Anyone with an allotment?

Yeah, the warmer temps yesterday gave me hope of more success this year. I'm being a bit more careful this year about our soil which is full of stones and weeds, so I dug trenches and hand sifted soil back in to them, throwing all the coarse stuff to the sides. Managed to get in romaine, beetroot and harlequin carrot seeds in. Now dreaming of setting up some kind of cycle powered trommel.

Also hot bin experiment seems to be working, white mould taking hold and noticeably decomposed since last week.

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Nice! We built a fort out of old pallets for out little one a couple of years ago, and it still keeps him occupied while we're digging.
Are you allowed to fence in like that? Our allotment has LOADS of rules that the old guys like to go on about, and one is about keeping the paths between plots free and accessible, so any fencing is out.

Rules we were told about; close the gate, no fires, no dangerous things like nails sticking out... ours have made fencing, not quite as substantial though... just want our space for the kiddos to be clear so they know not to roam...

Cool cool
I think I went to one committee meeting before I got so bored of the rules - usually one person with a notepad that had written down every transgression!
We got told off because we had strawberries that had self seeded on a path!

We got told off because we had strawberries that had self seeded on a path!
Surely that’s grounds for eviction

Spuds in, lots of sweet peas, some weeding, was nice.

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Blimey! I don’t think we have committee... this is Somerset 😂

Our committee led a coup d'etat against the chair. The council did an inspection and loads of the local bylaws were being ignored; one plot had a chicken coup with around 30 chickens in it, whereas the bylaws stated no animals.

It was very messy and acrimony lasted for ages.

It was very messy and acrimony lasted for ages.

Generations possibly :)

Went to our plot yesterday and spent about an hour tidying followed by 2 hours rotovating 200-300 of well rotted horse poop into the nasty clay soil.

This morning I planted some potatoes there and hopefully will plant some more onions and beetroot this week

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It’s an apple tree!

More grass cutting and tidying the orchard today!

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Score!

total score!

We've been offered another half plot today, the one on offer is ideal in terms of minimum prep and size, but in passing said I'd been meaning to ask about taking the front half of our existing one if it became available.

The one in front is used but neglected, someone's had it for a few years ( I've never actually seen them in the last year) but not done much with it, this afternoon I got a message that the Chair is now meeting then tomorrow to discuss moving them to the easier cleared space, so we can take over the more neglected but adjacent plot, beyond pleased as either way we can get a load more things on the go this year.

We initially asked for a small plot (the sizes were full plot/small plot/half plot) which we got. But now I’m wondering where to put everything I have plans for.

I really wanted a full plot because half just doesn’t seem big enough. However our allotment seem to be phasing our full plots.

It has been known that if a plot becomes neglected they will then allow you have a second plot. Annoyingly the one directly behind ours isn’t neglected, it’s just barely used.

Half a plot fills up in no time, even though if you have to clear it it feels like acres!
Finally build some compost bins this afternoon and have got sunburn as well...

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Did you post-mix in the posts or just hammer them in?

A big really big sledge hammer hammered in :)

Ours is the same, but because they can't give any to new people due to covid, they have decided to offer another half if you are on top of the one you have, so a few of us have luckily benefitted this year.

A half is enough, but you soon find once you get on top of it, if you want to do things like squash, pumpkins and leeks you need more space.

Happily we are as of today confirmed as taking the second half of the plot, the other person is clearing their stuff next week and moving to a much more manageable plot, hopefully taking all the carpet with them - but leaving the old cold frame if I get lucky!

It's all been covered this winter so shouldn't be too bad, but the levels are terrible, planning to dig over two large areas and level it off.

The loose plan is squash, leeks, more onions, beetroot, sprouts and our 2nd early and maincrop spuds, this will free up a 2500 x 2500 bed at the back of the plot for cabbage, broccoli and a few other bits.

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Awesome. We missed a trick when our plot neighbours stopped tending their half plot as we didn't enquire about taking it on. It is now being turned into more of a garden not so much a growing space by the new neighbours. Their apples were left unpicked last Autumn, but they did let's take some that overhang our plot.

There's a plot further up from ours like that, 6 seater table and chairs, few trees and not much else!

We got lucky really, I'd never mentioned it either, but mentioned it in passing when viewing the available one, half an hour later they had decided to ask the other people to move as they hadn't done anything with it.

We had a disaster a while ago when the not so sturdy table I built to put strawberries on collapsed. So here is strawberry table mark II.

It’s in the area of the plot we’ve nick named “fruit corner”. We laughed too

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Thinking about putting more rhubarb under the tables to make use of the space but also thinking it may be covered to try and force the rhubarb