Anyone with an allotment?

+1 I've Broad Beans, the first pods are only just forming mostly still flowers though.

Those healthy green Squash plants put my tired yellow leaved ones to shame too.

Enjoying the Aldi, brassiere beer bottle

It's nice to sink a luke warm one from the shed stash whilst between jobs.

Those healthy green Squash plants put my tired yellow leaved ones to shame too

Thanks, they’ve been pretty good this year. Most are Queensland Blue and they do seem very vigorous and reasonably resistant to slugs. I have some uchiki kuri which aren’t quite as verdant and healthy looking. One got destroyed by slugs but I’ve another waiting to take its place ( although it’s a bit weedy looking, tbh). I’d defo keep a pack of those beers up at the plot if I had a shed.

Queensland Blue

Useful to know, will see if I can get seeds next year.

I’d defo keep a pack of those beers up at the plot if I had a shed.

Sheds come up on our local freecycle quite a bit. You have your use case sorted.

Give gutter peas a chance.

https://www.premierseedsdirect.com/product/squash-queensland-blue/

If you’re interested. Not done them before so will see how they go.

Has anyone tried bokashi yet? I’ve been doing some reading and I’m interested to give it a go wondered if anyone else had tried it.

My hot composter is a bit hit and miss. We seem to produce more waste than it can handle, but also it doesn’t seem to maintain the heat to well so it’s a tricky balancing act. I try and do about 50/50 green to brown

Now going to have to go away and find out what the hell bokashi is.

Personally I sling chicken shit, soiled barley straw and any trimmings that are not weeds into the compost bin and then piss in it when I need a Jimmy whilst on the allotment (which given my neighbours and their endless supply of home made scrumpy can be a couple of times a day). My compost is plant crack cocaine.

Hell - it’s lots of Japanese men pulling one off over a paid woman. Disgusting!

I’m annoyed by bureaucracy. Looking over the shed application form.
‘Max permitted size for a shed is 4sqm, 5sqm for greenhouse’
Now, as we all know, sheds are obviously sold in imperial measurements which means I:
A) get a 6x6ft shed - 3.3sqm and follow the rules. This bothers me as it’s well under the permitted size.
B) 8x6ft shed - 4.3sqm, slightly over but hardly.

To further complicate matters we're actually putting up a potting shed which is about 50% glass so is it a shed or a greenhouse? Because it’ll be used solely for growing stuff(and having a quiet smoke in) will they give me .3m of leeway?

Either way we’ll end up doing the same amount of work regarding doing a bit of landscaping and putting a base down and the difference in cost is negligible so may as well go big.
I don’t really want to put in a 100% greenhouse as it’s going under an almond tree which would def take out the glass coming harvest time.

It’s at the back of the plot(which is the back boundary of the whole site) so not blocking anyones view.

Just one of those situations that should be perfectly reasonable to resolve but all silly because of their confounded metric shed measurement rules!

And yes, I could build a shed that’s the exact permitted dimensions, I actually have the skills and a workshop to achieve this. However, life is short and I’ve got better things to do than take a week off to prefab a shed ;)

So, go for it and say nuffin? Lie about the dimensions on the application and hope they don’t notice? or try and have a reasonable conversation with the allotments officer? (She’s ok but loves da rules).

It hopefully works in our favour that we’ve got one of the tidier plots at the moment.

We’ve actually got a plant swap/inspection day next weekend so maybe I’ll do the levelling and peg out the 6x8 and see what she says while she’s telling everyone off..

Oh, and we finally got some neighbours on the vacant plot next to us yesterday after 2yrs. We were surrounded on all 3 sides by vacants until they joined. Strimmed 2/3 of plot and got a tiny squash bed in on day 1.

Could you have a snoop around and see what other sheds are there, eyeball their rough dimensions or take a tape measure if you’re feeling brazen? If you have a few that are over, which you should, then I reckon you’ll be fine.

Oh yeah there’s def a few 8x8s and shanty built ones that were put up under the stewardship of the previous officer who was far more lax.

At least if there’s plenty of precedence and they’ve not made them pull those ones down I’m sure it’ll be fine.

It’s just all a bit arbitrary and daft really ;)

The shed situation at our site is weird because they say it has to be under a certain size to avoid having to get planning permission.

It’s bollocks because plenty of people have big sheds/greenhouses. One person has a poly tunnel the entire length and width of their plot.

I’d just build it quick and then they can’t do anything

The planning permission stuff doesn't apply to 'temporary structures' or at least it didn't used to. Provided you've got no foundations going in there should be no issue.

Base will be clip together plastic tiles with pea gravel fill. No posts, concrete or anything below surface.

I think we’re gonna talk to the officer in person and see what she says. It’s a perfectly reasonable size structure for the space(our plot is fucking massive for a 5rod) so hopefully it won’t be an issue.

Mine floats on metposts. Pressure treated timber frame, DPC on top of that and then a ply floor. Eight by six and eight high at the peak. Could theoretically pick it off the ground with a forklift and move in one piece on a flatbed.

I stick to the rules (mostly) but I’m in with the cool kids (vice chair). Love my shed - great place to hide, insulated, double glazed and comfy chairs.

Just about to build a new one on a plot I’ve taken over on behalf of my local surgery to help people with social proscribing. This one will be tiled - I had the roofers save all the slates when I had the front elevation of my house re-roofed. The new shed will be eight by six, but with a good four feet of ‘porch’ for people to sit under with a cuppa. And a composting toilet.

I love building things.

Last year's tomato seeds didn't germinate but I left the tray & kept it watered, a few sprouts appeared in October. I overwintered 3 tiny plants and have kept them at home on the windowsill... now fruiting, plus a 4th grew alongside one in spring so I've planted that out into the garden.

Variety is called Sweet Million iirc.

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Peas have done well and are now flowering. Should I cut the tops off (above the flowers) so they can concentrate on making peas and not reaching skyward?

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Popped up the plot today to put in a squash and water a few bits. Big developments! They’ve put in the base for a water trough on the overgrown plot next to mine! Game changer for my watering. Will save me so much time.

Grabbed a few broad beans, some just on the right side of too big. Slugs and snails have really gone at them though. I looked at my neighbour’s plot and their beans look amazing.

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First artichokes of the season. My small boy will resemble someone who has face-butted a kilo of butter this evening.

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How are you cooking them?

I’ve loads and they are such a faff. Novelty definitely worn off.

Lightly boil, dip leaves in a pot of melted butter. Scrape off flesh with teeth and discard.

Get to the centre, pour over any remaing butter and scoff. Accept that you are now made of butter.

Standard pics, weeding and soil pile shifting mostly today, popped in some Carrots & Lettuce with low expectations for both.

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Looking good, @rhb

Final squash went in today, 8 on the plot and two on my work plot, two succumbed to slugs. Let’s see if I can actually get a decent harvest this year. Spuds coming on well. Have sown beetroot and two types of lettuce in cells under cover as I found a rather fancy 50-cell seedling tray in a skip at work. Aim to transplant later once I’ve prepared a bed for them.