A new allotment

Karma, you can get lots of useful allotment materials for free. Your allotment may have communal tools and the other plot holders will be generous with plants, help. advice etc. My shed cost £30 on necxt door, my fence and compost daleks and watter butts were all free to collect from Freecycle, so was a lot of wood from Mens Shed. Scrounging, I mean
recycling to save the planet, is all part of the fun. Enjoy!

It's the second anniversary of getting our allotment, which was covered in weeds growing through plastic membrane (apparently the previous owner just covered weeds in membrane; found it didn't kill them and gave up. I hate that stuff. ripped out all the membrane and gave it away to other plot holders.

Table and chairs and a flask of tea are vital accessories; plus a strong metal tin for your supply of biscuits.

I have just ordered 10m of lawn edging border, I want to keep the paths and beds separated. I am putting landscape bark down and want to stop it mixing with the beds with no defined borders. Tomorrow I will lay it flat, it arrives in a coil but it will flatten in a few hours, then I just need to bang it down and cut to length

I did 5 hours yesterday, never intended to be there so long but it was lovely in the sun and a very nice woman came for a quick chat.

I was never intending to go today but am raring to get out there again. Todays job is to make a safe walking area in front of the 3 side by side compost bins. Bare clay soil is horribly slippery as well as claggy and plastic on top is also a slip hazard. It is going to have to be more grids. I have 6 in the shed and I will lay them down today. Iwill need to order more for my storage box base


The waterbutt connection has been re-connected, I cannot see sustained frost now, in fact it feels very spring-like and surface area for collection is small

micro clover is ordered. Rare day-long sunshine today and I will be off to the plot soon, going to take my new chillington digging tools, they feel nice and light for me to handle.

I will be working on areas I want to cover with more grids. Entrance pathways and an area for my 570 litre keter storage box. I will be keeping that in place with surrounding stakes and ballast on top. The stakes will go nicely through the grid spaces

Potatoes chitting here on a cold window cill

I will just be doing maintenance after the basics are done

I am continuing with path layout today, my aim is to have clearly defined beds and easy safe paths for when I am 80, now 77. I put 2 x 100litre bags of landscape bark down the other day, it didn`t go far,so another two today and more next week. It am managing with the roll-onto-wheelbarrow method.

My 3 x rhubarb poultons pride came and need planting out today, the pots are bursting with strong roots. I never thought the plants would be so good. I also ordered crown prince seeds and got phacelia in the sale, I use only that as green manure, easy to chop and pull. I will be doing that after every crop is out, the beds still need building. Aiming only for one basic crop per bed this year

lixy, I have not forgotten, micro clover sounds perfect for the front of my shed. The grids are not yet full to the top but I may well put those seeds in where I put the grids. I can use a strimmer to keep them low. Really good suggestion, thank you

Yes you can certainly grow quite a bit close to home. First thing I did, when I moved into my new build, was clear the ground, put in 3 x M26 apple trees and a crabapple for height. Added 4 1 x 1 m raised beds down the side and gooseberries and blackcurrants in the main garden. No grass, only sedums and echinacea so it is very colourful and bee-friendly. My 6 large pots of blueberries produced over 6kg of fruit, the plants are incredibly low maintenance and disease-free

I did rotations via the 4 beds and covering was very easy, I only grew what I ate. I grow my one courgette vertically and was picking for a long time

Casdon, I am glad too re my jacket, I wear it every day for a walk but my fleece is perfect for bending and a quick wash

I have cut the pattern for the fishermans smock and pulled a length of fabric from my stash. The pattern looks perfect so I also ordered some 12oz twill as I want tough and washable. I do need to lower the dart, which is easy and honestly this will be a perfect top for spring to autumn. There is loads of ease, which means this will be easy to wear

I must put slug nematotode ordering into my diary. They are not 100% perfect but do reduce the slug population a lot.

We gave up our allotment a while back now, because of back problems, time factor etc. but continue with growing vegetables in waist high Trugs of which I have 2 x6’x3’ and 1x 6’x2’ and 1x 3’x3’ plus tubs etc.

