Allotments 4 All
General => The Shed => Topic started by: ACE on July 02, 2018, 11:12:58
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My plots are right at the far end of our site, getting manure and stuff barrowed in is getting quite a chore. I asked today what plots are free and the one near the carpark will be free soon. Perfect I can get my mate to back up the tractor and tip the manure straight on the plot. I have two plots not quite full size but I only need one really so this one is ideal and looking at it, it seems I shall loose about 3metres as it is slightly longer than mine and I save £40 a year. It has a shed and some fruit trees but is very grown over since the last owner fell ill, But I know it was well tended up to last spring so it won't be too much of a mission to bring it back to rights. My main work will be rebuilding my fruit cage and moving my small poly tunnel.
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Hi ace, sounds like a no brainer. I am sure you will soon move what you need to. It will be good of you as well giving up two that means someone else can get on and enjoy our hobby though some times I wonder why I took it on. I have brassicas I want to plant but it's so dry. Still enjoy it mate and good luck.
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Yes and no. From a work point of view definitely. But a plot near to the car park must have more people traffic than a plot tucked away. Hope nobody takes a fancy to your tools or crops, so close to the car park, Ace If they have to carry their pilferings all the way, chances are that somebody will stop them or see something. Right next to the cars that is less likely. But if you have a small site with trusted fellow allotmenters, that's not a problem of course. :wave:
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Small site, locked gate and looked over from a plot holder who lives across the road. Plus this is the Isle of Wight, everybody knows everybody. Can't get away with anything here, they even know we changed the colour of our toilet rolls.
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Sounds like a good move all round, saving £40 for a few feet less, better access and previously well looked after.....no brainer really. I'm sure you'll soon whip it into shape!😎
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As a "plot traveller", 5 sites in 11 years!, I can confirm that a change is not a rest. However, I can see the advantage to you and wish you well. I presume that you have the advantage of retaining existing until the new is prepared, which helps. Good luck.
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Maybe keep the fruit and poly till later in the year when its a better time to move them and that gives you time to knock the other site into shape.
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Go for it. Cant go wrong :blob7:
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Shall not be moving all in one go, our rents are due in October, so one plot will then be given to somebody else and my bed with the brassicas will be given up at 1st January, I shall get my deposits back, but will pay an extra 3 months rent on one of them. Who ever takes them on will get a plot ready to grow and whatever crops are left mostly leeks and cabbages, a few established soft fruit bushes and 3 fruit trees. I will be taking cuttings, runners etc and have until xmas to move the structures. Unfortunately there are no exceptions, even for illness for the return of the deposit so the old plot holder has lost theirs which will be used as my rent up until october as the cost of clearing her site. She had fruit trees on there so I will hopefully be able to deliver a few baskets of apples, etc to her. There is also a scruffy part of the entrance bordering the carpark which I will clear and make a nice welcoming flowerbed, perhaps with a bench and some exotic shrubs which we used to use at garden shows, once the cuttings have taken.
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The committee has approved the move, as soon as it gets a bit cooler the clearing and redesigning the layout will start. There is a rope barrier along the carparks length which will have to go. I am going to grow a hedge, a blackcurrant hedge which will feed the birds and give me plenty. I don't do permanent paths on the plot, just around the outside is enough so all the paths need chopping out. Recut the edges and gain at least 10 inches of lost plot all round. Loads to do. Bring it on.
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Photos please!
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Hi Ya, go for i mate and keep us informed of progress. Some pictures will also help us keep our interest.
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Sounds like a plan! Yes photos please. :wave:
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It needs strimming first.
(https://s15.postimg.cc/kb7ze84bb/DSCF1867.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/kb7ze84bb/)
(https://s15.postimg.cc/pmmvyk89z/DSCF1870.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/pmmvyk89z/)
(https://s15.postimg.cc/6vkyopqnr/DSCF1869.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/6vkyopqnr/)
(https://s15.postimg.cc/u9sy0uqnb/DSCF1868.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/u9sy0uqnb/)
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That looks fine, only a few docks, and they look dead already!
Could convert that to no-dig in a weekend.
Might be planted with brassicaes before month is out.
If the ferry wasn't so dear, I'd happily lend a hand. Note it comes with a chair for each corner-now thats handy.
