Allotments 4 All

I just wanted to say hi and introduce myself.  I am yet another refugee from the Beeb (nice to see several familiar names here) and though not a frequent poster I really enjoy discussions about my favourite hobby - obsession actually! I garden near the sea which has lots of advantages but a few disadvantages (wind mainly and poor, dry soil) and have been here for three years during which time things have come on in leaps and bounds. Anyway, I'm looking forward to being part of A4A - from my period of lurking, everyone seems very friendly. We have a lot of thunder at the moment - very dark and gloomy. My mother and her dog are staying for the weekend and the poor thing is terrified....dog that is, not mother!! Cheers, Iain

Hi Iain! Lovely to have you here! This lot are great fun! I am sure you will like it here!

How's the dog doing? Have you battoned down the hatches yet?

Plocket x

Hi Plocket, nice to see you here.  The dog is OK and the thunder has mostly passed but still raining on and off - keep nipping outside but quickly chased back in again by fresh showers. Oddly - very oddly in fact - there's no wind today so no hatch battening required as yet. All best, Iain

Hi Iain,

I'm a fellow Scot .... eh..fellow-ess actually if there's such a thing!!!!

Welcome 'aboard'. I think most of the Beeb crew have drifted over here.  8)

Which part of God's own country are you from? Me, well I'm from West lothian. Bl..dy awful weather isn't it? About time we saw a little more of that big, yellow ball in the sky....what's it called again? Ah yes - the sun.  :P

Enjoy the forums.

Eileen.

P.S. I am the only sane one around here!!

Hi Eileen, I'm just outside Buckie on the north-east coast.  We have actually seen the sun off and on over the last couple of days but it really doesn't want to hang about! Frustrating really as the garden's just reaching that stage of really needing a bit of a tidy up but I keep getting chased back indoors by the showers  :-\  Lovely to hear from you. All best, Iain

Hi Iain, from one newbie to another, :)
not long discovered this board and have felt very welcome. It's great to be able to share your hobby with those who are similarly obssessed!
Cheers all.

Yo Iain (http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/phpopenchat/include/templates/allotments4all/images/icons/smileys/SM013.gif)

Is nice living by the seas it iz... although u sees the Welsh Flag on me thingymadoobery I iz in fact Oirish.. but as I live in Wales I do... and when in Rome and all that jazz,  iz why  I only date sheep now,   ;)  Is good craic here.. but you gotta watch Eileen and Wicker... theys is scottish u know "winkity wink say no more".. nah only joshing like.. Wickers sound  ::) ::) ::).. only joshing Eileeen  :-*  :-*  :-* anyways hopes you has loads of fun and pick up a few things along the ways... I has learnt loads from this place I has...

cHeErS

Oz (http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/phpopenchat/include/templates/allotments4all/images/icons/smileys/SM013.gif)

Oh what the heck lets have a Ceilidh.... wheeeeeeeeeeeeee



soz peeps but its a celtic bro thang  :) ;)

Hi Kerry, thanks for the welcome. Likewise Oz - you have fab graphics!  I'm not sure about using the smileys and stuff yet and one of these days, I might have moving pictures of my very own too! Ceilidh sounds good - it's years since I stripped the willow  :D  Cheers Iain

Hi from me too!  Also a newbie form the beeb.  You'll enjoy it here.

Hello Ian, we are gathering quite a clan of Scots here - all to the good of course. Buckie eh, I hail from Wick originally (now Edinburgh) pretty similar towns I think and I know exactly what you mean about winds - a day in Wick without wind is a rare day.

This is a good site ( fair nice bunch o' quines and loons - or is that Aiberdeen?)  tho I don't know why Oz has rolly eyes at the mention of my name!!  

I think you'll find you will pick up tips and ideas here no matter how long you have been gardening/lottying - and there are quite a few genuine experts who are happy to share their wisdon/experience.

Hey, you lot!  What are you doing staying up there?

Ever since the glacial sheets of the Ice Age melted, Scotland has slowly been bouncing back up again ---- as the South East slowly sinks back down again!  Come on down - add your weight and sink it faster!  :)

That's my excuse - an Aberdeen lad in Leeds!

Welcome, Ian - aye, fond memories of the Buckie coast from childhood!

All best - Gavin

Aye, Gavin, you still fly the flag anyway!!

Quote from: gavin on July 03, 2004, 00:18:36
Hey, you lot!  What are you doing staying up there?