It is surprising what you can produce in such a limited space. I work on the square foot idea. So I do not grow the range of vegetables snd fruit I used to grow, - we were almost entirely self sufficient - but I am pleased with the results we get now. Of course the vegetables are mollycoddled in ideal compost, bug control etc. as it is so easy to care for them.

I do miss our allotment, I miss the satisfaction of a hard days work, bowl full of berry’s, storing apples and potatoes, and the friendship - sometimes talking took up more time than work😊. - but I am very happy with the alternative, I still get to produce food and all that entails.

This week I plan to warm up some compost in disposable pots ready to sow, basil, coriander and parsley. We have onions and garlic looking healthy and happy in a trug, and I need to replenish the Trugs with JI3 and garden compost ready for the new season.

A good decision on the wax jacket, I’ve tried gardening in mine but it’s just not very comfortable compared with a fleece, because it doesn’t have the stretch factor, I have to wear it unzipped, which defeats the object as it then flaps, which annoys me. If it’s really cold, I wear a normal fleece, with what I call my bonfire fleece over it - it’s two sizes too big, and it’s therefore longer on me. It’s full of burn marks from sparks, but it’s warm. I always look at men gardening in jackets, and wonder why they do it because they could be so much more comfortable in a fleece or warm jumper.

whoops, this one

sewdifferent.co.uk/product/artists-smock/

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I need to get my allotment clothes sorted and winter is perfect to organise myself. The clothes I have been wearing have been binned but my fleece will be ok for another year, I was wearing that with 3 layers underneath

I bought a fantastic padded wax jacket from lands end, a one-off in my size, was marked at £125, bought for £35. Trouble is that I love wearing it for my walks etc ie too good for allotment and don`t want it to get filthy even though it is mud coloured. I will be back to fleece next autumn

My hand-knitted hats are lovely and warm but they slide up over my ears when I am working. I found some thermal lined hats on etsy, with ear cover and ties, around £10. Bought one and will be able to tie it under my chin

LE had a tops sale so I filled my boots, all real bargains, ranging from thin layering to thicker pima cotton, which I bought larger than the one I have binned. They all get a 40 wash and a tumble dry if they are mucky. The cotton did shrink via this rough process and I really cba when it is only about getting allotment muck off and a small load, machine weighs the load, so is economical enough

Boots are sorted for all year and I am making more knitted wool socks. My jeans are very good, washed out but still good with layers

I used to have a fishermans smock but had to eventually get rid as it was unisex without darts, straight up and down ie no allowance for curves. Today I found a perfect pattern, classic smock and it has darts, so I will make a couple from twill or some such, 3/4 sleeves so that will not drive me bonkers. I should call it a gardening smock. It has pockets, called artist`s smock and no fussy collar, a slip over. It took me all morning to find a pattern

I have ordered 40 ground cover sedums in 9cm plugs. I will be leaving them a week or so in my small cold greenhouse, then will repot into slightly bigger pots and leave outside. I am thinking they will do a good job on allotment pathways. I have these instead of grass at home but again cba taking cuttings

Chillington tools arrived, very good value, very solid tools and I am definitely glad I got the smaller heads. 3 tools in total, iron so will need sharpening and oiling from time to time

This morning I did the last visit for winter and all the water butt taps are now insulated. Nothing has flown out of place, happy me as it has been very windy. All the alliums are well and truly up, looking very healthy, I am pleased, I just shoved them in

I am feeling more confident about the shed staying upright, it has been well tested and the amateur window has stayed put as has the stick on opaque covering

This morning the ground was white and it was a tricky drive to the plot. I am taking note wrt brassicas for next year, nothing tall up there for me, tall cages are prone to shifting in strong winds. Tight low cabbages are good and can stand without cover but there are a lot of pigeons up there and rats. (nearby chickens}.

