I got to the top of the waiting list and was offered a plot last week so lucky it was just grassed over! I couldn't sleep for planning.
As soon as the tenancy agreement came back I skived off work early and headed there with a garden fork. And as I arrived A MAN WAS DIGGING MY PLOT :o :o
oh except it seems I got it wrong. That was plot 44. We both turned to the plot next door, 45 - it was a strip of waist-high brambles ::)
I've accepted it now. plot 45 might be a little slower to get going. But it's mine and I love it.
We weren't sure when we took our plot - it was either six months' worth of weeds or five years! I made the convener put a flag on a pole on the plot that was ours before I would accept it! Luckily it was the less weedy one. The one next door was taken about six months later, and they rotovated it and cleared it in a weekend.
Actually, inmy experience brambles are no harder to get out than grass- more brute force required but they don't regrow so easily!
i had both brambles and nettles and grass on my plot and i'd take the brambles anyday, once you clear the top off them you should find underneath clear ;D
Congratulations Pigeonseed like you say It's Yours and you will love it.
Ours was a total mess but we just started clearing a little at a time and planted up easy grow stuff as we went along. It was a real joy to see our small attempts growing as we plodded on waist high in weeds to clear the next section.
Yeah really hard work but the rewards were great.
Now you have your own little piece of Paradise.
Good Luck
Take some pics pigeonseed and look back at them in a years time and you won't believe the difference. Thats only if you stick at it. :)
I let a half-size plot last weekend that was head-high in brambles. He was back within the hour to start clearing. He and his girl-friend seemed to live at the plot for days - they've got it cleared, the debris burnt or composted, beds marked out, manure dug in and now they've started to plant it! Not bad for a week's work!
The problems with mine were (and still are) bindweed and creeping buttercup - give me brambles any day!
I agree, brambles are easier to deal with then couch! Although, now we have cleared the brambles on OH's plot, we have found lots of couch underneath it all.............. :-\
We are not as quick as Trevor_D's plotholders, but getting there........just to give you an idea pigeonseed:
OH on plot when taken over in November 2008....
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l47/dlp133/Plot%2042/nov2008018.jpg)
.....and in January 2009
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l47/dlp133/Plot%2042/jan09011.jpg)
Thanks for all the encouragement! :) Deb those were big brambles, you did well!
My last allotment had very big brambles and the roots were very hard to dig out. Brambles were forever springing up all over the plot, even years later.
These brambles have been ok so far - they're fairly young and shallow-rooted. So not so bad after all
Having been unwell while pregnant, a few months later I still have to take it slowly - just an hour - 1.5 of digging at a time, a couple of times a week. So I'm impressed by tales of people clearing a site in a week but I'm trying not to want to emulate them! (though I am tempted!)
In my two digging sessions so far this week I've cleared a patch about 2.5 m2. if i keep on like that i'll get a few potatoes in, runners and later on some mooli. that's the plan.
(well, one of 3 million feverish plans hatched nightly ;))
(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q124/pigeonseed/lotment_green.jpg)
It really doesn't look that bad in the pictures! (weird filter was on camera that's why so green)
Great news on the lottie front Pigeon, get them spuds in and there will be no stopping you. ;D ;D ;D
Anybody to get an aoltment these days is lucky. At least you have time to get stuff sown for this years harvest ;) Happy clearing ;D ;D
I've already overdone it and got a bad back - very silly. :'(
Must try and rein myself in! next trip I'll avoid digging. Mark out the plot, maybe put onions in the little patch I've dug.
(If I say it in the forum maybe I'll listen to my own advice ::))
What a lovely blank canvas you have there. Bugger the onions, like Kev say's get some spuds in.While you are digging drop a spud in the trench. You may as well get something out of your hard work.Nowt like a homegrown tater Pigeonseed
Congratulations on the plot PigeonSeed. I like the filter, maybe you could have a rose tinted one next time ;D ;D ;D
I like what you said about rose tinted filters! lol
I might have an inbuilt one as in my mind the allotment already has hedges, lawn, mature apple trees, a shed like a small cottage and rows of vegetables ripening in the sun!
I'm going for onions to avoid digging this week, cos you just poke the sets into the surface. Very mischievousof you Shirlton trying to tempt me into digging! ;)
(http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q124/pigeonseed/egg.jpg)
Don't egg me on! :D
Keep up the good work Pigeon your really Cracking on. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Yer comin outa yer shell now ain't yer
Oh you two crack me up!
By the way my friend has just told me he's received a letter from the council saying after 4 years, he's still number 741 on the waiting list, does he still want to wait?
I feel very lucky!
Great news pigeonseed.
This was my plot the second day of clearing
(http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x296/nilly71/allotment/03082008_2nd_day.jpg)
Neil
Blimey Neil I bet it was no yoke clearing that lot. ;D ;D ;D
Nah once he'd hatched a plan he flew through it Kev
The trick is to creep up on the weeds, wait for it, not yet wait until you see the WHITES of their eyes then attack. ;D ;D ;D
oh no! What have I started? ;D
When did you get your patch Neil?
The jokes on this site are getting worse ;D
I got my plot last September.
Neil