Hi All
I have been a bit busy this month rearranging my future!
Well as you may know I have been cutting back on my allotments e.g Four years ago I swapped a full plot for a half plot but after two years I cut back again and only cultivated half of it, I allowed another plot holder to cultivate the other half of it.
Well I have now handed in my notice for this plot so at the end of the year I will only have one plot.
Next year I guess it will be quite strange only working one plot considering I have been working two plots on this site since 1989.
I had
Plot 6 for 13 years
Plot 7 for 4years
Plot 19 for 4 years (This is the one I am giving up)
Plot 20 for 23 years (This the plot I am keeping)
Plot 21 f0r 12 years
As you see I have moved around a bit over the years!
Meanwhile I have been altering my garden at home to cater for when I will finally give up my last plot, although I am not sure when that will be.
I think I will play this from year to year for the time being!
Might go for another two years and that will mean I will have had Plot 20 for 25 years and been on the site for 30 years, we'll see!
In the mean time here are a few things I have been doing in a part of my garden at home;
This is as it was:I have now removed my coldframe and replaced it with this:
This is an 8x6 Greenhouse I have moved up from one of my Allotments!
Inside I have chosen to have a paved floor rather than the soil borders I had on the allotment as I plan to go 100% Ring Culture!
I can get 14 Rings on the go at one time so all set for half a dozen Tomatoes,Half a dozen Peppers and a couple of Cucumbers which should cater for me and t'other half!
Through winter and spring it will replace the coldframe I have dispensed with as you can see here:
This arrangement will take 24 standard 14x8 trays which should be sufficient to cater for my one allotment!
In summer I will just remove the shelving behind the pots and voila I have my greenhouse back!
There is a ¼" hole drilled into the top of each ring so that I can fix one end of a vertical wire/s into and fix the other end to an overhead wire.
This means I won't need canes to grow my tomatoes and cucumbers up as these will be tied into the vertical wires.
Over the last couple of years I have been testing out what I can put in the other two coldframes I have and I have found with successional sowing I can keep my self supplied with lettuce,spring onions,Radishes & carrots to go with my tomato,pepper & cucumber crop in the 8x6 ...so should be OK for summer salads!
So I think I am pretty much set up for my retirement from Allotments!
What do you think?