Ever since the glacial sheets of the Ice Age melted, Scotland has slowly been bouncing back up again ---- as the South East slowly sinks back down again!  Come on down - add your weight and sink it faster!  :)

Always jumping up and down in London, Gavin, because I can't afford to visit venice.  ;D
Pleasure to meet you Ian, newbie to the site and a total newbie to allotments. General classifaction is I am as mad a march hare. Mountain biking is my thing and Scotland is where I want to be to enjoy the trails. Welcome to the site.

TrailRat

Thanks to all - I'm overwhelmed. Also relieved to find many a Scot also on the site!  Sink the South East? I was on holiday there this year - I did a bit of jumping, but not much!  

Gavin, I daresay not much has changed in Buckie since you were a lad!

Wicker, quines & loons is mair Aiberdeen bit 'ats OK cos I'm fae there originally!

Cheers, Iain

Hi Iain I be newbie too! How do you do? I love Scotland and the Scots what a lovely welcoming bunch you all are and I mean that sincerely, having only visited twice for our main summer holidays two years in a row. I cry tears of happiness every time I look through the holiday videos, no other holiday has ever touched me in that way.
Sorry for waffling on and I’ve only been here 5 mins. ;D

Oh! And welcome. ;)

Regards Roy

"Quines" is Aiberdeen?  Goes a bit further than that!

From an Icelander I met in a bar in Aberdeen (???)

QuotePeople from Aberdeen and Shetland understand each other.
People from Shetland and Faroes understand each other.
People from Faroes and Iceland understand each other.
People from Iceland and Norway understand each other.
And everybody in Scandinavia understands each other. :)

Fascinating stuff language - years and years ago, I'd a Norwegian girlfriend, and was VERY surprised to see how much Norse had survived into Aberdeenshire dialects.  Ach - I'm just wittering again.

All best - Gavin

Hi Roy

Waffle on mate! I'm glad you've had good experiences of Scotland - we're not a bad lot really.  Looking forward to my time on this site with you all.

All best

Iain

Hi Iain - my word the Scots are taking over here ;D  Nevertheless from a humble 'sassanach' (don't know how to spell it :D) - welcome to A4A.  You will have a great time here with all these friendly peeps :)  Look forward to hearing all about your garden/lottie :) :D

Hi Iain,

Great to see you here! I 'defected' a couple of weeks ago and it's been really good to catch up with old buddies and new. Beeb's loss heh?

Look forward to seeing more of you!

What are you growing up there in NE Scotland?

Love CLx  ;)

Hi Iain
Another Scot. yattering on in here.  I live in the Borders, a lovely part of Gods Country.  Welcome to the A4A hope you will be very happy here. Quite a lot of knowledgeable folk to answer any questions.  Look out for Eileen though and well Wicker, I don't know   ;D

Carol T.

Heres tae us, wha's like uz, d**n few and theyr aw deid!!!!

What do you mean Carol.....watch out for Eileen. :o

I'm not mad - totally and utterly sane I am. I only bay at the moon when it's full.  ;) ;)

Eileen.

Hi all

Eileen - if you only howl at the full moon, that's OK. Now if you howled at the new moon too, then I'd be worried  :)

C'Lass, I'm growing all sorts up here though not much veg at the moment. I'm trying potatoes in pots this year as well as beetroot and courgettes. I've got strawberries in one of those strange pots with the holes cut out all around the sides and a rather mean crop of morello cherries which, if previous years are anything to go by, will go down the birds' gullets before getting anywhere near ours!  Apart from that, it's all decorative stuff. I'm at that strange time where the early summer stuff is going over and the next lot aren't quite out yet! Thanks heaven for cosmos, cerinthe & sweet peas which are providing most of the colour at the moment.

All best, Iain

Hi Iain welcome aboard a4a. This may we had the most wonderful holiday in Scotland. Weshall be going back for sure.got the photos
home last week and i really miss the wonderful scenery. We were at Loch Tay so of course we visited Loch Lomand and many other places,but sadly i became quite poorly so had to come home a week early,but how i enjoyed that week we were there. :)

As for Eileen if she keeps on telling peeps she is the only sane one among us perhaps it will happen.HA HA !!!! Hi Eileen, did they let you out for the day again, you must be such a good girl. LOL!!!!!!!
cheers Rosebud. ;D

Aye aye Iain, fit like? As a NE Scotland quine masel' I ken fine fit ye've tae pit up wi' weatherwise! Wis ye drooned this past week in Buckie? Mines me on a joke fin I wis a quine at the squeal: FAR DIV HENS GING ON THEIR HOLIDAYS? BUCK BUCK BUCKIE!! (Squawk!)
Regards, Spurdie
PS This is me when I am sober!

