Allotments 4 All

Amazin, have you ever been to West Green House Garden in Hampshire?

http://www.westgreenhousegardens.co.uk/Index.htm

Your garden/plot sounds like the one there, they do lovely artistic things with the vegetable garden, it always looks wonderful, yours sounds similar.  There are no photos of it on the website unfortunately!

T.

Thanks for the link Tulipa, looks very interesting!

I started thinking about colour schemes when I looked at the winter/spring cabbages and the different shades of green alongside a bright purple one. I'm going to try to carry on the theme in other beds, though knowing my luck - or skill - I'll end up with the bright sunny colours of nasturtium mixed with the burnt sienna tones of... the slugs.

;D

'thifasmom'  I am sorry you feel that way and I apologise if my comments have annoyed you. I should have been clearer in my original post.

Even though i have an already very practical veg plot at home (5 rectangular beds divided by widw paths), I feel like starting an allotment and having some fun with the layout. I could then take and post pictures to show you what I have done.

I don't have a garden so my plot is anything but a traditional one. It has flower beds, a wild area with a pond and log pile, a soft fruit and a vegetable areas. The beds vary in size and shape and some paths are curved.
It's very different to most plots but that's down to me not what others think it should be like. Most of my neighbours don't seem to mind, and have been nothing but friendly and helpful regardless of my somewhat odd plot.
If I was using it mostly to grow vegetables then I guess that I would have been more conventional.
I'm not keen on Joe Swift's layout but at the the end of the day it is his plot to do with as he likes.   
I suppose that allotments show English eccentricity in all it's wonderful glory!

Quote from: Garden Apprentice on August 21, 2008, 09:26:37
'thifasmom'  I am sorry you feel that way and I apologise if my comments have annoyed you. I should have been clearer in my original post.

I could then take and post pictures to show you what I have done.

Yes its very easy to get misunderstood on the world wide web, and i would love to see your photos, you can learn so much from seeing what others have achieved. :)

Quote from: flighty on August 21, 2008, 09:47:29
I don't have a garden so my plot is anything but a traditional one. It has flower beds, a wild area with a pond and log pile, a soft fruit and a vegetable areas. The beds vary in size and shape and some paths are curved.
It's very different to most plots but that's down to me not what others think it should be like. Most of my neighbours don't seem to mind, and have been nothing but friendly and helpful regardless of my somewhat odd plot.
If I was using it mostly to grow vegetables then I guess that I would have been more conventional.
I'm not keen on Joe Swift's layout but at the the end of the day it is his plot to do with as he likes.   
I suppose that allotments show English eccentricity in all it's wonderful glory!

I love the Potager still vege gardens which have a blend of flowers/ herbs and veg growing all mixed together and that's what i am trying to achieve.

Being in London a lot of our fellow allotmenteers live in flats or other homes  without gardens, so their allotments often have sitting areas surrounded by flowers etc. whereas I started ours off as all rectangular and produce driven (and boring).  I'm daunted by the work involved in redoing any of the beds into a potager style, so have tried to make it more interesting with arches, pyramids and a pergola. Possibly as a result we slid a place in the best allotment competition from 3rd equal to fourth equal, but we think it looks nicer!

One venerable neighbour has a wonderful overblown 'secret garden' where she's hidden by climbing roses etc and you'd be hard put to spot any vegetables though there are some fruit trees. I give her some of my spare veg seedlings to plant round the edges so as to appease the committee  :)

It's been my first year on the plot and I'll be making a few changes, just some fine tuning, for next year. The weather and a unforeseen lack of time has also conspired against me. Hopefully both will improve over the coming months!

The lady opposite me has what she calls a 'girlie' allotment, full of flowers and fruit with veg dotted in between them, it is beautiful.  This year (our first) has just seen us keeping on top of the weeds, but next year I will be making it look better with flowers, arches etc, and I am going to paint my shed as soon as I get a dry day - it has been up since Easter and I haven't had a chance yet.  Then I can plant climbers to grow over it and make it look prettier.  I am gathering lots of ideas..... ;)

T.