Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: sarah on July 13, 2006, 14:59:22
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you had grown this year but didnt?
for me its definately strawberries. i thought they wouldnt be worth the space, but all my neighbours grow them and i have been given many yummy punnets, each one a delight. i will never buy shop bought strwbs again.
what about you?
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I wish my gooseberry plant had thrived instead of turning into a spiky stick at the back of the garden. :'( I'd love to grow aubergines but they don't do well on our plot. Strawberries are a must-have, IMHO. :)
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I would have grown sweetcorn, was going to but didnt have room. Will not bother with so much garic and shallots next year as they have been a waste of space and time.
Matt
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chard
swede
leeks
shed & a greenhouse (still time on those)
greater numbers of:
sweetcorn, broad beans, peas, beans, brassicas, roots, garlic, beetroot, onions & spring onions.
dead proud of:
jerusalem artchokes (given by Cleo), inherited desiree pots, or is that cheating?
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i wish i had more space and hadn't overdone things to be honest with you.
i really have gone mad without having done my research first and hoping for the best. i think i'm going to be quite happy by the end of the season with what i've produced but if i'd have paid a bit more attention to spacing and learning the ropes first, i'd be a bit happier.
i'd love to have some raspberries and goosberries though, so will be a definite for next year and a friend at work is giving me a rhubarb crown when the time is right, so i'm looking forward to that.
oh and be a bit braver with the toms. two varieties just ain't enough and some peas. would just love to munch on them raw while wandering around doing other things in the garden.
see already i'm overcrowding again.
;D
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The absolute must-grows are runner beans/climbing french beans (round varieties) and tomatoes. OH is on strict instructions to get good crops of these!!
We 'have a go' with sweetcorn, courgettes, broad beans, peas, aubergines, chillies, cucumbers, carrots and potatoes in large containers. (I think that's all veg wise). We usually get a reasonable crop from most of them.
Fruit-wise we have strawberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants victoria plums, cherries, cooking and eating apples and blueberries. I bought some Jose J raspberies this year. They are autumn fruiting, so am looking forward to them.
With regard to the cherries and redcurrants, since OH made a 'purpose built' frame for netting them we are certain to get a better crop this year. The blackbirds can't get at them!!!
To have all this growing would seem to be on an enormous plot of land, but it isn't. If you want to see overcrowding MrsKP just come round here. It's not entirely a 'jungle out ther', but at this time of year it comes very close!!
valmarg
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Wish I could grow cauliflowers! :-[
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Wish I could grow cauliflowers! :-[
I can ;D but wished I'd seen your post much earlier EJ about those Allderman Peas was it? they sound like excellent value :o ;D
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Boo Hoo :( Runner Bean Disaster Great plants no blinking beans!!!! Fab aubergines & Toms though!!!!
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Be patient with the runners. Are they flowering?
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I just wish I#d grown more of everything. Most things have done so well but I'm far from having a glut :(
My aubergine plants haven't made much progress at all, no flowers as yet :(
Emma
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None of mine either; the mistake I made was to put them in the mini-greenhouse too early; they sulked for ages when they could have been growing merrily on a windowsill. I picked two outdoor cucumbers yesterday though, so it's not all gloom by any means.
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I wish we'd taken up an allotment years ago!
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I had more cucumbers this year, as it spoils our collection of salad crops. Have tons of lettuce, and tomatoes are just starting to redden, also have radishes, but the only thing missing are cucumbers, which I have had to buy. So I must make a better effort next year. busy_lizzie
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HI Robert! the runner beans have been flowering for about a month!! I keep spraying them with water its hot here in Spain! very sad we've only had 5 beans off about 15 plants!! :( too hot here I suppose! I'm going to plant some french beans and hope for the best!!!
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It's my first year at the allotment. I planted garlics, onions, shallots, potatoes, mooli radishes, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet corns etc.
I really wish I could grow more of everything. Half of my plot is still uncultivated. Can't wait for next year!
Will definitely plant lots of strawberries and broad beans this autumn.
Next year I want to be self sufficient with vegetables during the summer.
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I'm fairly happy with my choices for first year but would like broad beans next year and different first early potatoes.
Main lesson I've learnt is not to sow too early and have plants outgrowing their pots pressuring me to plant out too early....although I have to say it wasn't THAT early just me choosing the very worst week re the weather going cold to do it!! ::)
Other than that I wish I had just dug over rather than attempting beds. Lots of wasted space and ground for weeds to grow! Will start again once ground soft enough to dig. Also wish I had got the shed right at the beginning as I might have managed to collect more than an inch of water in my butt!!
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Ditto Amanda
Next year I'm going to double the size of the strawberry patch and plant with varieties that will go all through the session.
