Allotments 4 All

Don't you find there is so much planting to do at this time that you feel you can't keep up.Just as you get one thing sorted another is tapping on your shoulder, This silly weather isn't helping either.

Last week the tomato greenhouse got planted.

Today I got the second greenhouse all done. with peppers, aubs amd cukes

Tomorrow the melons get the treatment in the next greenhouse.

Same with raised beds, one by one they fill up, you look around and realise that the year is progressing. We are now tired of asparagus and rhubarb yet normally it would be just starting.

Small starter greenhouse is bulging with beans and corn just popping through.

Maybe everyone else moves at a faster pace than John and I do but I always think it is all going to get away from me.

Anyone else get this feeling.

XX Jeannine

yes. i do. i havent got a greenhouse and grow everything outside so i have a lot of stuff on my balcony hardening off ready to go. its chocka and i have to tip toe every time i go out there.  my plot neighbours are all a few weeks ahead of me and, being more experienced (or perhaps i should say, less uptight- horticulturally speaking) have had tomatoes beans and sweetcorn out for a while already. so next week its all going out on my plot.  its such a busy time as you say.  i am more relaxed about it than i was when i first started though. 

the other half of my plot is owned by an eighty year old guy called roy who is the salt of the earth, he originally had the whole plot but since his wife bacame ill had to give up half, he is full of wise advise and encouragement.  one day last week he popped out (his house backs onto the plot) and spent about fifteen minutes making a row of holes, put up some sticks, picked up a tray of tomato seedlings tipped them out and nonchalantly dropped one into each hole, tied them on and was off back indoors to make his wife a cuppa.  job done.  i  hve a lot to learn i think, when i consider the amount of time i have spent nurturing each seedling and pricking out and potting on and hardening off and worrying at the slightest change in temperature...  i hope when i am eighty i will be as relaxed about gardening as roy is. :)

Me too, we're in panic mode big time - we're still digging parts of our newly acquired plot over - oh, the weeds  :o

Elsewhere, onions & garlic coming along, potatoes peeping through nicely.  Bed for legumes almost ready (none sown yet mind you), nothing going on in the brassica bed yet etiher yet.  No cutting flowers or companion plants sown yet.  I've resigned myself to only eating potatoes and onions this year lol  ::)

Hoping next year we'll be a bit more organised  :-\

I'm really struggling. 

I've managed to sow everything I wanted to and have got stuff in the ground growing, but the greenhouse still isn't attached to the base or glazed, so everything is in the pottingshed 'on hold'.  Not sure when its going to be done, if OH doesn't pull up his socks I won't be able to use it this season  :(

Not sure where my beans, courgettes, squashes, pumpkins or leeks are going to go as I've not yet managed to finish digging and the undug area is infested with bindweed, thistles and other nasties - which are revving up big time.  The ground is so hard and dry and I really feel I'm loosing the battle.

The pond edging needs bedding in before the tadpoles turn into frogs and so that I can plant up the flowers, which are pretty pot bound now.  There are so many things that need doing that I'm in headless chicken mode and not really accomplishing much at all at the moment.

All in all I'm more than a little overwhelmed.

I keep telling myself that it will all be there next year, we are in the process of yet another greenhouse and yes I have stuff to go in it too, OH trying his best but I am  a tad unrealistic especially as I am unable to do anything very much personally. XX Jeannine

I was tempted to raise this topic last week but in the end I just thought it was me,
you know.....not being organised.
Watering my two greenhouses and polytunnel has been/is  so time consuming.
It's pleasing to know I'm not the only one finding it a problem this year. ;D
But hey, we've got rain forcast for tomorrow, yippee. ;)

mc55, don't know if it helps..put some cardboard down on your very weedy bit, cover it with thick manure, quite fresh..cover with black plastic..an old cut up compost bag will do..cut a hole in it, put a pile of rotted compost on top of the hole, plant your squashes, pumpkins, courgettes through it..afterwards, the weeds will have died and you will have some lovely soil there..we've done it and it works  :)

I was doing OK until last week-my back still hurts too much to do anything but potter around worrying about stuff I meant to do this long weekend :(

Quote from: cleo on May 07, 2007, 16:32:04
I was doing OK until last week-my back still hurts too much to do anything but potter around worrying about stuff I meant to do this long weekend :(

That's all i seem to be doing and i don't even have a sore back  ::)

Thought this allotment lark was meant to be fun lol  ;D

Hi all. Glad it's not just me feeling a bit behind with everything.
Starting again has set me back a bit it has to be said. Lovely lottie neighbours - 'specially Sarah have been very good to me though and I seem to be getting on ok. Dug in 2 bags of manure today and hoping for rain - lovely blue sky and sunshine here  ::).
Feel a bit like mc55 though - overwhelmed. All i have is windowsills and mini g/h so pushed for space and can't wait to get everything out on the plot! Sweetcorn out and looking a bit sad. May have to start again. Boo.
I'll be happy whatever grows for this year though to be honest - I just don't want it all to die once it goes out.  ;D

Felt the same last year! got a gardener 4 hours a week now (paid for from the plants I sell!)