I don`t want anything up there that I might need to pick during very cold winter. Potentially I am thinking of the tight cabbages and cavalo nero but low covers will have to stay over the top. I can keep one brussel sprout plant, here at home, I can rig up a tall cage for that, it will be protected from wind. That is enough for me, on my own

I bought 3 x rhubarb yesterday, small plants in 9cm pots, a brand new and carefully bred variety that can be picked for 10 months of the year with sweet and tender stems. They will arrive during june. Poulton`s pride

I was not going to grow rhubarb but kept having the vision of year-round access to crumbles and other delights. At least I have early notice and will be going to the plot next dry day to add manure to the space. I don`t know if I will put these babies out straight away but I will have the choice

I can see where to add more soil to the old entrance path and that is what I will be doing all through winter, I will be stripping soil from old dry covered sods, a bit at a time. I need to add that soil to a path dip, to avoid a ponding situation. I will try to make the slope more uniform by spring

I used to have some very good, old-fashioned basic tools, invaluable when we stripped my last allotment from field. I have a hankering for them so have re-ordered the lightest ones from chillington tools. They will have to remain in my dry garage and will need tlc, they are old fashioned rusting heavy metal.

I am going to re-vamp my garage wall space, everything gardening now needs to be low enough to reach. A project for the short dark days, starting today. Tricky when sometimes I need something wrt maintenance that I stored, just in case

I am keeping up with notes in my planner, needing to work a bit more on future rotations

A thought in my head when I woke up. So why do I use that thick black plastic? Answer is to kill weed roots, then I realised that I needed to cut a much bigger diameter around my 10 new plants.

Been there, done that this morning. Boots on a boot tray in the car, no more hopping into the drivers seat with mucky boots on, that worked with thin socks, would not work with warm woollen socks so I have added my boot remover to the boot tray.

I did the opaque window covering this morning but top and bottom edges are curling outwards and not adhering. I have put strong wide clear parcel tape into my car. No rush for anything now

Lixy I was slipping and sliding yesterday, my boots were heavy with clay and I was walking on wet plastic.

The previous owner had masses of stones buried in the entrance pathway, they sank to below the surface. I have cleared that path, again on my knees, I prised lots of stones out and also masses of ivy roots as well as tiny slender white bindweed roots, the whole lot was covered in a thick layer of slippery mud

I have banged some stakes at the entrance, to remind me not to walk on that path, it is now friable and the surface is loose so I want to see what happens after frost has got to it. I did manage to connect and maneuver 12 x 50 cm grids and there is now a very decent safe space in front of the shed. I may put a couple of bags of grit over during early spring

I also planted the 3 beautifully grown cornus alba miracle, from gardening express, it took me longer than anticipated, being clay soil I needed to gently open up the roots and plant in a wider place where the roots could travel sideways, rather than round and round as if in another pot. That whole area is now covered again and I put lots of composted bark around each plant to try and keep weedlings down. Big area of black plastic with 10 good plants standing upright. I want to keep the plastic down for 12-24 months

I had lots of heavy sods of sticky soil and weed roots, had them upside all over the place down but decided to be belt and braces and re-laid them on black plastic and covered the long mound with more black plastic. I want to rescue the soil and just remove the roots. The soil needs to be much drier

I went home and changed then RM came with my very last plantings. I decided that I would grow jerusalem artichokes, plants that keep on giving, year after year. I went back and planted them, a good size space all to themselves. I know well their reputation but they are such a valuable foodstuff, anyway I have been fermenting stuff for many years and that is what I will do. It removes side effects and enables these tubers to be used over the year

Boots, my feet were hurting in my summer gardening shoes, I found my old viking rubber boots and it was like wearing a very comfy pair of supportive slippers. Warm and bone dry and they accommodated my hand made soft woollen socks.