I'm going to dig over as much of the plot as I can manage and I'm going to use a spade rather than a fork. That way I get out far more Horsetail roots and next year I will know what I am looking for.
A third of the plot is going to be turned over to early and salad spuds.
and finally, in the ongoing battle with the evil Horsetail, I am going to cover vast swathes of the plot in weed suppressing fabric/plastic and plant through - life is too short for all this weeding and hoeing.
Will print this out as my 'to do list and pin it up in the shed ;D
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Hi all,
I wish that I had not shared with somebody else. I want my own now, and not sure how to do this without breaking friends. Need my own space etc.
Any suggestions?
I wish we had grown less spuds, and more fruit.
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1) Wish I'd braved the weather and transplanted ALL those bleedin' saplings to the front boundary before it got too late in the year. Weather in Rivelin seemed to go from cold/wet/windy late end of winter straight to early summer, omitting the whole spring business.... :(
2) Wish I'd found out and acted 6 weeks earlier on the fact that my seed potato order had been lost, and I had to get them from somewhere else >:( Again, weather wasn't really encouraging me to get out and plant them.
Ho hum.
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I wish I'd grown things that were happy in a desert!!. No rain for nearly 3 weeks now and the plots a sun trap. Lance
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I wish that I had done a little more of helping my Dad on his, so that I would have had more of an idea as to what to do when, and which crops I fancied growing. Still, at least everything is an adventure now! :-*
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First year on half a plot.
I wish I had planted more fruit bushes / trees but space did not allow, more strawberries, plants in the ground not in growbags (will not bother with the bags next year as they dry out too quick).
Have now got the "other half" plot so do not have restricted space (until this time next year)!
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Well first year enthusiasm has provided a very full allotment but its all over the place but you have to try things first. We were to late for garlic so wish we had done that.
We were also far to optimistic in what we could get done (though what we did complete has been very successful) and as the plot is heavy clay all work on further beds has now halted until the autumn and rain arrives as the uncultivated areas are like concrete.
The down side of that is a shed, a cherry, pear and plum tree and two grape vines are currently residing in the garden at home!
Still, this autumn marks the start of phase two.
If I can sort out if there is a way to upload some photos of the progress so far I will
Wolfie
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Send Dan a £10 donation and he'll enable pics for you for a year. It's much the easiest way to do it, and it helps keep the site going.
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It's more a case of wishing I'd had success with...carrots, strawberries, raspberries,lettuce- all hopeless!
Wish I'd mulched!
And still didn't plant enough onions and shallots. But pleased with my potatoes, asparagus, sweetcorn, courgettes, french beans and hopeful for parsnips, toms, peppers and aubergines.
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As long as you get some good crops that's the main thing. Try to work out what went wrong with the others, and aim to do better next year!
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Hi all,
I wish that I had not shared with somebody else. I want my own now, and not sure how to do this without breaking friends. Need my own space etc.
Any suggestions?
Aww you're not alone newbies. You might find some help here?
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,19705.0
:)
Sarah, really interesting thread - ty :-*
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Updated "wish..."
That I used poison more often on the weeds.
That after weeding the monsters out this weekend I'd actually planted more stuff as the plot is looking decidedly bare.
That I made more of an effort to get to the plot afterwork, even for half an hour, to hoe, rake, bludgen, nurture and sow.
That instead of going for the "no water" attempt, I had watered the plants, even if every other day.
Next year, it's serious: Down the plot after work every day, beg borrow & steal bits of old junk to make netting frames, get a blooming shed and get it INSTALLED! AND get the jerry-built greenhouse built next to it - need to wait for our french windows to be replaced first - don't fancy winter without them...
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Now I have got the gardening bug I wish I had the nerve to dig up the flipping large area of grass at the side of my bungalow, to think what I could grow out there. Not allowed to plant on it but knowing how people get away with things probably no official would notice. If only I had the nerve ;D
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;D Tee hee Lorna ;D I have often wanted to do something like that at the time when I have had a surplus of exotic seedlings, been very tempted to sneak out in the night and plant a Banana plant or a Torbay palm seedling on the green belt yards from my house and walk the dog and watch it/them grow. ;D
Be something exotic for my doggy to cock his leg up :o ;D
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Sounds like Roy and Lorna might be secret guerillas....
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ (http://www.guerrillagardening.org/)
My wishes are
I wish I'd planted more strawberries
My greenhouse doesn't seem to be growing very quickly, I wish I'd planted it earlier (at the moment it's just a base!)
I wish I'd planted less weeds.
