Anyone with an allotment?

Question: I have needed a hoe for sometime now. So...

Wickes £7 hoe: https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Dutch-Hoe-Carbon-Steel---1405mm/p/500101
or Sneeboer £70 hoe: https://www.harrodhorticultural.com/sneeboer-royal-dutch-hoe-pid9096.html

Have wanted the latter for a while and have bit of birthday money, but still, £70...

1 bed done and 1 path made from the stone pulled out. Raked some ash into the top layer. Did just a couple of bin fills in the incinerator as it’s all a bit wet and smokey still.

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It’s only a tiny start. Enjoying the landscaping at the moment. Hopefully that bed is ready for some winter onions and garlic in a few weeks.
It feels good to have scalped nearly half the place at least even if it’s not dug yet.

Aside from winter onions/garlic what can I whack in now to get started? Aiming for 4 beds fully dug by end of sept.
Some green manure crops I can just chop down and dig in come spring might be an idea for the beds so they don’t sit idle over winter?

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This is Lufguss.
You know the answer to that... ;)

Also cropped the lock on our locker in the communal building. (Each plot gets one)
They’ve sent multiple emails to see if anyone uses it as some empty ones have been claimed and we had a note on the door for 2 weeks.

Scored a full set of wooden handled tools still with the tags on unused. Loads of new gloves, a mini irrigation system still boxed and plenty of other miscellaneous stuff. It’s like someone went on a spending spree to get started and never used any of it. Bunch of seed packets in there are all dated 2011.

Nice! Looks like you’ve earned them.

We Finally dug up our potatoes Today. Which took forever. Some looked great. Some pretty terrible. A fair few had been taken residence in by a variety of different creepy crawlies.

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Also made the mistake of planting straight into the ground. Next year will be mounded rows

What variety? I did a few experiments with trenches and straight in. Did notice a difference I yield but the biggest difference was the ones in mounds survived the late may frost much better. Earthing up was much better than covering them.

Think if you do no dig you don’t need mounds so much.

It was more for getting them out of the soil. I could just kick the mound over rather than have to dig. I kept stabbing the potatoes with the fork too

My main crop were devastated too, i can't remember the variety off the top of my head

I dug a trench and then mounded the soil up over that, still a bit of digging to loosen them but easy out after that.

I know it is an Amazon link,but other suppliers are available
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AGROHIT-Potato-Fork-Teeth-Handle/dp/B07N8XF132/ref=asc_df_B07N8XF132/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309920133577&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17899562043589044330&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045966&hvtargid=pla-699693836785&psc=1

Well worth it if you a growing spuds again next year

Do scaffolding firm chuck out/sell their old boards? Need a couple of 10’ ones...

Health and safety regs these days mean any board with the slightest flaw can't be used. There were loads stacked up at our block when the renovation work was finished so I just asked and got.
Transporting them to the plot could be an issue.

I was considering some kind of raised bed / hessian sack arrangement earlier this week after managing to skewer about 50% of my spuds digging them up. Reckon I could get as much yield from a smaller patch as I was struggling to pile the earth high enough when everything was growing like mad.

Yeah you can grow spuds anywhere - in a sack or a bin is good, then you can just turn them upside down over a bed and collect the potatoes without needing any tools.

Apparently you can grow potatoes in a trench filled with straw and do away with the whole digging bit but leaves them more open to rats getting to them

I like this idea

Re: Lifting spuds, Just get the fork in far enough away that it won't damage them and the come in at an angle underneath and loosen all the soil, then lift the plant. After that you can root around for remaining potatoes in the soil.

I grew a few in pots this year, much less scab and fewer nibbles from wire worms etc.

Our main crop potatoes were fucked this year because (Scotland) it rained a lot in July (/Scotland) and they got pink rot. One of the neighbouring plots used mini grow bags, about 20l, and had a great haul so that's what we'll be doing next year.

I got one of these style swivel hoes - really speeds things up.

Kent and Stowe Stainless Steel Long Handled Oscillating Hoe, FSC https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PD1Z6CZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Ud4vFbENVVAFM

Not an allotment owner but saw the spud chat.

Grow bags are the way to go.

I haven't grown potatoes in trenches or earthed up for years now - a traditional method and that is about it.
I use these 40 litre potato bags filled with a 50/50 mix of composted horse/farmyard manure (Wickes actually) and multi purpose compost. Filled up to halfway - 2 chitted seed tubers - then enough to cover them. As the haulm grows up I top up with more mix.
Its a lot of compost but when they are finished it can be tipped back onto the soil to enrich/improve the soil structure below.
Don't let the bags dry out though.
If you grow your spuds using the no-dig method they can be grown at close spacing. The haulms/top growth create a light excluding canopy which prevents 'greening' (thats what I did this year with the 'Ratte' #1341).

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Good plan I like these ideas for potatoes