Y'know, a large portion of the membership won't have a clue what your message was about Spurdie! To answer your question though - aye, we wiz drookit an' there's nothin worse than ha'en weet sheen! (Now there's a word, along with 'squeal' that I'd never heard of until I moved up here).

Cheers, Iain

PS: to translate - squeal=school, sheen=shoes, drookit or drooned=soaked.

Man oh man, ids fine til ken fit fowk are takkin aboot, all ye chiels and lassgies fae ae North are cheerin me up no end.  Jist another twa or three gollachs and ah'd be a happy wuman!

Bit Ah'm getting a wee bit "complex" aboot being thoct strange....

I am Rosebud, really, really good. I didn't bite nobody this week - well  - just the milkman but I buried him so no-one'll know will they?  :P

Iain - you're right I don't bay at the new moon 'cause that's when me fangs are growing!!! How come you've got sweetpeas in flower already, mine are still only about 18" high. What the heck are you feeding yours on?  ::)

Wicker - Why've you got a complex? I can understand everything you lot are saying so dinna fache yersel.  :D

Eileen.

Hi Eileen, I started the sweet peas off last autumn for the first time and I think it's worked cos they're looking healthier than any I've grown before and flowering lots. It's probably also helped that I've grown them in tubs this time. Last year I put them straight into the soil and they were awful!

All best

Iain

Picked my first bunch of Sweet Peas yesterday.....Bliss!!! Next year I think I'll go with Iain and plant autumn though.

Morello cherries Iain? How when what why TELL?! Love them to bits but never thght of growing...Info?

Love CLx
PS I LOVE Scotland...was in Stirling earlier this year with OH who spent four years there, also love Edinburgh, and up north west out of Inverness to bonar Bridge and away to the West coast.

Hi Iain,
Welcome!
Another Scot here,I live near Eileen in West Lothian,and seem to be the only Weedgie here,among all youse East Coasters!

Anyone else frum Glasgow or the West?

Toots ;D

Hi C'Lass

My cherry is planted against a west facing wall and I've had a go at training it espalier style (with, admittedly mixed success). It's three years old now and last year we had a really good crop - however we kept putting off picking them till they got 'just a little bit riper'. Obviously the birds were thinking just the same thing and on the day before we were finally going to harvest I came home to find not a single cherry left - just a lot of little red splashes all over the white wall! It was actually very funny but I think I'll be netting the tree all the same this year!  I feed it with MiracleGro and mulch it each spring with compost and it seems quite happy.

Cheers, Iain

Hi Iain and welcome from another Newbie and another Scot, although I've been living in Yorkshire for longer than I care to say. Proud to say still got original accent though  ;)

And Toots - Can't claim to be Glaswegian but did work with a lot of Glasgow folk for years - best crack ever! I'm originally from west central (between Falkirk and Kirkintilloch) so does that qualify for 'West'?

Can someone tell me please why everyone's defecting from Beeb?  Has it died or something?

Cheers
Lavender
mae the moose ne'er leave yer girnal wi a teardrap in it's e'e

Iain, I could do that! That size was it when you got it? Actually where did you get it? Want one! Love CL  :D

Hi Toots & Lavender, the Beeb are removing a messageboard which was popular with several of us - a general garden chat one as opposed to a specific topic.

CL, my cherry was about four feet high when I got it from a garden centre between Dundee and Perth. I think though you could probably find one without too much trouble at any half decent garden centre. If not, some of the specialist mail order fruit nurseries would definitely have it. I tried it because they're supposed to be quite tough. Further south it might even be OK on a north wall. It has really pretty white flowers in the spring too (I've since painted my white wall pale blue so you can see the flowers better)

Cheers, Iain

C'Lass, I have a dwarf Stella sweet cherry which I am supposed to be training as a fan/espalier.  got it just year before last when it was about 3' and put it against a sunny wall/wires.  didn't prune it properly so it budded on the trunk!  Still we got quite a lot of lovely big sweet cherries and now I know how to prune it propeerly next year they will grow where they are supposed to!  they were delicious.  Doesn't seem difficult.