Topic: Woohoo!! Got another plot...

[chriscross1966]

Got notification today that I can have another (half) plot on the site where I currently have a (half) plot in Swindon... pretty much opposite my current one on the path that runs down the site too... Now I'll be able to grow a decent amount of benas potatoes and squashes... especially squashes, I was finding it very hard to make space for them.... woot!...

Swindon's byzantine queueing system FTW!.... though I do feel a bit sorry for folks that have been waiting on three lists for years and I've managed to get two plots in six months.... but not so sorry that I'll give one up..... I know the plot too, from memory it hasn't been rotavated (a good thing in my book) so hopefully it'll not be seething with couch, just have the odd bit plus a lot of thistles and plantains....
Get down there with the black plastic this weekend.....

chrisc

[grannyjanny]

Congratulations & well done you. How big is your half size please Chris. Ours is 56'x18' & no chance of getting another half. Perhaps when we have proved ourselves ;) ;D, whatever that means.

[chriscross1966]

Our (half) plots are about 21 metres by 6, nominally they're 125 square metres).... I think I got listed as "pre-proven" cos I was giving up a 10-pole in Oxford....  TBH I prefer the Swindon plots in some ways, my oxford plot was very long and thin and therefore the path ate a lot of square-footage, on my first Swindon plot I've arranged to share a path with one of my neighbours as our boundary, so I only use 1 foot wide of my plot and get a 2 foot wide path. Hopefully will be abloe to arrange similar with other plot though if it stays rough and grows squashes next year I won't have to worry....

chrisc

[saddad]

Well done... now lets hit those seed catalogues...  ::)

[Ninnyscrops.]

Great news, time to think about which will be your fruit plot and which will be your veg plot.........

I have all my currants, berries, artichokes, rhubarb, grapes, mint tub and asparagus on plot 2, which leaves room for salad and other crops that don't necessarily depend on rotation which makes life a little easier,  it's where I like to take my trug and pretend I'm a Victorian lady in my kitchen garden  :)

My plot 1 is the brute that takes all the tatties, brassicas, roots, beans and squashes that's where I do my Jane Fonda workouts   ;D

Ninny

[chriscross1966]

Great news, time to think about which will be your fruit plot and which will be your veg plot.........

I have all my currants, berries, artichokes, rhubarb, grapes, mint tub and asparagus on plot 2, which leaves room for salad and other crops that don't necessarily depend on rotation which makes life a little easier,  it's where I like to take my trug and pretend I'm a Victorian lady in my kitchen garden  :)

My plot 1 is the brute that takes all the tatties, brassicas, roots, beans and squashes that's where I do my Jane Fonda workouts   ;D

Ninny


Fruit at home, herbs at home, as much of the winter veg as I can squeeze in at home, the smaller of the two sweetcorn patches (one suttons packet) at home, brute of a 20 foot by 10 greenhouse at home with all the tomatoes and most of the tender veg fed by proper autowatering at home.

POlytunnel with home-designed from mostly recycled junk autowatering, onions, garlic, potatoes and beans (also on recycled junk autowatering) on the plot I've already got. Squashes, brassicas and roots on the new plot. Polytunnel with have big onions and overflow tender veg in it. Will prolly try linma beans in there too... they really need a longer season adn better conditions than we usually get.

re: Saddad... apart from the upcoming bean and squash swaps plus the spuds, I've probably got all my seeds.... thoguh I can't imagine I'll stick to that..... ooh...ooh.. I'll have space for italian pickling onions and a row of Kelsaes now....  so I will need some more seeds....

chrisc

[taurus]

Congratulations Chriscross on the new plot.  Better that you have 2 than it sits there vacant.  Don't be surprised if you get offered another one in 6 months time.  Don't worry about the waiting list, there's still plots up for rent on my site.  When there offered people cant even be bothered to come and look. Trouble is they expect them to be dug and planted with fruit bushes. ::) ::)(sorry, feeling very cynical and cheesed off with the human race at the moment)  Theres plenty of empty plots in Swindon.
If people have been waiting for 3 years then their being very picky about where they get a plot and what condition its in.
So enjoy!!! regards Taurus

[Deb P]

It's funny isn't it...you lust after another plot, then when you get one you end up in an agony of indecision about what to plant it up with! ::) ;D

I went through the same sort of thing with my second plot, because I have a good rotation going on my 'main' plot I 'm going for a bigger veg area for potatoes and squash, plus some more permanent fruit as well. and then again, that might change by the time I see the next seed catalogue! ;D

[Jayb]

Great news Chrisc, glad you will have the extra space  ;D Think of all those squashes  ;D

[elvis2003]

Great news, time to think about which will be your fruit plot and which will be your veg plot.........

