Anyone with an allotment?

I used to live in Sheffield and the allotment near me at the time had a waiting list of 15 years.

Frame up for a net so we can get the green veg in soon. Digging all done on this plot now, ready for planting

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Nice straight lines there. As soon as you edge the lawn in a garden or on a veg plot it looks 74.2% better.

Couldn't agree more. Super-satisfying.

My plot looks very messy compared to a lot here... Managed to get the pallet compost bays built this afternoon. Just need to add a half pallet along the front of each bay to stop the heap collapsing into the path and I'm done!

Every now and then we get pallets dumped in the communal bin area and they won't fit in my car so I got a new toy/tool ...

I now have a pile of little planks which I plan to use to make duckboards for the allotment.

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It does , doesn't it ?

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After a successful year composting, I'm ready to try my hand at growing some veges this year. Going to start with some red onions however need to sort out the bed first. Removed some of an unused patio area today with the help of my youngest and the soil looks OK. Need to dig the compost through and add dome more soil. What I really want is some sort of untreated heavy-duty oak framed raised bed approx 1200 x 1200. Google had really out foxed me here as I really can't seem to find anything decent that's nice. Anyone aware of a nice supplier?

Why not forgo the timber work and just plant right in?

True, that could work. Dowding would be proud of me for doing that. Just had visions of a raised or semi raised bed to keep it all nice and tidy and contained.

Pea plants in and frame built, few spuds in. Peppers and toms potted on and a bit of tidying up.
Sticky weed has popped up everywhere but gave all the uncultivated patches a rake over to drag the worst out.

I’ve ended up with a bank of earth along the front near the fire pit. Want to make it into a bit of a living bench, any groundcover apart from creeping thyme worth covering it with so it’s comfy but still worthwhile?

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Doing some more earthworks today purely to get shot of some turf scalpings. Stomped and compacted as best as I can be bothered. Might build it up a little higher then seed with chamomile.

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Any archaeology yet? :)

Endless plastic and bits of glass. Did find a few bits of blue white china but nothing exciting yet.
Hopefully if extend the bank and ditch enough so I can fortify the plot I’ll find some good treasure.

Glorious day.

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We're 1 plot in from the west boundary of our site with an old pdsa centre on the boundary. A planning app is going in for a 4 storey flat block to replace this and some other derelict units. Plot neighbour by boundarys will lose huge chunk of daylight to shadow, our plot will be shaded earlier than previously in the late afternoon. Sad times.

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That sucks, is there much you can do? My plot is a boundary plot and one of the things I didn't realise when I got it was how much less light it would get. You can make it work but I'm not contending with a 4 storey building.

We can object at developer stage (I've done this) & at council planning stage (tbc).

I doubt it'll achieve much as money talks on these things.

I’m not sure if this is a fact or a piece of advice. But I’ve hardly watered this year. Everything is still alive so far and hardly any weeds.

Obviously I’m going to have to start watering regularly at some point.

April usually provides a lot more rain and heat than it is at the moment. So it stands to reason the weeds won’t be springing up as much. Ive been watering my potatoes as the chits were very long and so they need a bit of extra moisture. Most other stuff seems fine, I transplanted some chomolia (an African kale) a few weeks ago and that’s been looking quite stressed but I don’t think it’s the lack of water but more the change of location.

Does anyone have any experience of bilge pumps?

I’m going to dump a bilge pump into my water supply to water everything. I created a mock up of it today and the pump was on and it moved the water down the tube about 20cm but that was it.

It says 1100 gph on the pump so I’m confused.

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We've "adopted" some fruit trees and berries (incl. blackberries without the prickly bits!) from an allotment neighbour who has given up their plot. I've no idea how long it'll be before we see fruit, but there are some reassuring new signs of life since we transplanted them to our plot. Some of it's quite pretty - cherry blossom??

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Apple, damson, plum... it all looks quite similar at the stage.

I channeled your spirit here and just emptied the contents of the compost bin into the ground where I'd removed the paving stones. Put some potatoes in with some stakes to keep the foxes and cats from shitting there. Haven't grown any veges since I was a boy. Wish me luck (don't really know what I'm doing).

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About a quarter of my allotment is raspberry canes. They are doing much at the moment but will soon be bushy. I’ve been putting wood chips down but there are still weeds popping up. Other than throw more wood chips down is there an alternative?