My Allotment's Work In Progress

JJ your Allotment is looking really good, after all your hard work!
As Scrungee said you have a good plot there with a lot of great added extras.
Sounds like you have a nice community of allotment folk around you too, which is a massive plus.
Enjoy the plot and thanks for posting I am enjoying following your journey and learning with you!

 

Thank you for pointing that out. Since taking it on just over 2 weeks ago I have seemed to forgotten this. You forgot to mention a couple of tools left by the previous owner too I should add.

I do feel very lucky but I still have a lot of work to do before I can really get it up to scratch again. The hardest part is at the beginning when you do feel rather overwhelmed but once you make a start then you've started that journey and it's quite hard to stop. I've seen a few other newcomers come along at the weekend loaded up with new tools so I'm no longer the new girl any more.

Was up there yesterday for an hour spraying some weed killer on the problem weeds between the membrane so hopefully will reduce my workload so the weed killer can get to work while I concentrate on clearing the scaffold board beds and moving them around to suit.

 

Worth putting some woven weed suppressing membrane around the fruit trees - at least 1M square - to keep moisture in and weeds suppressed. I wouldn't use it around Raspberries - they produce suckers each year which need to come up, and membrane might inhibit that (although maybe they will come straight through it?)

For the rest you can play that by ear, but I wouldn't throw any away, if you are able to lift & store it, that is

 

Hmm well there is already membrane down over the raspberry canes that are there. Suckers have then ran under them and into the beds nearby, which I think is another reason to move them (the beds). A chat with another plot owner said that there wasn't really anyway to stop the suckers apart from sinking a wall into the ground of some sort.

I'm all for laying from down over the trees when they get planted though, it makes sense really. But how do you mulch them with organic matter if there is membrane in the way?

 

I don't have membrane on my Raspberries and I still get suckers in the adjacent bed I think that's the nature of the plant, once its an established bed. However, weeding grass etc. from Raspberries is a pain, and if it stops that (but allows next year's suckers to grown through) I'd definitely be up for it!

I have about a 1M square around my small fruit trees. It is just pegged at the corners, so I can lift it to add some shovels of compost etc. under, and then replace.

The pegs you can get, with heavily serrated prongs, can be difficult to get out (and I think the pegs are very expensive) so you can either use weights/bricks/blocks etc. or just use a spade to tuck a corner/edge into a slit in the ground. That pulls out easily enough, but may only work on a heavy soil like my clay?

 

I use ordinary tent pegs on membrane I want to lift periodically. You can pick them up cheaply from larger supermarkets and discount shops (in fact many really marked down ATM).
Either that or I have made up staples from old wire hangers we get from dry cleaning.

 

Beds all cleared now. Now while I wait for the weed killer to do its magic and the weather is dry, I've turned my attention to fixing the roof of the shed.

A couple of lengths were rotten so today after finishing the clearing I replaced one of the rotten length with one I found knocking around.

Here's a before and after shot. (I still need to add a tiny bit at the end but Mr Jane says he will make up a piece for me and then I can rip it through the bandsaw)





Next job is to felt it then sort out the guttering and give it all a coat of paint. Thankfully I have all of these bits at home left over from other projects.

 

Have you got a water butt JJ?

 

Nope. I'm currently on the hunt for one. Ideally a blue plastic container that industry uses but none around here within my price range.

 

You are doing a fantastic job there Jungle Jane..Well done you!..Your raspberries look so yummy too...Your hard work will be well worth it when you are done..Impressed!

 

Worth getting something you can dunk for quick-fill of a can (as well as N x Butts connected for maximum storage, if you need that too). Old bath? Cattle drinking trough?

IBC would hold more (than blue barrel) if you can find one locally - factory-unit that buys some sort of liquid in bulk; mine had Soy Sauce in them - and stank! Big to get-to-site though (1M Cube), but much harder to nick as well ...

 

Instead of having membrane around your raspberries try laying layers of cardboard weighed down with bricks or stones. This will help suppress weeds and will eventually rot so you can leave it and cover with new.

 

New felt on! Also started hacking back the blackthorn (and other unknown tree) behind and to the side of the shed.

Hopefully this week I will be able to give it a lick of paint too.

 

beginning to look like home already JJ...
Jenny

 

Looks fabulous, you must have put in hours and hours!