Anyone with an allotment?

Our plot gets raided most years. Normally people looking for metal.

Our site tends to get looted over the May bank holiday most years and everyone’s tomato plants swiped.

That's really shit. We tend to get fruit raiders in the summer, plots by main path get it worst.

Ours is always tomato and strawbs. Always on a bank holiday weekend.
The assumption is they go do a car booty with them as it’ll be almost every one from every plot will go, even one’s that have been planted.
It must take a couple of hours/require a van as so much will get taken on one night.
Whole crops of onions have been known to disappear at ours as well :(
We’re right by a footpath with a low fence so it’s an easy in/out. Our plot is pretty far from the easy way in so we haven’t been done over too badly in the past compared to others.

Got my potatoes in today. Main crop Maris Pipers. Think there's too many in the trench but hey ho. The shed in the background will be relocated at some point to will further double the size of the patch right to the back fence

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Our plot has been substantially raided over the last week - slugs though, not humans. Hopefully the extra protection put in today will help save the remaining cucamelons

Quince tree looking nice though

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Earthed ours up yesterday. Looks ok spacing!

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This really sucks. Group camp out? What shisters.

Getting there slowly.

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Not all doom and gloom though. 8 dahlias and some sweet corn in.

I’m dismantling the giant raised beds and burning them and I’ve realised there is a giant tarpaulin under most of the plot. So rotovatoring any time soon would be a problem. So need to finish burning, clear up the ashes and dig it up.

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And I’m spent. Stink of bonfire

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Cheers. Yeah I think I’ll still get a decent sweetcorn and squash crop this year.

I've built wattle fences around some of my new veg beds in my new garden as the soil is heavy clay/lots of pebbles (as the 'River' Ching runs at the bottom of the Garden,) so needed kind of raised beds on the cheap-I built them by removing turf in Autumn, turning upside down to compost it then adding some raw manure/compost over winter and using the branches/whips of some overgrown elderflower and buddleia for free fencing. Good to see part of my method is at least 1000 years old...

Not late at all, I sowed things early this year when there was a week of sun and non of it came up at all. I have 3 carrots from 4 rows! So had to re sow and the same has happened rather wise. This year Spring is crap, grey, wet and late anyway.

Spent a couple of hours tidying up the plot again ahead of the re-inspection on weds. Put some weed membrane down on the parts I plan to put the greenhouse on and to kill off some grass. Dug a few bits over, strimmed and moved some compost bins. Hopefully get a pass. Apple blossom looking nice.

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Why would it not pass? It's clearly well looked after.

For real, that puts ours and 3/4 of the plots on our site to shame. There are folks who only visit 2-3 times a year who don’t get bounced at ours :/

@Tonts - talk to me about that stirrup hoe I can see in your pic. Been eyeing up similar for a while.

Cheers. It’s slightly selectively photographed but also probably as tidy as it’s been for ages. The side by the fence tend to be a problem as the brambles and nettles come up there a lot and there’s some bindweed too so largely I just cba cultivating it. But I’ll email these to Gary off the council and tell him how hard I worked.

Get one it’s a game changer for weeds!

It’s really good, get one. Can’t do much else than get rid of weeds (earth up spuds for example) but it’s brilliant at removing weeds. I’ll try and remember which model it is.

Edit, think it was this one (price gone up a bit from when I got it): https://www.uktoolcentre.co.uk/products/kent-and-stowe-stainless-steel-oscillating-hoe-fsc.html

Anyone used seed tape? Premier seed direct have 25% off on them at the moment and I thought I might put some autumn king in after my garlic/onions.

I’m thinking of getting one if these
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Srendi®-Full-Digging-Wooden-Handle/dp/B00DP5J64I/ref=asc_df_B00DP5J64I/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=435803060097&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12538816733576223958&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006984&hvtargid=pla-927612519515&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=102111104635&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=435803060097&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12538816733576223958&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006984&hvtargid=pla-927612519515

I have a mini niwaki one but all the bending down is killing my back.

All the African guys at our allotments use these. Seem to work great for clearing large areas.

I feel like they would be easy on your back too