Unofficial retrobike allotment thread....

Best i move to the coast then.They say the sea is good for.....

Yesterday, it was Dahlias in , and the grass cut, I also have late season onions to get in and a whole hose of seeds to sow, as well as a load of seedling already growing away fro planting out at the end of May, managed to fit in cutting the grass on the allotment as well.

I have my plot or should I say plots, It's huge :shock:

Now I know all you proper gardeners will shout no, but I'm thinking I'll tackle it as follows.
1. Rake up all the dead sticks, leaves, general rubbish
2. Strim the entire plot close to the ground
3. Apply mini tractor/rotivator and do a few passes.
4. Rake over soil
5. Plant with courgettes, beans, peas and potatoes.

It's by no means the best method, but I only intend to have the plot for one to two years as we've decided we should move South closer to my very elderly grandparents.

Spike3,
Well done on getting the plots!

Sounds like you have a good plan there – there's no 'regulation' way of getting started, although there's always old boys who like to point out things.

It all depends on the condition of your plots and the type of the soil there. Also depends on the nature of any weeds – hopefully not the ones Bagpuss has!

A lot is trial and error as you go along. Do your own thing and enjoy it, most importantly.

Recommend scavenging some palettes and making compost bins to pile the dead sticks, leaves and organic stuff into.

The mini tractors are great fun, but if you have anything as bad as mares tail lurking, this can just chop up and multiply the thing. Cover any ground you've cultivated but aren't going to use immediately.

Good luck.

H

The sweet potatoes arrived in the post yesterday,and the sweet peas have finally put in a appearance in the seed tray, it's going to be a bust weekend, well probably a busy Friday!

Sounds like everyone is having loads of fun

I'm drawing up a list of wildflowers to plant up. I have been given the task of attracting insects

Going for -

Vipers Bugloss
Borage - although i fear fellow allotmenteers may have something to say!
Field Scabious
Evening Primrose

All work well in our garden...will think of more soon.

Loadsa fun.
The peas and beans seedlings are now becoming triffids – better get some more beds dug. First sign of tomato seedlings popping up.

My current favourite wild flower/plant is the edge of woodland 'allium ursine' also known as ransoms or wild garlic. Got a good crop of this at the moment. It's great chopped into salads, into pasta, spuds, made into a pesto, but is particularly fantastic with eggs – poached, scramble, omelette.

A particular mid-summer favourite for me is ' fox and cubs' (Orange Hawkweed). Rescued a tiny clump of this from a garden that was being trashed and it's now in my 6ft sq wild summer flower meadow patch between our front door and the pavement.

Looking forward to seeing these amongst others:

Sanguisorba minor
Aquilegia vulgaris
Rudbeckias
Salvia
Achilleas
Cosmos
Verbena bonariensis
Borage
Scabious
Schizostylis

Spuds are poking through!! Much excitement in the household with much 'underwhelment' shown by the children Dad showed the weeds his hoe today! 2nd coat of evil weedkiller has been applied. Everything looks dead apart from the horsetails poking through with a distinct air of 'f***k you'

Another wait for 2 to 3 weeks then attack with a rotovator...Grandad has been asked for advice, my dad's side were landworkers in Lincolnshire. I quote ''poison it and grow spuds for two years''

Ive got a little more digging, sifting and spud planting and that will be it until rotovating is completed. Sweetcorn and bean seeds are potted. Tomato plants potted. Because of my works proximity to the plot, guess who is in charge of hardening off all seedlings etc?

Everybody else busy?

Very busy, spuds just starting to show, I appear to have planted them quite deep, celeriac, cauliflower (Romanesco F1) cabbage all went in recently, a spot application of weedkiller on broad leaved weeds, bind weed and couch grass, and some path trimming over the weekend, I still have a load of seeds to sow, need to get the sweet peas planted out, I had hoped to do that this weekend but kept leaving them at home. Oh managed to enjoy a beer down there whilst watering last night.

What are people using instead of Derris powder? We don't use a lot of chemicals but most of the World's population of flea beetles seem to be on our plot.

The poor old peas and radish are not going to get the chance to start growing. They are under attack!