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With regard to the big area at the side of bungalow. This estate was originally a council estate but most properties have now been purchased and some of my neighbours have lived here since the late 50's when it was built. I wanted to do things right so I asked permission to put a low fence round the area mainly to stop flipping people letting their dogs use it as their nightly loo. Charlie was cross with me and said "Just do it" Anyhow an official came and said that was council property. My neighbours said utter rubbish. The old chap who lived here before grew vegeatables on it but when he became disabled he just put it down to grass. The outcome was that they have let me have it under licence but I am not to grow trees on it and anytime I cannot manage to keep it tidy I have to inform them.. They did let me put a post and rope low boundary marker so that is better than nothing. There is another plot round the corner exactly the same and the guy fenced that, in fact he has recently died and the bungalow is up for sale complete with lump of ground at the side.. As for being open plan there are numerous brick walls etc on the estate..
Looby Loo Charlie was the guerrilla I am the goody goody two shoes ;D
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Seems to me Lorna that the gentleman who lived there before you set a precedent, with his growing veggies. Why not reclaim a few feet each year or as needed??
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SMP1704. Funny you should say that. I have made a small flower border and also one across the side of my garage. (Funny they let the old chap put a garage there!!) I was going to write and suggest that as it has been kept tidy for the past 18years perhaps they would let me cultivate a bit.Do you know what I am just going to do it and see what happens., they can only make me re-grass it ;D
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I believe that if you erect a fence around it and it stays there for (I think!) 16 years you can claim the land :D it may be even less than that now. ;)
P.S. Sorry 4 going adrift :P
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Thanks for the thread about plot sharing. I've decided what to do now, go on my own and have a fresh start by building my own beds, and pleasing nobody but myself.
Cheers for advice.
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How long did the guy grow veg for unmolested? If you utilise land unchallenged for so long (I think 12 years) then under common law it becomes your property.
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Robert without asking neighbours I have no idea. Poor chap was found unconscious (neighbours had given him a big note to put in window saying help) was only a caring neighbour who noticed his evening paper hadn't been taken out of letter box.. Unfortunately he died in Hosp a week later.
I know when we had land the chap next door grew his strawberries Right up to the rear of our pig buildings (3ft had been left for maintenance) so I asked him not to grow there as I thought about the 12year thing..
Anyhow when it is cooler I am going to extend my borders so there!!!! ;D (without permission)
Lorna
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go for it Lorna,i dont see how any reasonable person could object.
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You may well get away with it. I remember a case in the 1980's, when I was in Cornwall. There was a derelict farm workers' cottage; it was a typical case; there was a restrictive covenant on the deeds, no farm worker needed it, so it was just left to fall down. A neighbour maintained it quietly for years, repairing the odd broken window or slipped slate, and the gormless owner just took it for granted. The moment he'd been doing it for 20 years, he just moved in with his family. The courts upheld his claim to the property.
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Oh I wish I had done all sorts of things... been doing this allotment thing for 4 years now and this year is the first time I have kept a diary, so I know what I planted and when etc. etc.
Wish I had planted onions, cabbage, garlic in winter for spring, cause only just getting onions now, and don't know about anyone else, but the heat seems to have knackered my red onion and my garlic, the worst Ihave had!
Wish I hadn't planted jerusalem artichokes because although I love eating them, they spread like wildfire and go all over the place, will have to try to dig up more of them this year and try to keep the area fairly clear!
Same goes for potatoes, I move the potato area around alternate years and where I was NOT going to have any potatoes this year, there are absolutely loads because I must have left too many in the ground and they have grown again! So I will do a more thorough dig in autumn to clear theground of spuds.
Now I need to think of something I can still plant now, cause I have a few bare patches.... my neighbour has suggested beetroot and even carrots now, so may get some in tomorrow!
And oh how I love the sun but wish it would rain so I didn't have to go over the plot early in the morning to beat everyone else to the water taps!!
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That's interesting about your artichokes; I've grown them for several years, and other family members have grown them in the past. none of them have ever spread. Maybe it's your specific variety?
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Hi all,
I wish that I had not shared with somebody else. I want my own now, and not sure how to do this without breaking friends. Need my own space etc.
Any suggestions?
I know exactly what you mean. I started off sharing my plot with a friend, but luckily she lost interest and wasn't as motivated as me so I practically have it to myself now, she just pops down now and again to help out and is happy to water when I'm away, and in return she is free to harvest any veg she wants.
Although we're good friends I'm glad I have it to myself now as I can do what I like with it.
As for any suggestions, I'm not sure. Maybe you could just say that you've really enjoyed sharing but you really fancy having your own allotment. So long as you make sure that you're not saying that you haven't enjoyed sharing, I'm sure your friend will understand, and you never know they might be thinking the same as you! Put your name down for another plot.
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I wish I'd known what bindweed looked like while it was still small, before it took over the plot >:(
I wish I'd been braver and asked for a full plot at the outset, instead of doing a load of clearing on one plot and then having to move to get one big enough.
On the whole, I'm happier with the place to myself than trying to share, though ;D
Sally