Quote from: kitten on May 06, 2007, 18:05:14
Me too, we're in panic mode big time - we're still digging parts of our newly acquired plot over - oh, the weeds  :o

I've resigned myself to only eating potatoes and onions this year lol  ::)

kitten, maybe we can swap recipes, that's all I've managed to get in the ground so far this year!
(actually, maincrop spuds are still on top of the wardrobe :-[)
I've got leeks, beetroot and parsnips in modules/loo rolls and nowhere ready to plant them :(

Quote from: mc55 on May 06, 2007, 19:44:42
Not sure where my beans, courgettes, squashes, pumpkins or leeks are going to go as I've not yet managed to finish digging and the undug area is infested with bindweed, thistles and other nasties - which are revving up big time. The ground is so hard and dry and I really feel I'm loosing the battle.

All in all I'm more than a little overwhelmed.

I know exactly how you feel, mc55. I'm also having a moral dilemma about weedkiller, as kindly neighbour gave me some roundup to use last weekend. it's very tempting but so far I haven't been able to bring myself to do it :-\

Nooooooooooooooooooo i think i,ll need that recipe cuz thats the only thing happening. planned to go up the plot yesterday while OH was fishing. i,ll help you instead he said noblely ggrr now OH has been good (for him) while i,v been plastered but he likes to do the jobs he wants to do which are not the ones that need doing first like the peas which are climbing up oneanother and need to have sticks so he put the bean canes up it seems i was needed to cut the string and hand it up he then went in a huf cuz i insisted on doing the peasticks my way(how many times do you say these peas are tall ones a few twigs won,t do?so he leaves me to it and redigs the cabbage patch(yes the one i,m going to have to stomp down to compact the soil when he is not around. nothing else got done i,v a list as long as my arm and a very swollen foot which i am fed up of resting not sure what my handicap is the slowly recovering ankle or OH    marg

Quote from: manicscousers on May 06, 2007, 20:10:28
mc55, don't know if it helps..put some cardboard down on your very weedy bit, cover it with thick manure, quite fresh..cover with black plastic..an old cut up compost bag will do..cut a hole in it, put a pile of rotted compost on top of the hole, plant your squashes, pumpkins, courgettes through it..afterwards, the weeds will have died and you will have some lovely soil there..we've done it and it works  :)

Would that work for me? Bottom of my plot was covered in weed membrane but its now covered in weeds which have either grown on top of the membrane or though it as its disintergrating.

My options are to pay someone to do either of the following

A - Dug the whole bottom of the plot ( most expensive option )

B - Pull up as much membrane as possible having treated doc with weed killer, leave it for a week or to and cover it    with cardboard and then build fruit cage on top.

C - Leave the black membrane down add raised beds and then add more membrane to the correct paths.

I have worked out the plan i want to go for using wood and you can see this via.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/fruit_cage1.png
http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/cambourne7/fruit_cage2.png

Cambourne7

Question - how many people are all these people feeding??

When I see eg 65 Tomato plants - that's a quarter of a TON.

We are swamped with only 20!!

hi

Theres 2 of us but we do a lot of baking, the blackcurrant, tayberry, loganberry and boysenberry are all one single plant while raspberrys, blueberrys and cranberrys will be multiples.

The problem is that my plot more than the others is prone to birds as its the closest to the water and has fencing on 2 sides so i need the protection.

A bamboo cage over certain plants would last a couple of weeks in the wind.

Whats wrong with that much tomato we go though loads here.

Camborune7

Quote from: tim on May 09, 2007, 12:44:25
Question - how many people are all these people feeding??

When I see eg 65 Tomato plants - that's a quarter of a TON.

We are swamped with only 20!!

I agree tim, I was chuffed today when I noticed that one of my three had germinated  ;D

i have germinated now :-)

Quote from: cambourne7 on May 11, 2007, 21:56:51
i have germinated now :-)

?  ;D

managed to get 3 rows of beetroot in, swede, turnips, and kohl rabi..monday, we'l get the rest of the carrots, radish and spring onions in
lots of stuff was planted early which helps

wow my spelling is worse than ever - I meant to say i got some germinated now :-)

manicscousers  your pictures are great.

One of my fellow allotment holders has suggested that rather than a big fruit cage i go with covering the beds with netting and on the beds by the fench that i add some anti wind netting ( like debris netting ) and when there in fruit just add some netting over the top.

This would certainly be a less expensive and a solution that would be easier to do just not sure is it a false ecomomy??

what do you think guys?