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NO DIG! Wash your mouth out. I like turning the soil, I like to see a bed that has been traditionally tilled. My allotment is a green gym. I have spent a lot of time turning down clients that wanted a 'low maintenance garden' when I was working. I used to tell them to buy a flat with a window box. But each to their own if you want no dig go for it. I would not feel right just tickling the soil.
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Started at sparrowfart this morning, Heaved my 1000lt water tank up from my old plot, Line down the side to reclaim some plot from the dividing path. Dug a bit, just turning it over dead grass and all. Built and filled a raised bed from the huge compost heap, tipping all the green gungy water from all the old containers into the bed. Then planted it up with leeks which have been hanging around in a pot for ages. Only one drawback, because it is near the entrance people want to stop and talk to me, they will soon find out I am a miserable old bastard and leave me alone.
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Built and filled a raised bed from the huge compost heap, tipping all the green gungy water from all the old containers into the bed. Then planted it up with leeks which have been hanging around in a pot for ages"
So you have started for no-dig??
" Only one drawback, because it is near the entrance people want to stop and talk to me, they will soon find out I am a miserable old bastard and leave me alone.
Best you start at Sparrowfart minus 4 then!!
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Go for it!
Best wishes
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only a few docks, and they look dead already
Docks can look very dead and still resurrect.
Looks like a job for a digging hoe I prefer them to a strimmer.
I am also not convinced about no dig seems to breed stinging nettles.
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only a few docks, and they look dead already
Docks can look very dead and still resurrect.
Looks like a job for a digging hoe I prefer them to a strimmer.
I am also not convinced about no dig seems to breed stinging nettles.
Yes the dock seed will fall and start new ones, but by then I will be digging it over again. I have been cutting with the brush cutter, then a hard strim leaving it just right for a scraping with the Asian hoe, then a deep fork over. I know there will be plenty of weeds crowing again but when the ground is eventually prepared for planting I shall be getting most of them out. I have cleared about half the plot just making it look tidy really. I shall leave the no dig to the pink fir apple and black tomato brigade. Proper veg need proper digging.
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With the cooler weather I am now 2/3rds of the way through the plot, Removed the designer fruit bushes today, (strange fruits but no crop to speak of) that area can be made more productive with some sensible planting. I have noticed that the previous plot holders must have been hobby gardeners as only the top 3 inches have been tilled and the stuff they planted is only just holding on due to shallow planting.. There were also more grass paths than planting areas. I need a bonfire to get rid of all the old wood and rubbish, but it is still to dry to risk one yet.
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All dug and ready to go, needs a deeper dig really but it is still like concrete underneath I will get down there after a few rains now the cap has been broken. Back to straightening up the other two plots ready for a handover to the new plot holders in the next few months.
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Poly tunnel dismantled and rebuilt on the new site, feeling at home now, I want to start planting, I have a few options for the autumn, spring greens this week plus a bucket of spuds in the poly. Then I am away for about 3 weeks, back in time to start the broadies in pots, then onions and garlic. I have handed over one of my old plots early even though there are a few crops still on it. Oct 1st was the handover date anyway and as I shall be travelling around for a while I shall not be using them by then. The other old plot they will let me keep until xmas so I can use the seasonal veg still on it. Squash, sprouts, curly kale etc. Then a big clean up to hand over or I shall loose my deposit.
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needs another dig over now to clear the weeds, took me a month though, getting old I reckon.
(https://s15.postimg.cc/v19pahv07/allot.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/v19pahv07/)
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needs another dig over now to clear the weeds, took me a month though, getting old I reckon.
(https://s15.postimg.cc/v19pahv07/allot.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/v19pahv07/)
I shouldn't worry about getting old Ace because the photo hosting website you have used has plenty of "young ladies from Russia" willing to help you, well actually according to the blurb they are interested in me in Chesterfield!!
ps you can post photos directly now, Dan abolished the charges a couple of years ago.
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I did not know it was a charges thing, I thought it saved space or whatever they call it. I think our local hospital has taken up the Russian ladies on their offer, they are masquerading as nurses, but you can soon pick them out by their wrestling vests and hairy armpits.
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I think they must have come from a different website!