Dropped lucky got a plot

Thanks kristen hopefully we get the keys on Wednesday so as long as its not frozen ground/waterlogged or covered in snow this wknd we will be all systems go I canne wait

 

Funny you should mention trying seeds from supermarket fruits I was just preparing a cantoulope melon wondering if f could give the seeds a bash hmmm might try some lol.

 

Well here's my two-pennyworth:

Buy a packet of seed ... you'll get something designed to be successful when you grow it, otherwise you are spending 6 months growing something that might work or might not ... a lot of time, effort, and garden space.

Either way: you'll need a greenhouse for Melons - or a spectacular heatwave distinctly missing in the last few years, sadly! Even my greenhouse grown melons have been pathetic in the last couple of years.

After you have been up and running for a couple of years then try a proportion of your crops as experiments. No doubt it can be fun, and there is the possibility of getting some great, or at least "interesting", results. FWIW I've been growing vegetables for decades and I never do it - I consider my time far too precious to risk a crop that I have spent ages looking after turning out as a failure. I have tried some "alternative" crops - unusual veg and the like - but none of them have been grown for more than a season or two, the family have not found them worth me growing, so we are back to basics now. Very boring I'm afraid!

Fruit in the Supermarket often comes from a different climate - and thus different growing requirements. That's true of things like Garlic too. Supermarket Veg may be grown from F1 seed (almost certainly true for Melons) and there is a significant risk that the "children" of such F1 crops are significantly inferior to their "parents". Supermarket fruit is often treated to stop it sprouting - not a problem for Melon seeds, obviously, but for example Sweet Potatoes from the Supermarket can be a nightmare to get to sprout, because of chemical treatment. Then you get things like Spuds where planting supermarket ones has an increased risk of bringing disease with it - there is a good reason why certified virus/disease free seed-potatoes are sold; you would run the risk, on an allotment, that if you grow something like that any disease you "Import" will quickly spread to other allotment holders :( I don't suppose all growers on the allotment will be good natured in this regard, sadly, but its not a bad place to start out from

My advice: be boring in the first year and do it by-the-book. You can tell me how to suck eggs in year 2 or 3

 

What doesn't seem to have been established yet is what sort of soil the plot is - clay, sand, silt, loam, peat or chalk ?

 

Really?

 

Hopefully clueless
Scrounge I did a bit of test digging and the soil looked like a nice loam so did all the other plots around soil looked nice and dark and crumbly

 

That sounds a lot more promising than some I've seen around here with heavy clay soil where the turf has been stripped and then the sun's come out (remember those heatwave Aprils several years ago?) and promptly baked the surface solid causing even rotavators to bounce around on the surface and fail to cultivate the soil,

 

Ha ha just read through this from nearly 3 years ago, how naive I was thinking I'd dig the full plot in a weekend 3 years on and I still haven't finished.
Was a lovely day today so I've been up their doing a bit. I'm slowly getting their now.
I took a few pice but I can't seem to upload them it's saying the pic size is too big for the server????

 

Crikey, you've been missing for 3 years!!???? Thought you might have dug a hole and fallen in it
Welcome back!

 

Ha ha thanks M!! I work away from home a lot of the time and have had 2 more babies in those 3 years. (That's 4 altogether now) so haven't had much time for gardening/allotmentearing. I grew a few bits last year but this year I am very determined to make full use of my Alotment plot.

 

Well double congratUlations to you, your good wife and family on your two new additions - how wonderful I can fully understand why you haven't had much time for gardening/allotments.

Mind you, as they get older and noisier .... that allotment might start to look very, very welcoming at times

 

Their already veeeeeryy noisy their 6,4,2 and 4 months so not a minutes peace at the minute hence the reason I've got most of my beds turned over and weeded during the crimbo break.
It's my sanctuary

 

Crikey, you and your wife really do have your hands full! Best ages though
Maybe your 6 and 4yo could give you a hand on the allotment? Not that I'm condoning slave labour within a family

ETA: Oops, seen the photo's and I see you already do take the children

 

Well almost my sanctuary this is my apprentice gardener he's been with me all morning.
Specialises in pulling up "weeds" (over wintering onions)