Wars Are Formed Of Many Battles

I am sad to announce that I have had to give up the allotment. This is due to not being able to get to the allotment and clear it quickly enough for the council to be happy with. I have two reasons to why I didn’t have the time to deal with the plot so here goes.
Firstly I am still decorating the house. Whilst I am getting close to finishing the house this has been taking up most of my spare time. The second reason is that we got a puppy and puppies take a lot of time to look after, train, keep clean, exercise and so forth.
In some respects I am downhearted but in others I am actually relieved. As you may have seen from previous posts there was a lot of work that needed doing and I simply didn’t have the time to do it. But in all honesty it really was the wrong time for me to get a plot and I have taken some experience away from this.
However this set back does not mean the end of this “adventure” or this blog. My Fiancée has suggested that I could make a bedding area at the top of the garden and have a veg patch at home. So after some careful thought that is what I will be doing. This will hopefully be achieved before the new growing season arrives.
You might be thinking that if I didn’t have time for an allotment plot how will I have time for a veg patch in the garden. Good question and this time I have thought about is properly instead of just rushing into like last time.

The first point is that as I have already said, I am nearly completed with decorating the house so there is a fair bit of time freed up there.

The second point is that instead of trying to clear a plot of five rods with thick well rooted grass and weeds all I have to do to is to construct some beds. This can be done indoors too as I have a big enough dining room. (And if aforementioned fiancée doesn’t like that idea, I have a garage and cordless tools). Then simply fill with soil, cover with tarpaulin and when ready I’m good to go. No weeds, no grass just lovely ready to use soil.

I have already touched on point three which is the space. There is less space to have to maintain and look after.
The forth is once I start the veg patch I can just wonder up to the top of the garden when I have five minutes and do a spot of work on it, instead of trying to find an hour or so to travel to an allotment site, get working on a plot, then travel home.
So just one last thing to announce.
As I have said I will have a veg patch on the garden and continue with this blog because I am enjoying writing the blog posts. But I have to change the name of the blog. After all I am now a man without an allotment.
I haven’t settled on the name yet but thinking of “A man and his veg patch” I know I don’t have many followers but I am open to other ideas for the renaming. I might even have a couple of other ideas sneak in when I’m not looking.
Anyway as you may know I like to give you an idea of the next post. However this time I don’t know what the next post will be about. It will most probably be the building of the beds or the new name.

A Belated Trip To The Plot

So Friday I managed to get to the plot. I went down there at about 6pm and it nice, quiet and peaceful and there was just two other people down there. But there were as expected a lot of weeds in my first bed and the rest of the plot looks very much unloved and abandoned.

Anyway onto the pictures and what I did.

So this was before I did anything.
There was a picture of the first two beds too but that corrupted which is annoying. Especially as there were several corrupted pictures.

So I dug all of the weeds out of the bed that I originally deweeded and dug over. Again I had a picture of this but it corrupted too. This is the second front bed which I cut all of the grass and weeds down. Once I have cut the rest of the weeds down I will start to dig this bed over.

I reestablished the path at the top of the plot cut the oak tree down but again corrupted.

I also started to clear the stuff from around and in the Anderson’s shelter. One of my main objectiv as in this visit was to cut the oak tree right down which I did, and I just forgot to take a picture of this. It will eventually be dug up but until then I will just keep cutting it back.

Now I was expecting to find a load of weeds on the first bed but what I wasn’t expecting was this plant.

I think it is a cucumber plant but not sure. I have this one and a smaller one about another two foot away. I cut the grass that was in the verge as well as that was getting very long. I took it upon myself to trim the groeth around the tap that is practically on my plot just to help everyone out a bit.

So I know the pictures aren’t very good but I have a long plot so it will take some experimenting to find the right spot and angle to try and get the entire plot in the pictures. I have learnt that is it a pretty good idea to check the images before I leave the plot which I will do next time.

I should be able to get another couple of hours in this Friday too but I need to check that petrol strimmer (donated by future father-in-law) works first. If it does then I can use that to cut down the rest of the plot.

Something Else For The Plot

Ok not a very interesting post, but it does emphasize the usefulness and savings that can be found second hand. So before I ramble too much I’ll get to the point. I have picked up one of those black ecomax compost bins for £10 complete with some compost fluid. I do believe it is around 150 litres in capacity but not sure. And I thought this was quite the deal being that they are around £40 new and this bin is almost new.

Still we should be down the plot this weekend so I will have a proper update post with pictures.

Second Visit

So being that I was caught out by the weather last week I have decided to start going to the plot on a saturday afternoon once shopping and lunch were out of the way. This way if it is raining there is still the Sunday to fall back on. I am only going down once a week at the moment. I don’t feel the need to be there more than that.

I have still got a lot going on at home too so we were only at the plot for about an hour and a half. But in that time we had met one of the neighbours and dug over and de-weeded the rest of the first bed.

However I did forget to take a picture but this week I will take one before and then one after. I think next week I will cut the weeds down. This will at the very least make it look a bit nicer and slow the spread of seeds. Might manage to start the second bed too. I also need to put the borders for the first bed in properly as they are only place saving at the moment.

Anyway I had a little chat with the neighbour and he said that the plot have been in the state it is for a few years and we are the 5th or 6th tenants of the plot. The oak tree that is on the plot has been cut down several times but not dug out or even had a dose of stump killer. I was thinking of replacing the tree with a fruit tree. Not sure which one mind. Any ideas??