I thought I would buy another pair as a reserve as I am going to wear them all year around. Not being made any more. Oh no. I hunted through ebay and found a pair second hand, they hardly look worn. I snaffled them pdq

My allotment journey is finished for now, I still want to put an opaque film on my clear shed window but that can wait. I have ordered my seeds mainly from DT Brown, nothing I won`t eat and not forgetting it is all trial and error next year wrt rotations

Honestly, it has been worth every minute and every £, so far I have had 45 days on the plot, 4 to 5 hours every time. That is a lot of hours away from normal life stressors. Me and nature and a small robin

I'm amazed at your progress and energy and I love reading about your ability to come up with solutions to problems.
Hopefully you'll soon be at a point to slow down and get on with the really pleasurable bits of having an allotment.
Some pictures would be nice.

karma just a thought… a friend of mine has a pebble grid covering to her front drive, clay soil beneath as everywhere here. She has seeded it with micro clover which has taken well. It is tough enough to drive over, so will withstand walking and wheelbarrow use, and isn’t slippery.
She used to have an earth drive, but, like you, found the clay very slippery when wet.
I hope you manage to reach your hibernation period soon!

equivalent to 1 slab per grid. I need to order more grids

I am going to need to do this next job, the clay swamp in front of my shed. I covered it in weed fabric which is now clay-sodden and will be nasty when the ground freezes

I have left that area for a while but am needing to make a start today. I have 4 plastic grids especially for ground and will need to flatten the clay lumps and remove the stones that were put on the clay, they are not helping. I have half a bag of grit up there and will use that as a base, grid on top and then fill with more grit as and when needed

I can start with just one of the grids, I have 4 of 50 x 50 so is equivalent to 2 slabs per grid Those concrete slabs are absolutely lethal in frost, I have some at home. The 2 slabs I put down a month ago are not there now but the size was good

Just thinking on my feet now, I have a large keter storage box to assemble in future, was going to get slabs for that but those grids would be far better and I will be able to hammer steel rods down to stop the box moving during storms

Amazing, I am always waking up with solutions

I am limited by height wrt allotment rules, the reason for me struggling to get rid of a self-sown tree. That area is now pretty much sorted, cornus (thank you for that weaving idea Lixy), 4 fargesia R, 3 weigela

I assembled the 4th rotational bed today and have just been ordering veg seeds etc. I can actually get quite a bit into the ground already this year. I have 4 x 1sq m beds at home too.

I am thing about the rest of the soil space, I believe I will have room for 3 x 1.25m square beds but am leaving those until after winter

Jerusalem artichokes are ordered, 5 x fuseau, they are not too knobbly. They are going into the ground in the far left corner. I will be designating the area with 70cm weed cover paths as I need to keep an eye on the `stuff` that crawls in from the back and side (unkempt) plots. A way to make the plants less farty is by fermenting them, good, I do ferment cabbage and make kimchi, an easy process. Such a lovely tasty vegetable

I am being very strict with myself re the numbers of plants I end up with and with what I grow to eat

I replaced the perspex window, it involved a mess of clear silicone but it looks water-tight. I am going to put something on it to make it opaque. I was nervous about that before I started

Tomorrow, water butt replacement, I have prepared the new one properly and I also want to get the surrounding weed fabric onto the jerusalem artichoke area, that purchase was spur of the moment (ebay) and I am expecting the tubers to arrive within the week. Apart from planting the artichokes and cornus, I am well and truly finished, for the winter

If you have an elder you can make elderflower sorbet and syrup for soft drinks in the Summer and then you can make Elderberry Rob to make winter spiced drinks to boost the immune system, or a couple of spoonfuls neat for sore throats.

Globe artichokes are indeed wonderful plants and the heads are tasty. I love them!
But … the whole plant is cut down to ground level in the Autumn so the height wouldn’t provide any Winter shelter.

The cornus will look great. I use the prunings to make woven shelters for my tender plants and structures for sweet peas to climb up too.

How about an elder tree instead of the buddlia?

The penny has dropped. Globe artichokes are quite tall and tough and won`t need a raised bed. I will be planting some in front of my shed. Thank you

Thank you 25avalon, interesting information

Perennial kale may only last a few years so it’s a good idea to take cuttings every couple of years. Garlic will also come back each year. I have Welsh onions which keep on growing. Don’t forget rhubarb as a good perennial and you can freeze it. Also if you grow ordinary artichokes they come back each year. In a mild area you can leave runner beans in and they will reshoot the following year.

Don’t forget herbs. Sage, winter savoury, thyme and rosemary will withstand the cold and can be picked fresh all winter and summer as they are long lasting perennials.