I have all my currants, berries, artichokes, rhubarb, grapes, mint tub and asparagus on plot 2, which leaves room for salad and other crops that don't necessarily depend on rotation which makes life a little easier,  it's where I like to take my trug and pretend I'm a Victorian lady in my kitchen garden  :)

My plot 1 is the brute that takes all the tatties, brassicas, roots, beans and squashes that's where I do my Jane Fonda workouts   ;D

Ninny
Glad its not just me with me trug!
well done Chris! lovely news...we too have just got another half,so are loving all the planning stage and excitement all over again,only this time with a bit more knowledge!
ENJOY!  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[chriscross1966]

Congratulations Chriscross on the new plot.  Better that you have 2 than it sits there vacant.  Don't be surprised if you get offered another one in 6 months time.  Don't worry about the waiting list, there's still plots up for rent on my site.  When there offered people cant even be bothered to come and look. Trouble is they expect them to be dug and planted with fruit bushes. ::) ::)(sorry, feeling very cynical and cheesed off with the human race at the moment)  Theres plenty of empty plots in Swindon.
If people have been waiting for 3 years then their being very picky about where they get a plot and what condition its in.
So enjoy!!! regards Taurus

Yeah, we've lost several off our site already. Given a plot, came once, had Brian plough it and rotavate it, a month later they come back and are surprised it's a weed infested jungle, never seen again.....

chrisc

[galina]

Congratulations!  Got it at the right time of year too.

[Plot69]

Yeah, we've lost several off our site already. Given a plot, came once, had Brian plough it and rotavate it, a month later they come back and are surprised it's a weed infested jungle, never seen again.....

Personally I never know who my neighbours are going to be from one week to the next.

People watch all these tele programs and news snippets and they get the romanticised idea that it's a simple case of getting a plot, throwing a few seeds in the ground and a few months later they'll have a bumper harvest that'll fulfil their "5 a day" needs until it's time to throw more seeds in next spring.

They apply for a plot and when they get one they're faced with the very unromantic reality of digging, weeding, pests, disease and the general reality that working the ground isn't as easy as they thought.

Of the ten plots immediately surrounding my two, only two of them are still being worked by the same people that were there when I got my plots almost four years ago. The rest have seen numerous people of all nationalities come, stay for a week or two and then they're never seen again.

I spent most of Sunday at my plot and only see one person I recognised.

[PaulaB]

This is one thing about allotments that no one warned me about.  When I first got my plot it was a 1/4 plot.  A few months later that was extended to half.  This feb I was given a half plot next to me and I still want more.  Its really addictive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Digeroo]

Congratulations for getting another plot.  It is sad to hear that people give up so quickly. 

We started our lotties from scratch nearly two years ago and out of about 40 plots only two people have given up so far.  Another two or three might be giving up soon since they have not been seen for months and another eight half plots are due in the spring. 

I started with a half and then got another quarter, still wondering whether I should get another quarter.  I also have two other quarter sized plots otherwise known and the back garden and the front.  Much to the horror of the neighbourhood I grow veg amongst the flowers in the front garden. :o

I have been putting in lots of fruit bushes and strawberries in the lotties, so where am I going to put my spuds and squashes? 

Yes it is very addictive.

[PaulaB]

Yeah, we've lost several off our site already. Given a plot, came once, had Brian plough it and rotavate it, a month later they come back and are surprised it's a weed infested jungle, never seen again.....

Personally I never know who my neighbours are going to be from one week to the next.

People watch all these tele programs and news snippets and they get the romanticised idea that it's a simple case of getting a plot, throwing a few seeds in the ground and a few months later they'll have a bumper harvest that'll fulfil their "5 a day" needs until it's time to throw more seeds in next spring.

They apply for a plot and when they get one they're faced with the very unromantic reality of digging, weeding, pests, disease and the general reality that working the ground isn't as easy as they thought.

Of the ten plots immediately surrounding my two, only two of them are still being worked by the same people that were there when I got my plots almost four years ago. The rest have seen numerous people of all nationalities come, stay for a week or two and then they're never seen again.

I spent most of Sunday at my plot and only see one person I recognised.

I must be weird because of all the jobs to be done on an allotment digging and weeding are my favourite.  Someone suggested that I hire a rotavator to do it instead but I was enjoying digging it over and didn't see the need not to carry on.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Digging's OK, weeding does my back in. The plot next to mine hasn't been properly cultivated in the eleven years I've been on the site. When I arrived it was an old guy in his 80's, who'd been on the site for 40 years. He cultivated a bit of it, and nobody felt like complaining. Since he gave it up, there have been two tenants, neither of whom did anything at all. It's fast reverting to nature.