[legless]

that's excellent ozzy! keep us informed won't you? going to look at your other post now!

[legless]

well we've managed to clear 1/4 of the plot this weekend, it was a lot easier than we expected surprisingly and i've put in the organic strawberry plants that a friend gave me, we've rescued the tomato plants (i knew all those years being paid 50p a day to help my mum on her market garden would pay off!) and trimmed the comfrey.

we've met loads of lottie neighbours and gained a lot of lovely tomatoes and advice, especially from the ladies at the next plot who are organic and very knowledgable. We've bought some onion sets to plant out now and some broad beans to go in in october, apart from that we're going to try some green manure on the rest of it.

the best bit of all is all the wildlife though, we have frogs and voles on the plot and kestrels hovering over, scaring the pigeons! i love how you can hear the bees and how their buzz changes pitch when they're on a flower!  ;D

had loads of compliments about how much tidier it looks from the old timers and hubby hasn't stopped grinning since 'stan across the way' gave him a big bag of tomatoes, so i think he's hooked too!

Ozzy - i think your rambling is catching! i'm off to taste the tomato sauce being expertly prepared in the kitchen- yum!

Jo