Topic: Harrow Allotments

[Common_Clay]

Hi to everyone... new to this site since yesterday but met a few of you in the chatroom this evening, all seem very friendly which is very reassuring as I need all the help I can get!

  Noticed a few people are in Harrow, just wondered if there were many more here with allotments, would be interesting to see!

Cheerio. xx

[a.buaras]

Hi, Common_Clay
I'm located in Harrow

[Common_Clay]

Woohoo!! That's almost enough to start a club.  ;)
Nice to meet you a.buaras... how's your allotment going/growing?

[Melbourne12]

We’re in Harrow – at the Melbourne Avenue site (no prizes for guessing our plot number).  We started last June, and spent a lot of weekends digging and weeding.  Although we started so late in the year, we were just in time to get a decent lot of tomatoes, runner beans, and a few other things.

We’re able to look at a nice clean plot now, ready for our first full season.  Hopefully there’ll be a few triumphs as well as disasters. ;D

[Common_Clay]

Hi Melbourne12! Looks like we're in similar situations with our plots, I also started last May/June on a new plot (Newton Park site) although I'm still weeding, how have you done it?!!
  Also had a good lot of tomatoes and runner beans, in fact I found it really pays to sow runners later as I was having an amazing crop after everyone else's had finished for the year, definitely worth remembering to sow successionally for me this year. Tried to grow some pumpkins but two died and the remainder had been pulled out. Looked like someone had been in and destroyed it as I found a £10 note beside the raised bed (dropped out, not given I don't think!) not complaining too much! I worked like mad at the end of last year and now have lots of spring bulbs coming up for cut flowers and got my raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb in.
Best of luck with yours, it's exciting and terrifying at the same time, I find!  ;D
CC

[Melbourne12]

...., I also started last May/June on a new plot (Newton Park site) although I'm still weeding, how have you done it?!!....

I'm afraid that I'm a bit of a gadget freak, so we have acquired (second hand!) a rotavator (cheating, I know), a flame gun, and a brushcutter.  Ha! Let the weeds do their worst.  Actually, I'm just a destructive gardener.  I pull out the docks, buttercups, brambles, and couch, and my OH does the real painstaking work of preparing the beds and removing the smaller scale weeds.

We've used a lot of black plastic mulch to keep the weeds at bay.  Brilliant stuff.

All the best

John & Jean

[Common_Clay]

Hi John & Jean,

                    I have to confess also, I too bought a rotavator very recently (Mantis)... it was a big extravagance but after trying to weed it on my own last year, I thought it might help... PLUS, I've decided it's not cheating that much after all, as my experience from it is that you ache just as much, if not more, just that you ache quicker but get more done!
  I agree with you whole heartedly about the cover, half my plot has black ground cover which I put on soon after it was rotavated last year, so really relieved that I've at least got an area to start straight away with once the weather gets warmer. Never regret buying that! It was a real blessing when I came to putting in my raspberries recently and intend on leaving some down between the two rows of them and then covering with woodchip, which we get free at the Newton Park site, which is great. Then I (hopefully) won't have to worry about weeding too much down there at the end!

Do you have a half or full plot? What are you planning to grow this year?

Mine is a full plot, and planning to grow a mixture of veg, fruit and flowers. This is the first year that I'm trying to grow everything from seed, and went a bit mad on the ordering side of things, so could be interesting!

;D ;D

CC

[a.buaras]

Woohoo!! That's almost enough to start a club.  ;)
Nice to meet you a.buaras... how's your allotment going/growing?

 So far so good as you can see I've recently finished digging and weeding (started on July) it was all done manually i.e no rotavator 'cause i feared weed spreading!

 I've also divided my plot to ten beds (4.5m X 2m), hoping to grow flowers (to attract bees and butterflies) in terms of veg i wanna grow..runner beans, tomatoes, herbs, potatoes (basically i never want to see me grocer again), 

wild days
some back-breaking digging
couch to the heap
10 bed minus 1
all beds

[flowerlady]

hi guys,

I'm not a million miles away - in Watford.  :o  Good to know there are other folk in the vicinity.  Always happy to chat.  ;D

Progress chez-moi = over-wintering onions, purple sprouting, broad beans and not much else!! 

Have toms, peas and bean at home in loo-tubes, and pots.  Next step is an investment of hors poo  :-X  but I will need it for the hungry chaps ;)

[Rosyred]

Just thought I would pop in and say Hello as i'm in Greenford.

Brought a 2nd hand rotavator an old one and guess what, I broke it. The string doesn't so back in. Husband and I tried to fix it but didn't work i'm now trying to find somewhere to get it sorted as I miss it already. Got our plot in October 05 so this is the first year growing anything.

[flowerlady]

I think Dandelion is in the Harrow area too!

[Common_Clay]

Hi Flowerlady and Rosyred, nice to meet you both   ;D

Rosyred, I don't know what state your plot started off as, but for only a few months you've done incredibly! (Unless that photo on your profile is the plot next door... haha).

Look forward to hearing what everyone's growing and when in the warmer (!!) part of the country... x

[Common_Clay]

Woohoo!! That's almost enough to start a club.  ;)
Nice to meet you a.buaras... how's your allotment going/growing?

 So far so good as you can see I've recently finished digging and weeding (started on July) it was all done manually i.e no rotavator 'cause i feared weed spreading!

 I've also divided my plot to ten beds (4.5m X 2m), hoping to grow flowers (to attract bees and butterflies) in terms of veg i wanna grow..runner beans, tomatoes, herbs, potatoes (basically i never want to see me grocer again), 

wild days
some back-breaking digging
couch to the heap
10 bed minus 1
all beds

Hi a.buaras,

                   Would you believe I've only just realised that the writing in your message were links to photos! What an idiot, doh!

  Really amazing progress you've made, fancy having a go with mine?  ;)

[Two Choices]

Hi everyone, thought I'd say Hi as I'm just round the corner in Ickenham.
I share a plot (this will be the third summer) with one of the elder statesman who is slowly needing less and less. Unlike me who is slowly needing more and more.  Sometimes I feel like it's cheating as I've never had the back breaking task of starting from scratch.