Anyone with an allotment?

Im the holder of 110a but have been cultivating the area in red.

Here's the site rep pointing at my plot, and where he actually is on the map

The rhubarb at front of shot is in a raised bed that runs the length of the red area which probably caused the confusion for the site rep. The previous owner of 110a was using the red area so hopefully it will be ok to carry on using it. Does mean I'm a bit behind looking after my actual plot.

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So your plot is bigger than expected? Win.

yeah, its a win, but I now need to get on top of my actual plot for inspection

Cool and wet =

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I got the last of the Broad Beans in yesterday - covered in S & S

The plot has gone pretty wild but a decent harvest.

Has anyone tried growing/eating hops?

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Most places give you a break with inspections for first yr especially if they hand it over rough

This lad having a whale of a time

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I asked this question to my mate Jon who owns hackney brewery. He said don’t bother- the amount of hops you need for a brew run would be several plots worth of space, and they’re bastard plants as well.

I grow hops on my plot, it's enough for a 20l homebrew batch. Hops are also good for helping you sleep so you can make a tea with them.

This is interesting info

And there we go! Experience>speculation 😅

I have about 500+ ‘hemp’ seeds in a jar somewhere(close relation to hops and nettles), been toying with the idea of sowing them all over the abandoned plots/dead space on our site next spring to see if I can get it to naturalise there. Bottled it this spring but it would be pretty fun to see them popping up everywhere.

You can stick them in the beer fresh or green as they are known or you can dry them in the oven, vac pac and freeze them. Dried hops are more concentrated so you'll need less of them than if you were using fresh hops.

Ever tried eating the shoots? Apparently they’re edible

Gah, one of the downsides of taking on a new plot is not knowing the history - all my onions (~150) have white fungus and have rotted off the roots. Need to wait until the weekend to clear the bed safely. Huuuufffffff

Oo I have not

Got our greenhouse up, just need to get the glass up there. Lifted some second earlies, weeded and got carrots and beetroot in. Given a couple of cape gooseberries by a neighbour too - lovely day at the plot.

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Anyone got any advice for a plot absolutely infested with bindweed?

Stick canes or rebar in the ground to attract it. Mark out sections and dig it over methodically, removing as many roots as you can. Accept the battle will never be over.

Cardboard, cardboard and cardboard

Thanks both

I’m finding bindweed for the first time this year. It feels like we have a different dominant weed each year.
As we’ve never really had bindweed before I’m wondering if it somehow got imported with some woodchip or manure.
Will be digging it out as best I can once the crops are out of those beds.

We’ve got bindweed throughout, just gotta keep on top of it unfortunately. Raised bed has helped me massively with this.

Here’s the dreaded onion rot, cheered myself up by investigating the pink fir progress and picking some purple beans. Tomatillos are killing it this year.

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Just when you think everything is big enough to withstand attack the snails come and prove you wrong. Lost my runner beans, squash and my french beans are just about holding on. Back into the trenches we go.