Still the next post will be more updates about the progress of the plot.

First True Visit

It has been just over 6 weeks since I picked up the allotment key and we finally managed to go down and start the de-weeding and digging over of the beds. I am now debating what seeds to plant when the first two beds are completely dug over (looking to sow in June) but I’m no closer to an answer than I was on Monday when we were at the plot.

The layout is also something that I am thinking about a lot. At current there are 4 large square beds (2 rows of 2) then a long rectangular bed behind them and the shed area at the back. The beds are too large not to walk on them when tending to future cropped. I like my original plan but not sure if that will entirely remedy this problem. I think there will still be parts of the beds that would have to be walked on to tend crops. So I think in the next couple of weeks I shall take a stroll round the site and see what other people have done. I might draw up some other ideas too.

Anyway both me and my partner started clearing weeds and she decided to start dealing with the brambles at the back of the plot as well. Progress isn’t great but there are a lot of weeds. When we go down Sunday I will take some pictures so you can see the extent of the problem.

Whilst we were taking care of the brambles we noticed that the shed is in need of some TLC. Ok a lot of TLC. But then so is the rest of the plot. The corrugated iron roof has at least one hole. The door it’s not where it should be. The inside needs clearing out and the shelves that are in there are most likely no good. And lastly the front needs rebuilding. Happily I have a fair bit of pallet wood so this won’t be a problem.

All in all my main plan for this year is just to clear all of the weeds, change the layout to something much more functional, plant some winter crops to aid in the weed control a little, repair the shed, deal with the brambles next to the shed, put in a compost bin, and maybe set up the fruit area. I might possibly had a poly tunnel as well, not sure yet though.

Oh I forgot to mention that there is an oak tree in the middle of the plot too. It may only be a small oak tree but it’s of no use to me. That will be dug up very soon.

So the next post will be more plot clearing and organising. I will also post some pictures too.

The Books I Bought

So I thought I would post the information about the books I ordered. After all I did say that I would.

So this is the main webpage. It’s a good website to be honest. Lots of information.

http://www.allotment-garden.org/book/index.php

And the books I ordered.

http://www.allotment-garden.org/book/store-produce.php

http://www.allotment-garden.org/book/vegetable-growing-month-book.php

And another book they have written that has caught my attention but I haven’t ordered this one yet.

http://www.allotment-garden.org/book/eag1.php

So that’s it.

My next post will be about my plans for the next couple of weeks.

Finally Got The Key

Not much to say in this post really.
I went down the town hall and picked up mt allotment key this morning. So that means plot 94 is now officially mine.
I am hoping to get down there this weekend but as I’m dealing with the garden this week I’m not sure I will have chance. Although I will get some bits planted at home which should be ready for planting out in a couple of weeks. Hopefully this plan comes together reasonably well.

A Rough Plan

Ok so I have pondered for a few days on what I want the allotment to look like and how I want it to work. After dinner on Tuesday I decided to put my ideas on paper.

I know there are a few gaps and to be honest I think I will have missed the sowing window for about half of these but the title does say rough plan. Also this plan is subject to change. For instance I’m not 100% sure where the canes for the lemuges are and I don’t know what we might find when digging the plot over. So things could change.
Also I was surprised by the gaps that I still have. Couple this with the fact that most of what is on here won’t take up as much space as allocated, it really showed how productive I can make this plot.
However I know that this year the plot won’t be anywhere near as productive as it can be. So with all of this in mind I have a cunning plan.
What I will do when plot 94 is underway and I know where things have been and the final planting places of what I’m planting I will begin work on next year’s plan. This should make things a bit easier for me next year. I will also have a post on seeds that need to be down by when and when plants can be planted out and so on. Hopefully this will make things much easier and I can use my time and plot more efficiently.

A Small Shopping Trip

We went out shopping on Saturday as is the norm and I picked up a few little bits.
The first items were a little more essential and they were,
Blood, Fish and Bone
Gardening Gloves
Garden String
And Garden Pegs.

We also picked up
Strawberry plant (root system)
Iceberg lettuce seeds
Marketmore cucumber seeds
Early nantes carrots (which I think I will need to save for next year)
And Ailsa Craig onion seeds (again might have to save for next year)
I have also ordered some books online (veg growing month by month, how to store your produce) they should be delivered this week and can hardly wait for them. But I have been trying not to but any seeds because the books come with £18 (yes you read correctly £18) of free seeds and I have no idea what they are. I will post the proper information on the books in the next couple of days.

So my next post will be the rough plan I have of the plot.

Tenancy Progress

So I phoned the council to let them know that I had accepted and to arrange a time to go and sign the tenancy agreement. I work from 07:30 – 16:30 Monday – Friday and getting home takes around 2 hours. As you might expect I was hoping to pop in on the Saturday morning. (They used to be open on a Saturday). But they are not open over the weekends and close at five. So i decided, through no real alternitive, to have them posted. The paperwork arrived yesterday so I read through it. Everthing seems reasonable so tonight I will sign it and hand the paperwork and the money to my partners dad so that he can drop it all off and collect the key for me.

So this does mean that there is an even longer delay. However, the week off that I have next week will mostly if not entirely be spend sorting out the back garden. There is a patio area that needs laying and a fence that needs building and two rather large planters that also need building. Afterall it would be nice to be able to enjoy a nice homegrown salad in a lovely flowery back garden.

Not sure what my next post will be. Maybe a rough plan of the allotment and what I  intend to do this year with it.